5 high-profile players who have been disciplined by managers this season
Professional footballers in Europe are some of the highest-paid athletes in the world. Top-tier football clubs don't mind shelling out tens or hundreds of millions in order to secure the services of a player who they believe can improve their squad.
In the modern world where social media has taken charge of our lives, optics matter a lot. There's intense scrutiny over every word that's spoken. Because players and their agents get the same level of access to fans as the coaches and club spokespeople do, player power reigns supreme and always needs to be checked.
Otherwise, players could just come out and undermine their club or their managers. Any football team, institution or entity will try to steer clear of such controversies. But in case such a thing happens, players need to be put in their place. Discipline is very important to team building.
At times, managers will need to put their foot down and if a player undermines the club, they need to take action. We've seen plenty of such instances in recent times.
Without further ado, let's take a look at five high-profile players who have been disciplined by managers this season.
#5 Michael Obafemi (Swansea City)
Republic of Ireland and Swansea City star Michael Obafemi was dropped from his club's squad earlier this season. The youngster has started just one Championship game all season and manager Russell Martin urged the 21-year-old to improve his off-the-field behavior.
Obafemi joined Swansea City from Southampton in the summer and his lack of form and disciplinary issues have rendered him a peripheral figure at his new club. Swans' boss Martin discussed Obafemi's lack of involvement back in November.
"Michael understands why he’s not in the squad. He agrees that he shouldn’t be in the squad. It’s nothing major.
"We’re here to try and improve players. It’s such a strong group culturally. We spend a lot of time talking and he understands he needs to be better in a few aspects to become the player he wants to become and to become the person he wants to become.
"We have to really try and help him to get there. Too often in football you’re expected to sign someone, a young man on a good contract, then just play football — it’s not the case.
Martins then shifted focus to the reason behind Obafemi's omission.
"He needs more support from us, he’ll get it and he’ll become the player we think he can be and he wants to be. But there are certain things you have to make sure you do to be in the squad.’
"You have to behave every day like what you are – a professional footballer. He’s done nothing major but there’s stuff we need to help him with. It’s just a few disciplinary things in terms of the way we train, time-keeping and it does matter unfortunately."
Since those comments, Obafemi has featured thrice for the Welsh outfit and he has come off the bench on all three occasions.
Headline from Wales Online…
'He needs to be better'😳
Disappointed Russell Martin urges Swansea City's Michael Obafemi to improve professionalism. https://t.co/RkV0cmQ55O
#4 and #3 Phil Foden and Jack Grealish (Manchester City)
Manchester City thumped Leeds United 7-0 in December. Phil Foden opened the scoring for Pep Guardiola's men as early as the eighth minute. Jack Grealish added their second just five minutes later. After the game, Foden and Grealish decided to go out to a nightclub to have a little fun.
But they reportedly showed up in a poor state for the next morning's recovery session. This led to Foden and Grealish being omitted from the lineup for Manchester City's subsequent game against Newcastle United.
The duo were unused substitutes and Guardiola had this to say about their omissions after the game.
“Not rotation, no. I decided for this team because they deserved to play today, these guys and not the other ones. At Christmas time I pay a lot of attention to behaviour on and off the pitch. And when off the pitch is not proper they are not going to play.
“So we have to be focussed all the time because of distractions at Christmas time and everything that happens - you have to still be focussed.”
Jack Grealish and Phil Foden warned over conduct with Man City duo dropped over bar trip
mirror.co.uk/sport/football… https://t.co/PrwdiDcFCv