22-07-2014, 19:37
Two more high profile retirements from international football in the last few days. Steven Gerrard and, more surprisingly, Philipp Lahm (at just 30 years of age). Both have cited their desire to prolong their club careers as a motivation.
Whoever read my posts in the World Cup thread knows that I am violently opposed to players "retiring" from international football. I'd personally like to see more of the Beckham and Lampard attitude (if I'm rubbish, if I'm old, if I'm injured, if I'm infirm ... I would still play if called) and less of the Scholes, Shearer, Terry, (and now) Gerrard attitude.
But I'm curious to see what the general club-versus-country sentiment is. Particularly interested to see what Liverpool fans think of Gerrard's decision, ManU fans of Scholes' decision, Chelsea fans of Terry's decision, etc..
(Bear in mind that by "acceptable", I don't mean whether or not is should be "allowed". We obviously can't regulate for this and no one can force a player to play if he doesn't want to. I simply mean that, as supporters, should we be so accepting of this trend or should those players be more harshly criticized by supporters and the media).
Whoever read my posts in the World Cup thread knows that I am violently opposed to players "retiring" from international football. I'd personally like to see more of the Beckham and Lampard attitude (if I'm rubbish, if I'm old, if I'm injured, if I'm infirm ... I would still play if called) and less of the Scholes, Shearer, Terry, (and now) Gerrard attitude.
But I'm curious to see what the general club-versus-country sentiment is. Particularly interested to see what Liverpool fans think of Gerrard's decision, ManU fans of Scholes' decision, Chelsea fans of Terry's decision, etc..
(Bear in mind that by "acceptable", I don't mean whether or not is should be "allowed". We obviously can't regulate for this and no one can force a player to play if he doesn't want to. I simply mean that, as supporters, should we be so accepting of this trend or should those players be more harshly criticized by supporters and the media).