More and more money being splashed into the world of football, times had comes where difficulties to ensure whether you had loyal players in your team or to the clubs.
First of all, going back to the past and look at the facts about Arsenal in which we could share together.
Do you know who is the first registered player for Arsenal?
Fred Beardsley, one of the 'founding fathers' of what we know today as Arsenal Football Club. His career begins from 1886 - 1891 and plays as a goalkeeper.
Who is the longest serving players for Arsenal?
Find out below's about 80 players who had been playing for Arsenal for more than 10 years since 1886 - 2011 :
Longest serving Arsenal's players based on the data from Arsenal Player Database as a reference.
1. Martin Keown - 1981 till 2004 (23 years)
2. Leslie Compton - 1931 till 1952 (21 years)
3. David O'Leary - 1973 till 1993 (20 years)
4. Charlie Buchan - 1909 till 1928 (19 years)
5. George Male - 1929 till 1948 (19 years)
6. Tony Adam - 1983 till 2002 (19 years)
7. Eddie Hapgood - 1927 till 1945 (18 years)
8. Denis Compton - 1932 till 1950 (18 years)
9. Reg Lewis - 1935 till 1953 (18 years)
10. George Swindin - 1936 till 1954 (18 years)
11. Peter Simpson- 1960 till 1978 (18 years)
12. Percy Sands - 1902 till 1919 (17 years)
13. Cliff Bastin - 1929 till 1946 (17 years)
14. Joe Shaw - 1907 till 1923 (16 years)
15. Jack Butler - 1914 till 1930 (16 years)
16. Ernie Collett - 1933 till 1949 (16 years)
17. Alf Fields - 1936 till 1952 (16 years)
18. Jimmy Logie - 1939 till 1955 (16 years)
19. George Armstrong - 1961 till 1977 (16 years)
20. Pat Rice - 1964 till 1980 (16 years)
21. Billy Blyth - 1914 till 1929 (15 years)
22. Bob John - 1922 till 1937 (15 years)
23. Sid Cartwright - 1931 till 1946 (15 years)
24. Ted Platt - 1938 till 1953 (15 years)
25. Lionel Smith - 1939 till 1954 (15 years)
26. Sammy Nelson - 1966 till 1981 (15 years)
27. Paul Merson - 1982 till 1997 (15 years)
28. Justin Hoyte - 1993 till 2008 (15 years)
29. Charlie Lewis - 1907 till 1921 (14 years)
30. Angus McKinnon - 1908 till 1922 (14 years)
31. Laurie Scott - 1937 till 1951 (14 years)
32. John Radford - 1962 till 1976 (14 years)
33. Graham Rix - 1974 till 1988 (14 years)
34. Lee Dixon - 1988 till 2002 (14 years)
35. Roddy McEachrane - 1902 till 1915 (13 years)
36. David Greenway - 1908 till 1921 (13 years)
37. Alex Graham - 1911 till 1924 (13 years)
38. John Rutherford - 1913 till 1926 (13 years)
39. Len Wills - 1949 till 1962 (13 years)
40. Jack Kelsey - 1949 till 1962 (13 years)
41. David Seaman - 1990 till 2003 (13 years)
42.Alf Baker - 1919 till 1931 (12 years)
43. Walley Barnes - 1943 till 1955 (12 years)
44. Joe Wade - 1944 till 1956 (12 years)
45. Peter Goring - 1948 till 1960 (12 years)
46. Rhys Wilmot - 1977 till 1989 (12 years)
47. Jack Peart - 1910 till 1921 (11 years)
48. Herbie Roberts - 1926 till 1937 (11 years)
49. Ted Drake - 1934 till 1945 (11 years)
50. Bernard Joy - 1935 till 1946 (11 years)
51. David Pryde - 1935 till 1946 (11 years)
52. George Curtis - 1936 till 1947 (11 years)
53. Bryn Jones - 1938 till 1949 (11 years)
54. Cliff Holton - 1947 till 1958 (11 years)G
55. Terry Ward - 1952 till 1963 (11 years)
56. David Court - 1959 till 1970 (11 years)
57. Terry Neill - 1959 till 1970 (11 years)
58. Peter Storey - 1961 till 1977 (11 years)
59. Bob Wilson - 1963 till 1974 (11 years)
60. David Price - 1970 till 1981 (11 years)
61. David Hillier - 1985 till 1996 (11 years)
62. Steve Bould - 1988 till 1999 (11 years)
63. Dennis Bergkamp - 1995 till 2006 (11 years)
64. Norman Sidey - 1929 till 1939 (10 years)
65. George Marks - 1936 till 1946 (10 years)
66. David Nelson - 1936 till 1946 (10 years)
67. Harry Waller - 1937 till 1947 (10 years)
68. Stan Morgan - 1938 till 1948 (10 years)
69. Arthur Milton - 1945 till 1955 (10 years)
70. Don Oakes - 1945 till 1955 (10 years)
71. Don Roper - 1947 till 1957 (10 years)
72. Jim Fotheringham - 1949 till 1959 (10 years)
73. Jon Sammels - 1961 till 1971 (10 years)
74. Eddie Kelly - 1966 till 1976 (10 years)
75. Richie Powling - 1971 till 1981 (10 years)
76. David Rocastle - 1982 till 1992 (10 years)
77. Alan Miller - 1984 till 1994 (10 years)
78. Kevin Caampbell - 1985 till 1995 (10 years)
79. Steve Morrow - 1987 till 1997 (10 years)
80. Scott Marshall - 1988 till 1998 (10 years)
Are these player can be considered the most loyal players to their club?
Some of them might be the one and most of them had becoming a legend for our club.
In the 70's, David O'Leary might be the most loyal players that I could recall, then Martin Keown and Tony Adams.
But how to determine of that such players is loyal to their club, is this had something to do with the fans and supporters opinion?
Fans and supporters would be the most nearest person to the players, they took the players together with their passion and their personal interest with certain players helps most of the players to success.
For as long as the players could stay with their clubs will automatically transforming such player to becoming as a loyal players to the club.
And how the club be able to determined which player is loyal to them?
Keep playing, stay fresh, avoid injury, good performing, wins more games and well paid.
Most important is how these players comes to know that they are loyal to the club. There are many factors to reconsidered, but love and emotion in each of the players plays a big roles to identified their own interest with their own club.
Players who loves their fans, supporters and their club will have more stronger grips in their mind which will lead them to their deep interest by showing more positive feedback to show their loyalty character.
Does highly paid player today can be more loyal to their club?
Hard to explained in these modern days football, business take place to run the clubs and each players had their own value too.
It's part of the facts where loyal players can really help the clubs into success and yet it quite difficult to determined which player is showing such character to be most loyal to his club till now.
The players own characters seems to be the actual cause whether to presume they are loyal or not to their own club.
With most of Arsenal players are very young and these youngsters, who had full of ambition in their heads, will thinks otherwise when their times are up to move.
Nowadays football players are playing for money to success and we can't denied it as we hardly found non of the key players to stay behind during the hard times even though they insist to stay.
When clubs are in trouble, then financially they are unable to pay such players and even try to sell most of their key players to settle their debts.
So far, I haven't heard any clubs and their players comes up with an agreement to reduce the players salary in order to save the club.
If there any, please correct me and can we consider such example to identified the loyal players that we are looking for.
Some players had shown their loyalty by not going to go anywhere, but the clubs need to sell him and at last he had to go. Did the player sacrifice his loyalty to help his club and do you think he would be able to return to his former club in future.
I don't think so, after few years later, his former clubs will change a lot and sadly they don't need you anymore.
Even nowadays, players are being lured with money, success, title, championship and you just named it. And most of those tactics has been successful to attract football players to move on from one club to another.
We can't expect any players nowadays who is really loyal to their clubs, for instance such as Steven Gerrad, Jimmy Caragher, John Terry and Frank Lampard (local players) where their most reasonable reason to stay with their clubs is because they want to stay in their own country.
Many clubs are interested with them and willing to pay high salary too. Beside that, chances to win more prestigious medals in Europe are much more better.
Even during Ashley Cole move to Chelsea, most of us are getting angry, frustrated, felt betrayed and many others that could sparks such hatred towards him will burst out from no where.
Cole had been with Arsenal for nine years since 1997 - 2006, I would consider that period was good and long enough to put his loyalty to the Arsenal's fans and supporters.
But, the competition are getting more and more stiff where he might chose to prolong his career and tries to wins more medal as he can besides money too had a big influence with his departure from Arsenal.
Yeahhhh.....I myself are more with a thought of that such players are very loyal to their clubs. Of course they have won enough medals but not all medals from competition around Europe that been able for them to achieve.
Career and loyalty are two different issues in which we could relate to but each of the issues are going the same way where at the end of the road you need to decide your true destiny.
For example, if Gerrad, Terry, Carragher or Lampard chose to pursue their careers into a high level momentum, then you would never saw them again playing in the premier league.
It was the player's desire to win as much competition as they could and becoming a top players was a dreams for every each of the players.
That is why today, most of the players are very eager to play with a big clubs where such clubs could push their career to the highest achievement.
With such of big amount of money involved nowadays, clubs does not appear to be interested with the players loyalty.
It is us who goes to the conclusion about who is the player which to put their loyalty to the clubs. However, fans and supporters are the third party who are dare to put anything into their interest and drives along their passion in such fantasies.
Back to the conclusion, players career belong to the clubs, players contribution serves the fans and supporters, players itself are not referring to themselves anymore as their value as an asset forbidden them to do so.
However, fans and supporters still hold the power with their mind to accept whether such player in their mind are loyal to the clubs or not.
Therefore, players might says that they are loyal to the clubs but for how long? The words 'LOYAL' had no boundaries and limits with the times, but I am quite sure such words are more suitable for gooners itself where 'Arsenal Till I Die' prescribe an accurate term for such loyalty.
