Everyone whose ever watched even a single match knows that football is a big-money business: it is the best and easiest way of attracting top talent to come to your club, because football long ago became all about the bank balance. With the concept of loyalty evaporating as the myth it always was, Russian billionaires can wave millions of pounds under the noses of footballers in order to attract their attention and appeal to their greed. But of course, no player on £200k or £300k a week would ever be as perverse as to openly admit that they are driven by money. And they may claim all they like that they moved to a club for reasons other than money - being in the capital, "away from the goldfish bowl," or that oldest of chestnuts, for "footballing reasons" - but a healthier bank account is usually the case when considering a contract. Take Wayne Rooney for instance: the occasionally talented England forward threatened to leave Man Utd at the end of the 2012-2013 season 'for footballing reasons' - just after they'd won the league - and attracted the attention of Chelsea and Paris Saint Germain. Fast forward a little while though, and Rooney was all too happy to stay, despite extended overtures from Chelsea in particular: so what changed? It might have had something to do with the monumental £300,000 a week contract he was given as a sweetener. So basically, "footballing reasons" seemed to be code for "I would like more money please". In short, Rooney knew his ability would get him a big pay day, and whether or not it would be at United didn't seem to matter. And he's not the only one to hide monetary motivation behind other reasons for leaving or attempting to leave his club. They might have said it wasn't all about the money, but it's not hard to pick apart their defences...
