Winston and Lose Some

'Why should I throw fifteen million euro away when it is already mine? At the moment I signed it was in fact my money, my contract'

Winston Bogarde

Craig Gordon has hit the headlines this week by asking for a chance to play in Sunderland's reserves, after being displaced in goal by Martin Fulop.

At £9million, Gordon is the most expensive British goalkeeper in history. However, if you think playing him in the reserves is a waste of money, I refer you back to the curious case of Winston Bogarde.

Back in the day, Winston was part of the 1995 Ajax team which won the UEFA Champions League, starring alongside players such as Edwin Van Der Sar, Mark Overmars, Clarence Seedorf and the de Boer twins.

So when Chelsea decided to pick him up on a Bosman after an unsuccessful spell at Barcelona, it didn't seem to be too bad a piece of business.

Bogarde signed a four year contract, worth £40,000 a week, with the Blues. One problem, however. Manager Gianluca Vialli had no idea that Bogarde was joining his team. Chairman Ken Bates was the sole reason behind the capture of Bogarde, and the subsequent departure of Emerson Thome.

This incident was the straw that broke the camel's back for Vialli. He left just days later, but his replacement Claudio Ranieri wasn't too keen of Mr. Bogarde either.

Yet Bogarde stayed firm. What more would you expect from a man whose autobiography was entitled "This Negro Bows for No One".

He decided that if Chelsea were daft enough to offer him £40,000 a week, why shouldn't he milk the cash cow dry.

The most surprising aspect of the scenario was that Bates offered him such a salary in the first place.

Bogarde's value had depreciated massively after a poor spell in Catalunia, and, despite Ranieri wanting him out, he wasn't going to get paid anywhere near as much as Chelsea were handing out.
With this in mind, Bogarde stayed put. The club management tried everything to get rid of him; they dropped him from the reserves, made him train with the youth team, even tried to buy his house and evict him.

Whatever the club tried, Winston continued to get what was rightfully his. He turned up to whichever place he was told, smiled, got on with it and watched the zeroes increase on his bank account.

He got slated by the press for being money-grabbing, greedy and other negative stereotypes at the height of the Footballer's Wives era.

But Bogarde himeslf summed it up; "This world is about money, so when you are offered those millions you take them. Few people will ever earn so many. I am one of the few fortunates who do. I may be one of the worst buys in the history of the Premiership, but I don't care."

While Bogarde didn't do himself any favours by saying it, what he did say was pretty much on the money. His wages were almost directly linked to the club's debt in the pre-Abramovic era and an illustration of the splurge mentality many clubs had at the time.

What Bogarde did may not have been morally right, but it serves as a cautionary tale for many clubs who continue to throw money at free agents.

The Credit Crunch may have stopped such silly money being thrown around, but while Fabricio Coloccini has a job, there is always the concern that one day, another Winston Bogarde will pop up

By Tom Snee, Live Media UK