The summer mess around Alexander Isak and Yoane Wissa has fueled a well -known indignation. These players were labeled as ‘unprofessional’, ‘shameful’, even ‘disgusting’, such as Alan Shearer stated it About their refusal to play to force movements. But strangely enough, when clubs exiled players and treat them as a surplus by forcing them to only train or sit outside indefinitely, most of the football world gets it as simple ‘business’. Or they just go stupid and never discuss it. Why this striking double standard?
When a star player is frozen, training for seclusion or with the youth, the tone is rarely judged. It is rationalized as assertive management or justified discipline. Take Dedryck Boyata, ex-Celtic, who reportedly told him in the Club Brugge that he might as well be ‘a hyperconstagious disease’. He was made to turn into a cleaning cupboard and to train with children. Yet few sentenced the club downright.
Consider the “Bomb Squad” Saga of Manchester United 2025. Players such as Jadon Sancho and Antony shouted that they want to go outside, and as a result were excluded from the preseason and forced to train away from the team. But when manager Ruben Amorim approached it, he framed it as professionalism and offered them a path back if the price was right.
Indeed, Planet Football And Givemessport Let the players’ roundups are only sent to train alone (including Aubameyang, Sancho, Virgil van Dijk, Mkhitaryan) to frame any incident as a disciplinary or implementation problem, rarely as careera.
In Stark Contrast, when players such as Isak or Wissa refuse to train to pursue a better situation, they are ‘unprofessional’ or even ‘disgusting’ branded, their act of agency.
An argument for players
The fundamental imbalance in football is that clubs have institutional power (contracts, payments and control over playing time), while players have little leverage. When Clubs Banking Banking, this is seen as maintaining standards. When players refuse to play, this is seen as a rebellion. But in a system that is built around contractual service, is not one of the few tools that are still available to a player?
Let’s look: Isak and Wissa wanted to play at the highest level and achieved the headlines for their refusal to take a status as eternal second violin. In the meantime, the treatment of Boyata felt punished over professionalism, a player who was physically insulated.
There is also a fan to consider. On pin boards such as Reddit, many claim that players have little powerAnd going into a strike is often a final resort to protect health, reputation or future perspectives. A user said that players needed ‘desk’ more than anything, because ‘they are the ones who let it happen every week’.
My last thought about this
That does not mean that players always have the right. Constitutionally they owe the club’s effort, but the playing field does not agree. Clubs freeze players and still pay their wages, as punishment. When players push back, especially those in top career, they are socially punished, publicly blamed and even obtained. We forgive professional power for his authority, but condemn individuals for the use of their own.
I am not saying that players always have to win disputes. But we do need a reality check. The current system gives strikes the feeling that the only language players can speak. Collective negotiating agreements do not exist and trade unions have a negligible waving. Until football brings power in better balance, the story must shift. When a player fights, you may be less concerned about a broken etiquette and more about why he felt compelled.
It is time for us to question this embedded double standard. A club that throws away a player is rarely seen as problematic. But a player who insists on leverage? That is villain. Yet both actions are about power. One is institutional and normalized, but the other is individual and is seen as evil.
If football has to remain human, it must acknowledge that players are not raw materials. They are people with finite careers and ambitions. We have to listen before we judge. Until that empathy becomes standard, the next time a player ‘in strike’, we should not ask ‘how do she dare’, but “why did it come here?”
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