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Matt Le Tissier has branded the wages Gareth Bale will earn at Real Madrid as 'obscene' – and believes exorbitant sums of money are ruining modern-day footballers.
Le Tissier was one of the greatest Premier League players of his era and wrote his name into Southampton's history books between 1986 and 2002, but never earned more than 4,000 per week.
He admits the money made him a wealthy man, but that it was not so high that it removed him from the fans who paid money to watch him play every week.
Far too much: Gareth Bale could be earning close to 300,000 a week in wages
Le Tissier said: 'The 300,000 per week wages it's reported the Spanish team will be paying their 85.3 million player seems an obscene amount of money to me. No-one is worth that sort of money, not even Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, who can virtually guarantee you a goal a game.
'I've always said that a footballer is only ever worth what someone is willing to pay for him. But in the real world is Gareth Bale really worth 300 grand a week? And if he gets that sort of money every superstar player will want the same.
'I never came into professional football to make myself incredibly rich. I went into it because I loved the game and I loved entertaining people. The money that went with it was great, don't get me wrong.
Previous era: Matt Le Tissier says that he never came into football for the money, just the love of the game
Same neck of the woods: Bale started his career at Southampton, but has come a long way since
'It didn't make me untouchable and didn't make me think that I could do whatever I wanted to do and get away with it. I kept my feet on the ground but, sadly, some of these guys on these mind-numbing wages think they are invincible.'
An estimated 30,000 Real fans turned up at the Bernabeu to welcome Bale at his unveiling on Monday. But Le Tissier, who won eight England caps, fears that sky-high wages are pushing up the price to watch football for the paying punters, and that the bubble might finally burst.
'In my view you are taking the mick if you pay out 300 grand per week for a player then expect a guy, who earns 20,000 a year, to pay 500, 600 or even 1000 for his season ticket,' Le Tissier added, in his blog for goaldengoals.co.uk.
No 11: Real Madrid shirts with 'Bale' on the back are everywhere in Madrid
'Surely these teams realise it's the fans who are the lifeline of the football club and they should be given a decent price structure. But if clubs continue to make supporters pay more to watch their matches then the gates may well fall below capacity week after week.
'Should that happen the TV companies may take the view the game is not as popular as it once was and they may start thinking about reducing some of their future deals. Maybe then these clubs will think twice about paying out such obscene amounts of money on wages.'
Ever increasing: Le Tissier is worried about the price watching football has on supporters
Your comments: I agree footballers are overpaid, but so are film stars and singers. - Jabbasalacious , Lancaster, United Kingdom, 03/9/2013 17:43 It's a sad state of affairs when we pay some people more to entertain us than we pay others to care for us.
- Englishman , Adelaide, Australia, 04/9/2013 03:07
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