Top 5 money minded players in EPL history

The vast majority of footballers play for money, who think that they are doing something a lot more important than playing football and deserve their disgustingly large pay cheques, but some are worse than others.

5. Emmanuel Adebayor

Emmanuel Adebayor is the type of striker who can score, but not do much else. This is why he is a player that should not be one of the highest earners in the Premier League, but he still is. Leaving Arsenal as they refused to break their wage structure for him, he left for Manchester City for over double what the Gunners were paying him, only to be left out by Roberto Mancini a season later. Greed personified. Now he is playing his trade at Tottenham.

4. Samuel Eto’o

The Cameroonian’s greed and extravagant wage haven’t been shown in his short Premier League career, but at Barcelona and Inter Milan, he demanded far too much money. First at Barcelona he wanted a huge amount of signing on fee, and with the Catalans clearly unwilling to offer him so much, he was used as a makeweight to bring in Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

After a highly successful spell at Inter, he was tracked by the likes of Chelsea and Real Madrid, but picked Anzhi Makhachkala instead. Why? Because they offered him a reported £280,000 per week, and became the highest paid player in history.3. Ashley Cole

Any player with the nickname “Cashley” most obviously is greedy. Having come through Arsenal’s illustrious academy, he had been an integral part of Wenger’s team for six seasons. He was held in high regard by the Arsenal faithful. That is, until the summer of 2006. When Chelsea came calling, “Cashley” was determined for the deal to go through.

Arsenal’s attempts to keep him were in vain, especially when he was left “trembling with anger” and “felt like a slave” when he was offered a measly £55,000 to stay at the club. He ended up signing for Chelsea for £90,000 a week, with this being increased to £120,000 in 2009.2. Winston Bograde

Dutch defender Winston Bogarde signed for Chelsea from Barcelona in 2000. A change in management from Gianluca Vialli to Claudio Ranieri saw Bogarde made surplus to requirements. Feeling that he would be unable to get a contract at another club that would match his wages at Chelsea, he decided to “honour” his contract. Chelsea did everything they could to get rid of him, while the British press were constantly on his back.

Bogarde hit back at his critics by saying “This world is about money, so when you are offered those millions, you take them. I may be one of the worst buys in the history of the Premiership, but I don’t care.” He left Chelsea after four years, in which he played eleven games for the club, earning approximately £8million during his spell at the club.1. Asamoah Gyan

I used to like Asamoah. Who didn’t? You couldn’t help but feel sorry for him when he missed that penalty in the World Cup Quarter Final. Maybe it was his infectious dancing celebrations or the sensational yellow boots. Either way,Sunderland fans thought they had a ready-made replacement when Darren Bent left, a man to fire them to mid table glory.

Ah, not quite the case. It shocked me to hear then, that he’d secured a loan move to little known Al-Ain for the rest of the season. Maybe he’d fallen out with Steve Bruce, much in the same way Tony Pulis and James Beattie had a naked changing room brawl over a Christmas Party. Or a need to be near relatives like Carlos Tevez’s supposed excuse for leaving Man City.

Wrong. Gyan’s excuse was, “I’m here to see how Asian leagues are.” A valid reason for swapping one of Europe’s top 5 leagues for something possibly akin to the League One. That and £200k a week.