Selling talents

Piero Ronci's latest scribbling (The Jakarta Post, July 14, 1995) shows his level of expertise like no other penned by this football fanatic.

Platt has Arsenal--the conquerors of Torino, Sampdoria, and Napoli in the last two seasons and "Gazza" has joined Rangers. Why? Because they have been returned to sender? Or because they have had enough of knocking the ball about on a Sunday afternoon and now wish to return to real football?

It has long been a tradition for our lads to hop across to Italy for a few years, get a nice little nest egg without raising a sweat, and return to proper football once they've got a suitable stack of gold teeth in the bank. As my fellow Brit Jan Wejs pointed out (July 15, 1995) Inter Milan practically prostrated themselves in an effort to sign Eric Cantona but as Manchester United were able to meet his wage demands he saw no need to prostitute his talents purely for cash and demean himself by messing about in an inferior league. Paul Inche will be back after he's safely banked his $1.5 million signing-on fee and his $1.5 million a year salary for a couple of years without having to get his shorts dirty. As more and more sponsorship gets poured into the British game, and so more money, more stars will be forsaking the parks football of Serie A for our Premier League. Just ask Gullit or Berkamp! We'll see who is the better nation next season in the European Competitions and the European championships next summer.

DAVID NESBIT

Surabaya, East Java