Simon Rodger
Age 31, defender
Then Rodger played for Crystal Palace from 1990 until last summer.
Now After several months out of work, he is now a First Division player again, but earning far less money at Brighton. His wife Alison is a television presenter on the QVC shopping channel.
I was in a state of shock after being released by Palace. Back in the spring [manager] Trevor Francis said that if the club went up to the Premiership he wouldn't need me, but if they stayed in the First Division, he'd want to keep me. But the week after the season ended he called me into his office and said, 'We won't be offering you a new contract.' He basically blamed it on Simon Jordan, the chairman. He said Jordan wanted to get rid of some players and that senior players like myself, David Hopkin and Dean Austin could go. I was in so much shock that I didn't say much. It didn't really sink in until I got home.
The close season was strange. I was lucky that I had a good family, and my wife Alison, around me, and they supported me. Alison was great. She kept me busy. In some ways it was a lovely summer: I got married and we had a great honeymoon on safari in South Africa and then in Mauritius, and I had my testimonial as well. That was strange. I went into the dressing room and Francis was there. He was being as nice as he could to me, but I just didn't want to know. I knew that something would turn up and it did. There was plenty of interest but no actual contracts on offer. Grimsby, Rotherham and Walsall wanted to take me on trial. I wasn't asking to be paid at all. I just wanted to get into the shop window. But I didn't go to any of the clubs that approached me because I wanted to stay down south. My wife's got a good job down here and she said there was no point in me talking to them, especially as she didn't want to move all the way up there either. It wasn't as if we were struggling moneywise.
Luckily I've done alright out of the game. The last 10 years have been a golden period, with most players earning good money. But I was never surprised to be earning what I was earning. If anything, I always thought I deserved to be earning more. I'm just grateful to be back in professional football with Brighton, doing something that I love. Other players out there haven't been so lucky. Look at Andy Linighan. He's played at Arsenal, he scored the winning goal in the 1993 Cup final, and now he's back being a plumber, the same job he did before he was a footballer.
Although I'm now earning less, I've still got the same car, a BMW 3 series. I still live in the same house, a farm in Surrey. But obviously I can't spend as much as before on things like clothes, which used to be a big weakness of mine when I was earning good money. Luckily I feel I've got everything I need anyway.
I think the financial situation in the game's going to get worse. I can't see wages going back to what they were before.The balance of power has definitely shifted back from the players to the clubs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2003/jan/12/football.newsstory1
