Simon Jordan claims Premier League players are resisting pressure for a pay cut

Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has said the reason Premier League players have yet to agree a pay cut is because they do not want to.

Premier League clubs have proposed wage cuts of around 30 per cent for their players, but negotiations with the PFA have hit a stumbling block.

Members are concerned that the money made by their financial sacrifice will not be going to the right places, namely the NHS and public services.

Liverpool and Tottenham, the Premier League’s two most profitable clubs in 2018/19, attracted widespread criticism for their furloughing of staff, though Liverpool have since performed a U-turn.

Jordan insists their actions were in order to force the hand of the players, who “need to shift their backsides”.

“The basic principle behind this is the two most profitable football clubs in English football, Tottenham and Liverpool, are the two clubs who have gone out and made a stance,” Jordan told talkSPORT.

“I don’t understand why Liverpool fans are not more angry with their players not coming to the fore and taking a pay cut.

“The leverage which was being bought by this furlough, Liverpool don’t need £400,000 of savings from furlough, what Liverpool and Tottenham did it for is because they want to leverage the players because the players are not doing what they should be doing, despite the assertions of people, they have done nothing in four weeks.

“The bigger picture is not about furloughs, it’s about the elephant in the room, why won’t these players come to the fore now, why are they being dragged kicking and screaming by public opinion to take a pay cut.

“What can you do in three weeks? I don’t know, maybe you can build a 4,000-bed hospital in London. But we can’t get 600 players in the Premier League to take a pay cut which is clearly needed to salvage their football club.”

But Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor says Premier League players have “agreed to play their part” in helping clubs manage the financial fall-out from the coronavirus pandemic.

“They’ve all agreed to play their part,” Taylor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, adding that players are “responsible enough” to know wages are a major factor in any club’s expenditure.

“We’ve been consistent with what we’ve said from the beginning and the fact is the players feel quite aggrieved that the Secretary of State for Health should put them in a corner without looking.

“They’re not self-employed, they make massive contributions to the Treasury and they’ve also quite logically felt that if they don’t get that money, if a third is deferred or a third is cut, then the Treasury is £200 million a year worse off and that could be going towards the national health and will be needed.”

Ian Holloway says it “beggars belief” that footballers continue to breach lockdown restrictions.

Manchester City and England defender Kyle Walker apologised over the weekend after he was reported to have hosted a party during the coronavirus pandemic.

Walker said his “actions were in direct contrast to what I should have been doing regarding the lockdown”, with his apology coming a week after Jack Grealish was also caught breaking out of lockdown.

The day after Walker’s apology, his club manager Pep Guardiola lost his mother to coronavirus, and Grimsby boss Holloway told talkSPORT: “First off I’d like to send my love and best wishes to Pep as he’s lost his mum.

“The reality of that and then you have one of your players (Walker), it’s almost brainless. What on earth are you doing having a party like that? It’s bang out of order. I’d be looking to get him out of the club, that’s not right and it’s so irresponsible.

Asked if it should be the end of Walker’s England career, Holloway said: “Totally. It beggars belief. Where’s the discipline? Where’s the actual discipline?”

Chelsea Women manager Emma Hayes has praised her club for supporting domestic abuse charity Refuge during the ongoing lockdown.

“This is something that matters very much at our club,” she told talkSPORT. “Not just my team but the owner all the way down. We felt this was a really important charity to help raise awareness and funds for women and children experiencing domestic abuse during coronavirus.

“Women can feel they have no support or way of getting out in isolation and this shows there is something there for you. At Chelsea we are certainly behind trying to raise awareness so people reach out instead of feeling they have nowhere to go.”

Poet and QPR fan Dean McKee has died of coronavirus, aged just 28.

McKee penned ‘Born Blue & White’, a moving piece that was played at Loftus Road before all QPR games.

The Championship club tweeted: “It is with huge sadness the club has learned of the untimely passing of Dean McKee.

“A lifelong fan, Dean’s original piece ‘Born Blue & White’ will continue to be played before all #QPR home games. Our thoughts are with his family. RIP Dean.”