Last week, Adrian Mutu lost his appeal to the CAS against the damages FIFA awarded us back in 2008 and he was subsequently ordered to pay Chelsea £14.7million. A little steep maybe but then he had decided to drag us through the courts for five years before it reached that amount so it’s his own bloody fault really.

Anyway, not one to give up easily, Mutu still doesn’t feel ready to let the matter drop apparently and says “I cannot fail to exercise my right to criticise a sentence that appears profoundly unjust.” Fair enough, he’s entitled to say whatever he likes as long as he’s ready to cough up now. But he’s not done there, because he goes on “I think I have amply paid for an error of youth which is light years away from the man and footballer I am now.  Today after so much time, that error cannot be the basis of a demand for damages that seem to go beyond the realm of sporting sanctions, given that Chelsea unilaterally decided to terminate my contract.”

And that’s the bit that really gets my goat. For a start, how did he ‘amply pay’ for it? Ok, he served a seven month ban – and rightly so seeing as you’re not actually allowed to shove coke up your nose as a professional footballer – but how exactly did that ‘pay’ the club he’d left with no replacement and a £15million hole in their pocket? And an ‘error of youth’?? Taking coke and playing for a Premier League club whilst still off your face is hardly the same as playing knock-down-ginger is it?

The fact is, Mutu didn’t give a toss. His behavior both before and after he tested positive gave Chelsea no choice but to sack him and strutting off to do his playboy thing before picking himself up and moving on to Juventus and Fiorentina hardly qualifies as ‘paying’ for it. And as for him whingeing he shouldn’t have to pay for it five years down the line, is he serious? Who the hell does he think has dragged it out this long? Who is it that has refused to pay the damages every step of the way, at every single court hearing?

The man is a joke – and he still hasn’t had enough! Because now, he’s saying “I am a sportsman but also, above all, a citizen of the European Union and I believe that sporting justice must respect the principles and fundamental rights of the community.  So I will evaluate every possible initiative to protect my rights.”

‘Sportsman’? Is he bloody sure? Is this the way sportsmen behave? He can ‘protect’ his ‘rights’ as much as he likes but what he needs to bear in mind is that clubs have rights too and Chelsea protected theirs five years ago when they got rid.

Pay up and jog on.

Filed under: Ex Players, Rants