Not worth the paper it's written on

On Friday we Newcastle fans awoke to the news that Cheik Tiote had put pen to paper and signed a new 6.5 year contract. I for one was over the moon at the news. Tiote has been phenomenal for Newcastle this year, his 35 yard wonder-goal against Arsenal crowning his debut season for us. Stats show that with Tiote in the side we have won 42% of the games we have played while without him we have only won 12.5%.

However, some cynics have pointed out that it doesn't matter how long a contract he has signed, he'll be off in the summer if we get a decent offer for the Ivory Coast international. It's hard to argue against them, as Andy Carroll is an all too recent reminder that players are loyal to whoever pays them the best wages.  Even youth players display little loyalty, with Ryan Donaldson putting a comment on his facebook how "anyone would do the same" as Carroll, just after the deadline day deal was completed.

All too often now players are orchestrating moves to ensure that their bank balances are well padded, with little consideration on how long left they have on their contracts. Cristiano Ronaldo signed a five year deal at Manchester United but was pulling on the Real Madrid shirt just over a year later. Glen Johnson was happy to sign a new deal committing himself to Portsmouth but a little over 8 months later he signed for Liverpool. In 2008 Stuart Downing put pen to paper at Middlesbrough in a deal which should have seen him contracted to his local club until 2013, but just a year later became Martin O'Neill's first summer signing of 2009 at Aston Villa.

Its really hard not to take the news of these players signing with a pinch of salt. As much as I would love to see Joey Barton and Jose Enrique committing themselves to Newcastle United for another 3-5 years each, it's difficult not to be cynical. I am in no doubt that even if Enrique signed a new deal and then Chelsea, Liverpool or Inter put in a bid for Jose that he would be on his way regardless of how long was remaining on his time here.

Newcastle fans have just been sent out their season ticket renewals. They have an option to secure their season ticket at a guaranteed price for the next 10 years. I'm not naive enough to believe that footballers have anything like the loyalty to a club that the fans have, but its disconcerting to have to decide whether to commit to your club long-term when you don't know if the stars who earn more in a week than we do in a year are prepared to do the same.