Former Liverpool star Danny Murphy has suggested that young players need to earn their medals and questioned Rhian Brewster getting one for the Champions League last season.
The debate began after Pep Guardiola hit out at the five-game rule in the Premier League while Man City saw their appeal fail to hand out more medals for last year’s squad.
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Guardiola feels as though many young players missed out on the chance to win a medal despite being part of the squad, but Murphy isn’t having any of it.
As seen in his comments below, he is adamant that young players need to earn their rewards by playing a key role, and when told that Brewster received a medal for Liverpool’s successful Champions League run last season without playing a minute in Europe, he wasn’t impressed.
“That’s ludicrous. What you’re talking about is the mindset of any young player,” he is quoted as saying on talkSPORT by Live4Liverpool.
“You can control certain elements of a young player’s development. Giving them winner’s medals now isn’t going to help them.
“It’s not going to create a problem not giving them medals. You’ve got to incentivise people getting in the team. Is it just personal pride left?”
His perspective is understandable to a degree, as ultimately it does feel a little hollow giving medals out to players if they haven’t played a pivotal role in winning the trophy.
Nevertheless, as pointed out by Guardiola, they’ve still put the hard graft in during training and helped the squad as a whole compete after a gruelling season, and so it’s only right that if they were involved, they should be given some sort of reward.
Naturally, Murphy’s comments won’t go down well with many, but there will be others who agree that he does have a point.
Something for the 9??6??. ?? pic.twitter.com/ilWequ7QxT
— Rhian Brewster (@RhianBrewster9) June 2, 2019
