If Alexis Sanchez had been hitting all the right notes from the moment he sat at the Old Trafford piano stool, his salary would barely get a mention.
If he was scoring goals aplenty, coming up with an array of assists, working his socks off, he would be plain ‘Alexis Sanchez’.
He has not been doing any of those things. Therefore he is ‘£500,000-a-week Alexis Sanchez’.
If Sanchez was scoring plenty of goals, they would not be counted in pounds. They would just be goals.
But he is not.
Therefore his five goals are not just goals. They are goals that cost £6million apiece.
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To fans, players’ wages are only an issue when they don’t produce what they are paid to produce.
Which is why Manchester United supporters will not care what David De Gea might be asking to sign a new contract. Give him what he wants.
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He is the club’s Player of the Year four seasons out of the last five and acclaimed as the best goalkeeper in the world – well, certainly by those who watch nothing but Premier League football.
De Gea is a magnificent goalkeeper, his contribution to United’s cause as significant as any other player’s over the past eight years. Without him, United might not have finished as high as seventh, fourth, fifth, sixth and second in the five completed seasons post-Sir Alex Ferguson.
Right now, De Gea is certainly a far more crucial component of the club than Sanchez. So, if he is, why shouldn’t he ask for pay parity with the Chilean?
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But where does it stop? If you are Paul Pogba, will you be happy that a keeper is paid more than you?
There was a day when goalkeepers were the relatively poor relations of the dressing room.
That was once reflected in the transfer fees.
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When QPR keeper Phil Parkes signed for West Ham in 1979, the £565,000 fee was a world record. At that same time, Andy Gray was going from Aston Villa to Wolves for £1.5million – only a British record.
The fees for goalkeepers, though, have spiralled dramatically, along with the wages.
It could be argued De Gea deserves more than anyone else at United such has been his level of performance over so many years.
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It could be argued no one is more important than a keeper.
If any other keeper had been in goal for United against Spurs at Wembley seven weeks ago, would the result have been the same?
And if De Gea becomes another key player to sign on Solskjaer’s watch, that should just about seal the permanent gig for Ole.
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Yet keepers are keepers. They can help win matches but they are never match-winners.
The last time the players gave their Player of the Year award to a keeper was in 1978, to Peter Shilton.
De Gea is brilliant. As it happens, his No.2 Sergio Romero is not too shabby either.
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Romero has kept clean sheets in 63 per cent of his United appearances and concedes an average of 0.465 goals per game.
De Gea’s clean sheet record is 37 per cent and he concedes 0.997 goals per game.
Of course, those statistics confirm the old adage about lies, and damned lies.
De Gea’s sample is massive compared to Romero’s and the Argentine tends to play only against vastly inferior opposition.
But there are a lot of good keepers out there. De Gea is one of the best in the world, no doubt, and everyone at United loves him.
But for the best part of £500,000 a week – even if it is De Gea – no club should be held to ransom by a goalkeeper.
