You can't hold it against a player for not being Bale. There was only one Bale, and trust me, he earns A LOT more than £150k a week.
I really think people are expecting too much of Eriksen. His 16 league assists last season is a club record since they started counting them. And not only that, he's done it at crucial moments in big games too - the assists at Stamford Bridge and Anfield, the ones against Man Utd and West Ham, and of course, the winner at the Etihad. His goal output dried up a bit from the previous year, but I'd put that partially down to playing in a different position to accomodate Alli - remember all the last minute winners he scored in Poch's first season? These are regular, important contributions to the team. What more is he supposed to do exactly?
This is nothing more than a number you've plucked out of the sky. As I've shown in other posts, it is well below market rate for a player in his position in the Premier League with the same proven pedigree as he has.
You might think some of those players are stealing a living, and I'd be inclined to agree with you. There are also people who don't think it's right that men who kick balls between two sticks all day should be paid more than doctors and firemen. But that's football these days. It's simple economics. Supply and demand. Market forces. And for the final time, the market rate for a player with Eriksen's level of Premier League experience is definitely over £100k a week. Simple as. I don't like it any more than you do. But if you were consistently outperforming your competition in your job and seeing them get paid more than you, wouldn't you at least ask for parity?
At first I thought people were just criminally underrating Eriksen, who has been and still is without question one of our best, most important and most effective players of the last few years. But I think there's another problem here. You don't seem to realise that £150k a week is not actually that much in today's Premier League money.
I'll repeat that.
£150k is not that much in today's money.
You all seem to bang on like he's a wannabe that's demanding an elite wage that he doesn't deserve. £150k is not an elite wage. Wayne Rooney is earning almost double that. £150k doesn't even nearly put you in the top 10 in the Premier League, I doubt you'd even be top 20. If I went and offered £250k for a house in central London and protested that it's not worth more than that, I may be correct. But I wouldn't have a house at the end of the negotiation. And, again for the final time, unless anyone can name me a player of Eriksen's age and ability who would cost less than £40-50m and £150k per week, we can't lose this negotiation. Because whether it's Sheringham/Ferdinand, Berbatov/Pavlyuchenko, Bale/Lamela - one thing we've proved time and time again is that cashing in on star players and signing better ones in the same position for less money is almost impossible. Last thing we need to be doing now, as we go into a season with a settled squad is to start letting important players go.