Some rubbish written about agents

[Deleted member 26533]

I have some strong opinions about this topic but I'd probably get shipped off to a Siberian gulag if I aired them, seeing as this board has turned into another club mouthpiece and you're not allowed to criticise anything at all related to the club anymore. Absolute farce.

People criticise the club on here all the time for allsorts

 

[xmfd]

Ndongs agent probably thought he'd have a go cos he knows we're desperate to get rid, and a shambles financially.

I can't see an easy way out of this mess unless we either just bite the bullet and give the players the money they crave or let them rot in the reserves while we fight for promotion.

What's that saying, don't hate the players, hate the game.

 

[skullmeister]

It is awful, in the modern game with all the sky money there's still clubs still struggling to rub 2 pennies together and that's largely because all the money isn't going where it should be or where it's most needed, the agents and players are taking the vast majority.

Only a government let intervention could stop it as I can't see the club's getting together and saying no more. There would always be one or two saying we will pay the agent to guarantee getting the player they want.

It is moving into 3rd party ownership when phrases like My Players are being bandied about.

I'm not sure what the answer is, taking agents payments at such an astronomical level to price them out of the equation, who knows.

 

[Stubbs ftm]

Agents are a plague on the game. Why are they even required? Can players not negotiate their own contracts?

 

[kingmonkey]

Agents are to football what viagogo are to the music industry.

Leeches.

Football is not just about money, it's our sport.

 

[themanagersnot2blame]

He wants to earn his contracted wages? Then stay and earn them.

He wants to leave and earn the wages he was on here? Then negotiate that with the club you want to move to, if they dont agree then you have a choice, stay here and earn your money or fuck off and earn less

That would be fair enough if we wanted him to stay... I’m pretty sure we will be desperate for him to go to get him off the wage bill. It doesn’t make for a great negotiating position for us. I fear it will be the Rodwell situation all over again.

It’s a game of brinkmanship - both parties want the move. The agent and player will want to use our weakended position to ensure a position that they would have no chance of agreeing on the open market. The player will want a deal as good as (or better than) the one he’s got at a higher level or simply anywhere he can make a fresh start. The agent will want his pay day too. There is not a hope in hell of him getting that without SAFC part funding it - unfortunately we’re gonna need to suck that up.

We tried the hard ball approach with Rodwell - effectively trying to bully him out of the club. I respected us trying that approach but clearly it backfired. My learning from that episode is that footballers and their agents on the whole are intrinsically greedy and are happy to see out an unpleasant situation and risk destroying their career to ensure the best financial outcome in the short term. We should of course try to negotiate to the best of our ability but at no point should we kidnourselves that they will ‘do the right thing’ for the club or their future prospects and lean too heavily on that when negotiating.

 

[skullmeister]

An agents fee should be fixed in any deal. A flat fee should be set, maybe 1% of the fee agreed between the buying and selling clubs.

For players who are out of contract the agent can of course represent the player and he/she/they then charge the player direct for the time spent on the deal, the same way a solicitor charges you a fee for helping you buy or sell a house.

 

[Deleted member 22162]

I'm sorry i just dont buy into some of the vindictive rubbish written on here about agents (including our former CEO)

Agents are their to represent footballers - often young and invariably uneducated - in deals which are often multi million pound deals negotiated with multi millionaires/billionaires or by their million pound a year earning lackies.

Football is a multi billion pound business which unfortunately in recent years we have been shit at. You pay players a lot of money and sign long term contracts with them. If they turn out to be less good than expected you suck it up and pay their contract for the duration. If they turn out to be better than expected you sell them - like chattels or pieces of meat - for a fee.

Our problem is that we have not been very good at the business of football - significantly worse than we have been at the business of playing football (which we have been poor at).

Our new owners - who i have a lot of time for - are being slightly disingenuous when they hang Paddy McNair out to dry. Could we afford to keep his maybe - but the truth is it does not make business sense to have a £20k a week player in the third tier if we could sell him for £5m. The unpatetable truth is if N'dong, Khasri, Oviedo, McNair, catts etc said tomorrow we are all staying and committed to the fight we would be financially f**ked.

The personal abuse levelled at Catts and Rodwell or Bent or even at time Phillips or Hutchinson on here is pathetic. Football is a simple business you contract with a player - you are making a punt on his future performances and value. If someone else wants to pay more you match it or cash in. If no one wants to sign him and his form deteriorates you suck it up. Some clubs eg Benfica and Porto are brilliant at this - we are pathetic.

Under Poyet and at times Dick for me Catts was our best performer - hence why he got a good contract. He is entitled to see out that contract. Rodwell was on a good deal at City (he could of stayed but he wanted football) he is entitled to his contract. As for M Byrne she is entitled to earn a living and she sounds like she is better at representing players than a CEO - so what shes moved on so should we.

One final point. In a couple of years we will hopefully be a buyer of players again. These agents we are publicly abusing - the club will be schmoozing to get them to sell their players to us.

One of the worst takes I’ve ever read on here, and that’s saying something.

Putting our situation to one side, the phenomenal amount of money super agents like Raiola take out of the game (which could be reinvested into grassroots level) to line their own pockets every time one of their mega stars gets a move is the single most damaging thing about modern football.

 

[Chop Buster]

I'm sorry i just dont buy into some of the vindictive rubbish written on here about agents (including our former CEO)

Agents are their to represent footballers - often young and invariably uneducated - in deals which are often multi million pound deals negotiated with multi millionaires/billionaires or by their million pound a year earning lackies.

Football is a multi billion pound business which unfortunately in recent years we have been shit at. You pay players a lot of money and sign long term contracts with them. If they turn out to be less good than expected you suck it up and pay their contract for the duration. If they turn out to be better than expected you sell them - like chattels or pieces of meat - for a fee.

Our problem is that we have not been very good at the business of football - significantly worse than we have been at the business of playing football (which we have been poor at).

Our new owners - who i have a lot of time for - are being slightly disingenuous when they hang Paddy McNair out to dry. Could we afford to keep his maybe - but the truth is it does not make business sense to have a £20k a week player in the third tier if we could sell him for £5m. The unpatetable truth is if N'dong, Khasri, Oviedo, McNair, catts etc said tomorrow we are all staying and committed to the fight we would be financially f**ked.

The personal abuse levelled at Catts and Rodwell or Bent or even at time Phillips or Hutchinson on here is pathetic. Football is a simple business you contract with a player - you are making a punt on his future performances and value. If someone else wants to pay more you match it or cash in. If no one wants to sign him and his form deteriorates you suck it up. Some clubs eg Benfica and Porto are brilliant at this - we are pathetic.

Under Poyet and at times Dick for me Catts was our best performer - hence why he got a good contract. He is entitled to see out that contract. Rodwell was on a good deal at City (he could of stayed but he wanted football) he is entitled to his contract. As for M Byrne she is entitled to earn a living and she sounds like she is better at representing players than a CEO - so what shes moved on so should we.

One final point. In a couple of years we will hopefully be a buyer of players again. These agents we are publicly abusing - the club will be schmoozing to get them to sell their players to us.

Agents are the worst thing about the game. Judging by the 'grammar' in your first sentence you are probably one of them, thick as owt.

 

[Norton]

So did we find out if the op is Maggie?
If not who are they an agent for?

 

[Spennymackem1981]

I'm sorry i just dont buy into some of the vindictive rubbish written on here about agents (including our former CEO)

Agents are their to represent footballers - often young and invariably uneducated - in deals which are often multi million pound deals negotiated with multi millionaires/billionaires or by their million pound a year earning lackies.

Football is a multi billion pound business which unfortunately in recent years we have been shit at. You pay players a lot of money and sign long term contracts with them. If they turn out to be less good than expected you suck it up and pay their contract for the duration. If they turn out to be better than expected you sell them - like chattels or pieces of meat - for a fee.

Our problem is that we have not been very good at the business of football - significantly worse than we have been at the business of playing football (which we have been poor at).

Our new owners - who i have a lot of time for - are being slightly disingenuous when they hang Paddy McNair out to dry. Could we afford to keep his maybe - but the truth is it does not make business sense to have a £20k a week player in the third tier if we could sell him for £5m. The unpatetable truth is if N'dong, Khasri, Oviedo, McNair, catts etc said tomorrow we are all staying and committed to the fight we would be financially f**ked.

The personal abuse levelled at Catts and Rodwell or Bent or even at time Phillips or Hutchinson on here is pathetic. Football is a simple business you contract with a player - you are making a punt on his future performances and value. If someone else wants to pay more you match it or cash in. If no one wants to sign him and his form deteriorates you suck it up. Some clubs eg Benfica and Porto are brilliant at this - we are pathetic.

Under Poyet and at times Dick for me Catts was our best performer - hence why he got a good contract. He is entitled to see out that contract. Rodwell was on a good deal at City (he could of stayed but he wanted football) he is entitled to his contract. As for M Byrne she is entitled to earn a living and she sounds like she is better at representing players than a CEO - so what shes moved on so should we.

One final point. In a couple of years we will hopefully be a buyer of players again. These agents we are publicly abusing - the club will be schmoozing to get them to sell their players to us.

fuck off ya mag

 

[soapster]

Agents are a plague on the game. Why are they even required? Can players not negotiate their own contracts?

I don't have a problem with agents if they are to look after the players interests. however it quickly became clear that agents were manipulating players into moves, so they themselves can earn a big wedge.

I have to query when the corrupt fifa is in power why they allowed agents so much power.

a club correctly cannot contact another teams player. However that same club can contact that players agent. How is that fair

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

Only a government let intervention could stop it as I can't see the club's getting together and saying no more. There would always be one or two saying we will pay the agent to guarantee getting the player they want.

It is moving into 3rd party ownership when phrases like My Players are being bandied about.

I'm not sure what the answer is, taking agents payments at such an astronomical level to price them out of the equation, who knows.

The answer is very simple - the only people paying agents should be the clients. The players. I'm treasurer if a pretty serious choir; we're constantly engaging professional musicians and soloists. Some have agents, some not. We negotiate with agents in agreeing a performance fee and other contract details. They try to get the biggest fee they can for their client, we try to pay as little as we have to. It's a bit like haggling in a souk sometimes, but we can normally meet somewhere in the middle. What we have never done, and no-one else in the classical music business does either, is pay a fee to the agent for doing this. They're paid directly by their client. Theatre works they same way; so does rock music promotion. It's way beyond time that football joined the real world.

 

[The Beautiful Game]

This place has some outlandish opinions at times but I genuinely cannot believe we’ve got someone on here defending football agents.

 

[wrighty]

Agents are a plague on the game. Why are they even required? Can players not negotiate their own contracts?

In fairness that would lead to a massive inequality in bargaining position as in most cases the players don’t have the education to look after themselves. There is I recall an option where the pfa would help players . The p f a would strike the right balance of ensuring fair terms without gratuitously shafting clubs and sucking cash out to line their own pockets.

Agents are a plague on the game. Why are they even required? Can players not negotiate their own contracts?

In fairness that would lead to a massive inequality in bargaining position as in most cases the players don’t have the education to look after themselves. There is I recall an option where the pfa would help players . The p f a would strike the right balance of ensuring fair terms without gratuitously shafting clubs and sucking cash out to line their own pockets.

 

[rowley2]

Agents operate to benefit themselves. If a footballer benefits, fine, but if a footballer suffers, as many do, he will just move into the next player.

They are little better than pimps controlling whores

In fairness that would lead to a massive inequality in bargaining position as in most cases the players don’t have the education to look after themselves. There is I recall an option where the pfa would help players . The p f a would strike the right balance of ensuring fair terms without gratuitously shafting clubs and sucking cash out to line their own pockets.

Some players do indeed use the PFA. But they do not prey on players and on player's parents. The PFA is there but they are often out manouvered by predatory agents, moving in on players at very young ages.


In fairness that would lead to a massive inequality in bargaining position as in most cases the players don’t have the education to look after themselves. There is I recall an option where the pfa would help players . The p f a would strike the right balance of ensuring fair terms without gratuitously shafting clubs and sucking cash out to line their own pockets.

 

[Perryqhill]

McNair has a contract the club and fans saying he should honour.

Catts and Rodwell have a contract the club are saying they should rip up.

Ndong and Khazri have a contract the club don’t want to honour. But we want someone to pay us for employees we want to leave

Clubs have no moral superiority over players

You make a decent point in some respects there, however why did you switch from the post you replied to - it was all about McNair. All you've done is point out the hypocrisy among fans and the club, which obviously does exist when looking out for their own interests. You couldn't expand on said posters reasoning for fans hating agents as actions like McNair's and his agent are indefensible.

Plus in Ndong and Khazri's case as much as the club would struggle to pay them - they want the move and more or less downed tools anyway. Clearly a balance needs to be struck, but again you side with the player saying the club doesn't want to honour their contracts. If by the way of needing to move them on that's your conclusion, then surely they don't want to honour their contracts either?

 

[safcforever]

no one ive met people on both sides. football is all about money. clubs and there owners are the greediest and richest

Imagine how big football would be if the scumbags didn’t take so much out of the game. They don’t give a fuck about their client. Don’t even pretend they do. As soon as the career is over, their relationship is over
They are the poison in this sport

 

[Cat 3]

Presumably because he asked to leave. Donald has said he can stay. You twist to justify your argument. I am no fan of the lad and can’t see why you defend his position. We would all like to have our cake and eat it.

No we want rid

 

[safcforever]

They are vermin

N’Dong’s deal fell apart due to agent demands which may be 1-2m EUR. How in a million years can anyone justify this?

Catts wants to leave but also wants the next 3 years paying without playing? Do you think this is Catts speaking or his leach of an agent?

For me there should be legislation on how agents operate eg employed by FIFA and salary controlled......or bring back days when their dad used to negotiate

FIFA need to introduce a maximum bonus for a registered agent. Then once he reaches the maximum bonus he has no option but to put his client first.