A theme of the summer was clubs’ inability to sell unwanted players
or to raise funds by cashing in on assets that they’d otherwise like to have kept.
But how does selling players actually work? And what happens when it goes wrong?
The process begins with a conversation, sometimes between a coach and a player,
but often between an agent and a CEO or sporting director.
Hundreds of clubs across Europe now pay for software packages, including Transfer Room,
an online network that allows them to advertise their own recruitment requirements
and list the players they are willing to let go. It’s a way of expediting the process, cutting out
rogue intermediaries and it’s one of the tools to have taken the place of the old transfer list,
which used to be faxed around the clubs in the pre-internet days.
The reasons for wanting rid of a player are numerous. Some teams need the money or to trim
the wage bill. Perhaps a player was suited to a former manager but not his successor.
Maybe he’s judged to be a bad influence, and needs to go for the betterment of the squad.
Regardless of the reason, sometimes it can go very badly – especially if the player doesn’t
want to be sold or feels he’s being pushed out of a lucrative financial situation.
There is one well-salaried player currently surplus to requirements at his Championship club
who is refusing to leave. In response, his club are doing what many in these circumstances do:
consigning him to training with the academy players and
separating him completely from the first-team squad.
It’s a common tactic. Players who clubs want to sell will be deprived of access to senior-squad
training sessions, physios and analytical staff. They instruct them to work with the coaches and
sports scientists who manage the academy age groups or tell them to train alone, at times when
the training ground is quiet or even empty. These are deliberate ploys, designed to make the player
ask themselves how badly they want to stay at the club — and the treatment can go further again.
Exclusions from the first-team canteen, car park and official media streams are not uncommon. Some
are even made to wear academy kit. One Premier League midfielder was recently removed from his
club’s senior squad WhatsApp group after being told he was not in the plans for this new season.
Clubs have a responsibility to provide a certain standard of training support
and, to a degree, a little exposure can help generate transfer bids,
but isolation is a way of chipping away at resistance.
Even those who fight hard to stick around can be talked around in the end,
whether by money or by the reality of the brick wall in front of them.
One agent told The Athletic about a transfer that took place from the Premier League to
the Championship a few years ago. The player in question resisted and resisted but every time he
said no, the eventual buying club increased the proposed contract terms significantly.
Conversely, they were doing the selling club’s job for them. A transfer the player
was determined to reject became too lucrative for him to turn down and it went through,
just as the summer deadline began to loom. The agent representing him assumed at the outset
that the deal had “zero chance whatsoever but the numbers kept going up and up”.
There are good ways of handling a sale, though, with Norwich City and Emiliano Buendia proving a
case in point. Aware of Buendia’s ambitions, Norwich sporting director Stuart Webber sat
down with the player and his agent early last season to map out an eventual exit.
By instigating the process, Norwich believed they were taking control of the situation and avoiding
bad blood. Pricing parameters were discussed and, impressed by Norwich’s co-operation,
Buendia was fully on board for the rest of last season, helping the club back to the
Premier League. That promotion put Norwich in a strong financial position and the Argentinian’s
agent was told the fee that took his client away from Carrow Road needed to “start with a three”.
Aston Villa were the first to place a serious bid. Rival interest from Arsenal then lifted
Norwich’s hopes of getting close to their ideal price of £40 million. An Arsenal bid of £30
million plus £5 million in potential add-ons exceeded Villa’s by £2 million of add-ons.
Webber informed Villa chief executive Christian Purslow of the counter-offer from north London
and outlined the bid that would seal Buendia’s services without this becoming an auction.
Purslow rang back and improved Villa’s proposal to £33 million plus £5 million add-ons,
and the deal was further sweetened with a 10 per cent sell-on clause (Buendia is only 24).
By the time Richard Garlick, Arsenal’s director of football operations, tried to intervene again,
the player was already in Birmingham for his Villa medical. The whole process took a fortnight.
Buendia was sold promptly after the end of last season, the deal done in June,
preventing the many issues which can result at the end of a window.
So, it’s complicated. At the top of the market, when everyone is motivated,
a sale can be as simple as naming a price and having it met. More often,
though, it needs finesse and – at times – patience and creativity.