The Athletic has spoken to respected figures across
the football industry, including current players, managers and agents, to find out why a player
chooses a particular club.
One agent describes it simply as “the three Fs – football, finance and family”.
In some transfers where more than one offer is on the table, other parties also have a
bigger say. Lee Johnson, the former Bristol City manager, talked last season about “family
fees” becoming part of the invoice of payments which are due in order to complete.a deal.
A senior member of staff at a top Premier League club has told The Athletic that this
a growing problem in the game, with parents and family members crossing the professional/personal
boundaries with increasing regularity.
At times their role is official. And other times it is less so. One Premier League player's
parents demanded a six-figure sum last summer purely on the basis of him being their son.
With several clubs fighting over the player’s signature at the time, a conversation that
revolved around the importance of game-time might have been more beneficial, but what
happens on the pitch isn’t always the main driver.
So, money talks with transfers, but so do managers – and some a lot more than others.
“Some just do a phone call and don’t meet the player in person,” explains an agent.
“Others do video presentations.’
“Some clubs are very welcoming. Some clubs, you do well to get a cup of tea.
And it depends who the manager is. Arsene Wenger, by all accounts, came into his own
in this sort of scenario.
When Aaron Ramsey was leaving Cardiff in 2008, he chose between moves to Manchester United
and Arsenal. When Ramsey visited United, Sir Alex Ferguson was away and it was left to
Mike Phelan, the assistant manager, to show the teenager around and explain how they saw
his development.
Arsenal, in contrast, flew Ramsey and his parents out to Switzerland to meet Wenger,
who was working as a pundit at the European Championship finals that summer, and the Frenchman
explained face-to-face how he saw the player's career panning out over the next few years.
Last year a current England international had a couple of clubs competing for him and
met both face to face. At the first club, the manager and director of football casually
chatted to the player and his agent over a cup of tea around a table. At the second club,
the manager brought one of his coaching staff with him and went through a lengthy and detailed
video presentation explaining exactly how they saw the player fitting into the team’s
system.
Naturally, the player chose to join the second club.
It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, though. A Championship manager explains that what
works for one player won’t necessarily work for another. “I’ll always have a presentation
ready, just to explain who we are and how he fits into that. But not all players want
a presentation. Sometimes they just want to hear you and see it in your eyes,” he says.
Location is also a bigger factor than people might imagine when it comes to transfer deals.
Some players worry about upsetting partners who feel happy in the area where they’re
living, or about having to disrupt their children’s schooling.
This summer a Championship player swapped a club that had been challenging for promotion
for one that was fighting relegation. He even accepted a wage cut. While that may sound
strange, there were more positives than negatives to the transfer because the location of his
new club suits his partner far better, he has an extra year on his contract and will
be a first-team regular.
While domestic players can be swayed by family ties to a particular area, London continues
to have a magnetic attraction for those coming from overseas. “It’s a more cosmopolitan
place” says another agent. “If you’re French, you park up in South Kensington, you’ve
got the French speaking schools there, a French community, your boulangeries… you’ve got
all the things that you’re used to and the whole adaptation process is easier.”
In terms of attracting players, style isn’t usually a decisive factor – but it does
have a heightened importance within the loan market. If a player's career development is
an absolute priority, then the brand of football, along with the opportunities being promised
to him, will be hugely important to clubs when they are agreeing to let somebody go
out on loan.
One member of staff at a top Premier League club is staggered by how ill-prepared and
unprofessional clubs can be when inquiring about loan players. For example, some clubs
– and this includes Premier League level – have no qualms about ringing up and asking
if “anybody is available” and taking whomever is on offer.
At the opposite end of the scale are the managers who put forward a thorough case in writing
to say how they plan to use and develop that individual over the course of his loan spell.
When Bristol City signed Tammy Abraham in 2016, for instance, Lee Johnson went to Chelsea’s
training ground and put on a presentation for Michael Emenalo, who was the club’s
director of football at the time, and later met the player’s family.
“That’s when he earned my family’s trust and my trust really,” Abraham later remembered.
“He told me about the stadium, the players, who I would get on with and it was from there
I knew it was Bristol City where I wanted to be.”
In the loan market, as well as with permanent deals, it’s a mix-and-match approach. While
the size of a club does make some transfers a no-brainer and render the finer detail virtually
irrelevant, those deals are few and far between. More often, what it is that appeals about
a move has to be adapted around the personality of the player, and his needs, age, and priority.