The Daily Telegraph says

[Rangdo]

A very educated answer have you finished watching the Boobahs?

The thing is that by spouting off about the dealings of clubs, agents, and players you are demonstraing yourself to be equally ill-educated. You have absolutely no idea what the club has paid agents for but you immediately assume that its a waste of money and they could do without it because this suits your anti-dick knight agendal. What if certain players like Leon Knight or his agent will only deal through an agent? Would you rather the club missed out on quality players to meet your principles? What if the club has employed an agent who reduced a players wage demands from 10k a week to 5k a week? Would this be a waste of money?

 

[e77]

So, BG, is your suggestion that the club should stand on principle and not deal with the agents of any of the players currently out of contract and let them go on a free ?

 

[Rangdo]

I think the fact that we paid out the lowest amount of any club in our division, as stated by someone previously, is a testament to how the board does have the financial well-being of the club in mind. Also, the quality of the players that we have brought in compared to some of the others and the amount they have paid out should make them hang their heads in shame. Very astute business by Dick Knight. Top man

 

[BensGrandad]

So, BG, is your suggestion that the club should stand on principle and not deal with the agents of any of the players currently out of contract and let them go on a free ?

Far from it I believe that the directors of the club should deal with the agents directly not through another agent acting for us.

£4.5m has been lost to football through payments to agents associated with Championship clubs.

Rightly or wrongly I belive that the grass roots of football i.e div 2 should lead the way by restricting the use of agents whereby ALL expenses and costs are bourne by the person that the agents are representing i.e the players. Or alternatively the League could perhaps bring in a rule restricting the amount a club can spend on agents fees. I am sure Leeds supporters would agree to this.

Most of the Premiership clubs are overloaded with foreign players which means that there is an abundance of British talent available
which then filters down to the lower leagues.

It is the old players mostly that are looking for a club to continue or finish their career with one last big contract, the Dion Dublins, Teddy Sheringhams Tim Sherwoods so let them pay for the agent to find them a club NOT the club. Similarly the young players who are going up the ladder and expect to earn mega bucks.

 

[e77]

Far from it I believe that the directors of the club should deal with the agents directly not through another agent acting for us.

£4.5m has been lost to football through payments to agents associated with Championship clubs.

Rightly or wrongly I belive that the grass roots of football i.e div 2 should lead the way by restricting the use of agents whereby ALL expenses and costs are bourne by the person that the agents are representing i.e the players. Or alternatively the League could perhaps bring in a rule restricting the amount a club can spend on agents fees. I am sure Leeds supporters would agree to this.

Most of the Premiership clubs are overloaded with foreign players which means that there is an abundance of British talent available
which then filters down to the lower leagues.

It is the old players mostly that are looking for a club to continue or finish their career with one last big contract, the Dion Dublins, Teddy Sheringhams Tim Sherwoods so let them pay for the agent to find them a club NOT the club. Similarly the young players who are going up the ladder and expect to earn mega bucks.

If you are saying that agents in football have become too powerful, then I agree with you.

I believe the ruling is that an agent can't take payment from more than one party in a deal, so either the pleyer or club do it.

In the end it is the players picking up the bill as Brighton and any club who attempts to balance the books (i.e. everyone but Leeds until a year ago) only have 'x' amount to spend on playing budget so money going to agents isn't going to players.

Also, bear in mind money paid to head hunters and recruiters in the business world and it doesn't seem too bad.

 

[BensGrandad]

e77.

Congatulations to being the first person on here prepared to discuss a topic.

I would agree that the agents are to powerful and if legislation is the only way to control them then so be it.

As you rightly point out the agents fees that we paid have come out of the playing budget which a club like us can ill afford to spend. We must also consider that our playing budget is set as a % of our income by league rules. Which we all know is very restricted.

I read somewhere, can't remember exactly where, that Steve Claridge wanted £30k for a contract for the remainder of the season, if that is the case then the money that we have spent on agents fees- coming out of the playing budget- would have made his signing possible.

Do you not agree with me that at least one director should be capable of being able to negotiate with the players agent thus relieving us of these payments.

This is not a veiled attack on DK as some suggest because the luck on his side with the Currie sale has covered our expendituire on agents fees plus more.

What I am saying is that we should not be in the position whereby we HAVE to pay agents to act for us to do something that we should be able to do ourselves.

 

[Rangdo]

What I am saying is that we should not be in the position whereby we HAVE to pay agents to act for us to do something that we should be able to do ourselves.

What if certain players like Leon Knight or his agent will only deal through an agent? Would you rather the club missed out on quality players to meet your principles? What if the club has employed an agent who reduced a players wage demands from 10k a week to 5k a week because they are skilled at what they do? Would this be a waste of money?

 

[Schrödinger's Toad]

Rightly or wrongly I belive that the grass roots of football i.e div 2 should lead the way by restricting the use of agents whereby ALL expenses and costs are bourne by the person that the agents are representing i.e the players. Or alternatively the League could perhaps bring in a rule restricting the amount a club can spend on agents fees. I am sure Leeds supporters would agree to this.

That's fine, but whilst we are competing in a system which doesn't enforce such admirable schemes, we can ill-afford to take a stance that would cost us the signings of our best players.

Also, I don't know of the clubs using agents to do their negotiations - as far as I'm aware MM and Dk carry out the meetings with players' agents themselves.

 

[BensGrandad]

One can only assume that we have used agents because we have paid them.

If it meant losing certain players so be it the losers would be the players not us as I have said earlier there is an abundance of talent available due to the premiership and the foreign players. Supply at the moment is greater than demand. Had anybody heard of AN when he was at Chelsea so his agent had to sell him to MM not vice versa.

A classic quote by Ian Holloway who said that 'he was looking for cheap effective striker but then so are most clubs'. It is agents that are pricing these players out of contracts and eventually they will HAVE to lower their demands or go out of the game and be replaced by others.

 

[e77]

The problem is you can't really blame players for trying to get a good a contract as possibly in a relatively short playing career. The only way it could be done is if every league club decided that agent's fees had to come from the players.

Nice idea but football club tend to have trouble agreeing on anything !

The average football league spend on agents per transaction is £3354 while the average Brighton spend is £1504 so while one might argue we are dealing in the lower end of the market it does suggest we are better than most in paying out on agents fees.

Not that we would ever find it out, but it would be interesting to know what this is a percentage of the playing budget versus other clubs.

 

[Schrödinger's Toad]

One can only assume that we have used agents because we have paid them.

If it meant losing certain players so be it the losers would be the players not us as I have said earlier there is an abundance of talent available due to the premiership and the foreign players. Supply at the moment is greater than demand. Had anybody heard of AN when he was at Chelsea so his agent had to sell him to MM not vice versa.

Yes, we have paid agents - the player's agents. That doesn't mean we use them for our side of the talks.

I hardly think the players would be the losers - your Holloway quote only emphasises how much quality players are in demand; I sure someone like Reading or QPR would happily take Nicolas or Knight.

As for the last bit, that's cobblers - we went to Chelsea, not v/v. I'd heard of Nicolas, so I'm sure plenty of people in football had.

 

[BensGrandad]

Yes, we have paid agents - the player's agents. That doesn't mean we use them for our side of the talks.

So why do we have to pay them? According to Rule 12.4 of Players Agents Regulations it must be stipulated who is paying the agent the club or the player but they cannot both pay the agent.

 

[Rangdo]

So why do we have to pay them? According to Rule 12.4 of Players Agents Regulations it must be stipulated who is paying the agent the club or the player but they cannot both pay the agent.

No one can possibly answer that except the club. Only they can know what job the agents have done for them. Despite what you think I doubt that DK would piss 30k down the drain for no return. The club obviously see it as a benefit to pay these fees and, to be honest, with what we're achieving with the players whom those fees have gone to securing the services of I'm perfectly happy with it.

 

[Schrödinger's Toad]

So why do we have to pay them?

To sign the players! Like it or not, players have agents and will want to use them - the club then pays for this. It's the way football works, blaming DK for it is just silly.

 

[BensGrandad]

To sign the players! Like it or not, players have agents and will want to use them - the club then pays for this. It's the way football works, blaming DK for it is just silly.

My whole point why should WE pay the players agents who are acting on behalf of the players not us. We seem to be going around in circles as somebody will say that is how the system works but I believe that we should stick to the rules, that is not suggesting we haven't, and pay the agents when they do something on our behalf. Most of the things that they can do on our behalf one of our directors should be capable of doing for ourselves at no cost to us.

 

[e77]

My whole point why should WE pay the players agents who are acting on behalf of the players not us. We seem to be going around in circles as somebody will say that is how the system works but I believe that we should stick to the rules, that is not suggesting we haven't, and pay the agents when they do something on our behalf. Most of the things that they can do on our behalf one of our directors should be capable of doing for ourselves at no cost to us.

Because if we don't the agents will be minded to take their players to other clubs (without wishing to repeat a previous point).

I know Crewe won't deal with agents but they aren't exactly a buying club.

 

[Rangdo]

Because if we don't the agents will be minded to take their players to other clubs (without wishing to repeat a previous point).

I know Crewe won't deal with agents but they aren't exactly a buying club.

Exactly. If we don't deal with agents then good players with agents will not deal with us. Personally I would rather pay 30k in agents fees and have players like Knight, Nicholas, Currie etc than not pay them and end up with crap whilst those players come and play against us.

 

[London Irish]

Also, I don't know of the clubs using agents to do their negotiations - as far as I'm aware MM and Dk carry out the meetings with players' agents themselves.

I've already made this point to him - but, as is his usual style, he ignores it and just repeats his myths. He is a complete fool in believing we pay agents to speak to other agents. We pay players' agents to facilitate Championship-level players coming to this club.

Total time-waster.

 

[BensGrandad]

. We pay players' agents to facilitate Championship-level players coming to this club.

Total time-waster.

Why? Those agents are employed on behalf of and should be acting in the best interests of their clients the player in question.

What you are saying is that we pay agents to convince them to advise their clients to join us, whether this be in the players best interests or not, or could it not possibly be in the agents best interests to earn more money.

 

[London Irish]

Albania Division 8 it is for us then, no need to worry about agents there.