I reckon that if the transfer fees are scrapped NUFC will lose B#75 Million in assets, as their players will be worth nowt Waddya reckon? Is it a bad thing?

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2000

Answers

I'm not sure it makes that much difference. Sadly those horrible things dubbed market forces come into play.

Essentially for clubs our size we should be either break even or spenders in the transfer market. For those in Europe they shoudl be net spenders as once they have their ground sorted out, then players are the next biggets asset. For smaller clubs the transfer fee system can be a lifeline, but for a few years that hasn't been the case. Up until the likes of Robbie Keane, Dyer, Bridges, and now Lua Lua there were several years when all the big money went abroad, and not down the divisions.

Newcastle write off transfer fees over the life of the contract. So 15m for Shearer was an asset written off at B#3m per year, Lua Lua will be B#600k per year for 4 years, or whatever it works out as. If transfer fees disappear then the clubs may have to look to accelerate their write offs but I'd guess not.

All things being equal, like pay, everyone would want to play for Man Utd, so the story goes. This is clearly nonsense. Lets take that nice Kevin Phillips of an example of an unsettled player about to look for a new club. Would he want to go to Man U ? Yes maybe. Would Man U want him ? Yes maybe. Would Phillips be happy being fifth choice forward, getting a place on the bench for the smaller games. No, not that wee moaner. Would Man U be happy having a disruptive player around ? No. Would Man U be happy paying a non first team player 30 grand a week. No not likely.

At some point Phillips will have to set his sights lower, say to Middlebrough. Would they pay for him. Of course they would. Would he move to them, if the money was right he would.

The ability to attract the players you want will depend on the club persona, the manager, the ground, the club name, the potential. The players will get paid an even bigger fortune, but only at the top of the tree. For Sunderland, a transfer fee neutral, or seller, things may worsen. For us, with a name manager, some name players, a superb ground, we should see players coming to us. The turnover may increase, but that has started already with the likes of Hamann and Dumas.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2000

This is THE most interesting question in all of football at present, and I'm very surprised (and disappointed) that it has barely been discussed on here as yet.

The point you raise Rik, about our lost assets of 75m is probably not that serious IMHO. Naturally, all our competitors will lose similar (or in some cases much larger) amounts from their balance sheets, so that doesn't worry me too much. We will still, as Macbeth intimates, be a large, well supported club which can compete with top wages for the best players, so should be able to retain many of our current stars. All right - both of them. (-; On balance I don't think NUFC would not suffer.

The other aspects of this issue interest me. I suppose it would be possible for a player to chop and change clubs on a weekly basis if he wanted too (Mr Collymore is a player already ahead of his time in this respect) and I'm concerned as to how this affects the game. Obviously, coaches would be loathe to chop and change squads as rapidly as that but what would the effect really be? And what happens towards the end of the season when top players might be in huge demand to settle vital title, promotion and relegation issues? At present there is a transfer deadline but surely that too is against European Law?

After some thought on the issue I see 2 major points to this, one good one bad.

1. On the plus side, a player who does not perform could simply be sacked, so we would not have all the hangers-on that we are currently paying wages for. Against this it may well be of course that the players can probably negotiate long notice periods from the club while demanding short notice themselves. Like in the business world where failed directors quit with huge golden handshakes I can see that top players would not suffer.

2. The superstars would be able to drive their wages even higher simply seeking out whoever will pay most. With no transfer fee to pay, ALL the cash that a club is prepared to shell out for a player could go straight to that player. The money therefore flows out of the game instead of circulating amongst the clubs.

Anything that gives more power to the players (who already have too much) must surely be a bad thing for the game. So my tentative conclusion at this stage is that I am against this change. However, I have an open mind on the subject and am ready to accept the fact that I may not have thought about all aspects of this issue.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2000

I think I have read somewhere on here before, possibly from Dougal, that NUFC doesn't list it's players as assets, therefore technically we'll not lose anything. Unless of course they all decide to bugger off.

On this note I foresee Domi and Goma returning to France once the new ruling comes into place.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2000

I think there is a lot of hysteria going around. We really don't know what will happen. Can I start by saying that the suggestion that this an EU measure is wrong. The EU employment position has been the same for years and football should have got its act together before the EU had no option than to respond (ie. a direct challenge in the courts and the hideousness of the Figo situation). The EU should, however, consider football as an exempt profession. If certain jobs can be exempted from the Working Time Regulations, then it is patently absurd to suggest that no exemptions can be made to this, Furthermore, partners in professional firms who are resigning quite often have to do gardening leave to prevent them working for a competitor during a certain time after leaving. I can see noreason why this wouldn't work for football, and it would certainly work as a disintentive to footballers planning to p**s about. What is the most depressing thing about this is how little faith we have that footballers would see out their contracts. How many real examples are there of players not honouring contracts? Precious few actually.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2000

Maybe to stop the club jumping is to have some smarter sort of approach to being cup-tied (league tied doesn't sound rigth), ar as Gordon Taylor suggested only one move per season in a transfer window

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2000

One good thing that may come out of all this is the structure of clubs will be forced to become more professional. I don't believe player power is too rampant, I just believe managers are - by and large - incompetent. We have 30-40 players per club, all of whom SHOULD treat it as a job - training in the morning, skills or tactics or PR in the afternoon. The best players already do this and are substantially payed for it. The manager is THE most important component of a successful club (and should be rewarded as such).

In what other multi-million pound industry do you have untrained and underqualified people regularly taking charge of highly trained and highly skilled staff. YBR said he much preferred the continental system where he could concentrate on coaching and managing the team instead of debating contract wages with personnel.

Other clubs might decide to split up the coaching side - with a man-manager and a coach (like a boss and a line-manager in normal work) aswell.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2000

I think that if transfer fees are scrapped, a lot of smaler clubs would suffer and the gap between the big boys (the top dozen EPL clubs) and the rest of the clubs in England would become greater. How would the likes of Coventry and Southmpton survive, when the big boys get even better players and they fail to hold onto their own players?

And what'll happen to the likes of York and Hartlepool? will they fold?

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2000

I think that there would have to be some kind of retrictions imposed such as yearly contracts , whereby a player signs for a season, and is stuck with that club. Also restrictions on the amount of registered players like their are in Spain. 25 players per team would stop a small amount of large clubs from signing large amounts of players, to simply stop thier rivals having them. If they signed and were given a squad number of up to 25 for the season then other players would not sign for that club if they did not get into the top 25 elligable players. does that make sense?

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2000