Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine

Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Hillbilly on August 05, 2021, 01:44:21 AM

Title: Agents
Post by: Hillbilly on August 05, 2021, 01:44:21 AM
It's extraordinary that we even know the names of agents - Mendes, Barnett, Joorabchian etc. The incentives in the system are all aligned to reward their parasitic behaviour. Agitate for a contract upgrade, they get a cut. Agitate for a transfer, they get a cut. Not to mention their clients are young men who have led pretty sheltered lives so there is plenty of scope for exploitation.

I'm sure there are plenty who provide a straightforward service but at the top end in particular they seem like absolute scum.
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: FatSam on August 05, 2021, 02:07:41 AM
Agreed. I'm trying to remember at what point Grealish signed-up with his current agent, as with hindsight, there seems to have been an inevitability about which way this process was heading.
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: Percy McCarthy on August 05, 2021, 05:50:17 AM
Agreed. I'm trying to remember at what point Grealish signed-up with his current agent, as with hindsight, there seems to have been an inevitability about which way this process was heading.

His dad was his agent for a bit but admitted he was getting out of his depth as he got into the first team. Not sure if Jack went straight from him to the current scummer.
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: Sexual Ealing on August 05, 2021, 08:49:08 AM
In the 90s a lot of Irish players (O'Leary and Keane off the top of my head) just used a Dublin-based solicitor to sort out the contractual stuff. I like that approach.
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: Towser on August 05, 2021, 08:57:05 AM
Bring back 007
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: Rodders on August 05, 2021, 09:04:26 AM
Has anyone else pointed out that our former No 10's agent is Jonathan Barnett, the ethically dubious fellow whose licence was revoked by the FA for 9 months over being the "prime mover" in the Ashley Cole To Chelsea Tapping Up Affair?

It would hardly be a stretch of the imagination to conceive of a situation where the 10%, the whole 10% and nothing but the 10% is the agent's primary motivation rather than a holistic view of what is best for his client's career.

I used to work in recruitment at quite a high level. It's a wanker's game.
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: frank black on August 05, 2021, 09:10:03 AM
They’re really just doing their jobs. Getting the best deal for the player and for themselves. We were essentially put in a position where we had to put the £100 mil clause in to get Grealish to stay. I don’t blame agents at all, the club should have negotiated better last summer. If a player wants to stay, they’d instruct their agent accordingly
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: Dave on August 05, 2021, 09:15:51 AM
They’re really just doing their jobs. Getting the best deal for the player and for themselves. We were essentially put in a position where we had to put the £100 mil clause in to get Grealish to stay. I don’t blame agents at all, the club should have negotiated better last summer. If a player wants to stay, they’d instruct their agent accordingly

Yup. Footballers are in it to make money. How much an agent earns is in direct correlation to how much the player earns. I imagine 99% of players are completely comfortable with how the system works.

The first century of professional football gave the clubs complete control over players, this has just levelled the playing field a bit.
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: ChicagoLion on August 05, 2021, 09:15:56 AM
They’re really just doing their jobs. Getting the best deal for the player and for themselves. We were essentially put in a position where we had to put the £100 mil clause in to get Grealish to stay. I don’t blame agents at all, the club should have negotiated better last summer. If a player wants to stay, they’d instruct their agent accordingly
But most of them are scumbags.
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: Clive W on August 05, 2021, 09:22:05 AM
They’re really just doing their jobs. Getting the best deal for the player and for themselves. We were essentially put in a position where we had to put the £100 mil clause in to get Grealish to stay. I don’t blame agents at all, the club should have negotiated better last summer. If a player wants to stay, they’d instruct their agent accordingly
I’m not sure the owners could have negotiated anything better Frank

If they wanted to keep him and he/his agent insisted on a release clause then £100m was probably the highest that would be accepted.

In view of the Kane/£150m, in hindsight, it probably was too low. But as I say - in hindsight and I doubt whether a year ago anyone would have expected a bid of £100m to come in.

The owners probably reckoned that if the clause was triggered, then £100m for a player with his dubious injury record would be a good result
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: frank black on August 05, 2021, 09:25:54 AM
My wife’s brother in law is mates with an agent (representing some decent prem players). He fell into the role purely by chance. He was playing golf with a player (qpr I think) and was chatting about clubs. The player mentioned a team he’d love to play for. So he told the player he knew someone there and he gave them a call and the move happened.

He now plays a lot more golf.
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: frank black on August 05, 2021, 09:32:55 AM
They’re really just doing their jobs. Getting the best deal for the player and for themselves. We were essentially put in a position where we had to put the £100 mil clause in to get Grealish to stay. I don’t blame agents at all, the club should have negotiated better last summer. If a player wants to stay, they’d instruct their agent accordingly
I’m not sure the owners could have negotiated anything better Frank

If they wanted to keep him and he/his agent insisted on a release clause then £100m was probably the highest that would be accepted.

In view of the Kane/£150m, in hindsight, it probably was too low. But as I say - in hindsight and I doubt whether a year ago anyone would have expected a bid of £100m to come in.

The owners probably reckoned that if the clause was triggered, then £100m for a player with his dubious injury record would be a good result

Who knows what was discussed. Perhaps they could have paid him a higher salary and removed or improved the clause. Personally I’d have preferred it if we’d not had it. I was very confident he’d be a 100 mil plus player
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: Abbeyfealeavfc on August 05, 2021, 09:44:49 AM
Agents-Parasitical stains on the professional sport of football.
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: PeterWithe on August 05, 2021, 09:46:15 AM
Jack was in a strong position in the contract negotiations, he was one of the best players in the world and we'd stayed up by the skin of our teeth.

The best players in the world dont usually play for teams in that position so he had the whip hand. I think we did well to get it set at £100m, if its true
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: Jon Crofts on August 05, 2021, 09:46:40 AM
Has anyone else pointed out that our former No 10's agent is Jonathan Barnett, the ethically dubious fellow whose licence was revoked by the FA for 9 months over being the "prime mover" in the Ashley Cole To Chelsea Tapping Up Affair?

It would hardly be a stretch of the imagination to conceive of a situation where the 10%, the whole 10% and nothing but the 10% is the agent's primary motivation rather than a holistic view of what is best for his client's career.

I used to work in recruitment at quite a high level. It's a wanker's game.

Isn't it just, the modern day Estate Agents, the very definition of oxygen thieves.
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: Rodders on August 05, 2021, 10:16:46 AM
Estate agents are paragons of virtue by comparison.

One headhunter I used to work with had separate companies, identities and accents. He would place an applicant in one guise then fill the vacancy he'd created in another and kept a massive domino rally in perpetual motion. Industry churn was two to three years in role so it was easy money at £30-40k per placement and three to five placements per month.

He was never caught out and retired on his 50th birthday after 25yrs at it. He was in "real life" a massive, massive twat.
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: Jon Crofts on August 05, 2021, 01:20:20 PM
Estate agents are paragons of virtue by comparison.

One headhunter I used to work with had separate companies, identities and accents. He would place an applicant in one guise then fill the vacancy he'd created in another and kept a massive domino rally in perpetual motion. Industry churn was two to three years in role so it was easy money at £30-40k per placement and three to five placements per month.

He was never caught out and retired on his 50th birthday after 25yrs at it. He was in "real life" a massive, massive twat.

And all completely unregulated.
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: Hookeysmith on August 05, 2021, 01:26:04 PM
I might be wrong but i am sure i saw it that Raiola was paid by United an estimated £41m to secure the signing of Pogba and not much less for Zlatan

How can this much money change hands based on "selling" another human

Morally, ethically wrong and makes me laugh even more that the agent who works for the player is actually paid by the club not the beneficiary of the cnutishness of the agent

"Dont hate the payers, hate the game"  nah hate the scum that make a living out of financially destroying clubs
Title: Re: Agents
Post by: edgysatsuma89 on August 05, 2021, 01:47:44 PM
The only agents I have ever dealt with are estate ones and I hated everything about it. I never understood why people always gave them stick before... this changed. I can't imagine what some of these 'super agent' cocks are like to deal with even if they do get the best deals for their clients. Surely you can do your job without being a knob?
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