Just throwing it out there...

[olaftab]

Only one way to stop this. If you have a player on a long contract, like our man, than DON'T sell if you don't want to and deal with the consequences.
Manu are doing fine by stopping Rooney second time around!

[paul_e]

Sell on your own terms is more likely, would anyone on here, for example, turn down £40m for Benteke this summer?

The key is to make sure everyone knows that you sell on your own terms and will stand by it, even if it means you're left with an unhappy player.

The key thing to remember is that most players do actually want to play football, if you tell them what they leave for, it's fair price and they can't find a buyer there aren't many players who will sit and sulk and not play when the window closes, doing that hurts them more than the club.  The issue is that the money has got so silly that players are treated as commodities and the idea of them losing value is unthinkable.

[adrenachrome]

This is why American football is fairer and more competitive than European football.

Yo! Tell that to the mofos who have had their fuckin frachise moved to another fuckin state, dude.

[tomd2103]

Richer/bigger clubs have been taking players from smaller/poorer clubs since football was invented. We're just pissed off because it's happening to us again. We don't seem quite as pissed off when it's us doing the nicking.

Exactly PWS.  Something like a player having to see out at least half of his contract before moving might be an idea.

[eamonn]

All this can and should be handled by the club at the contract stage.

Benteke for example could have had something written into his contract that said he would only be sold this summer for a bid in excess of £40m, with no limit the following season.  So stay 2 years and you can go where you like but after 1 year the only way your leaving is if someone throws stupid money our way and if you try to submit a transfer request or go on strike we have a contract that you're in breech of.

Who would have had the foresight to see how well he was going to do? So well, that only 30-40m mark is "baulkable". I get your point though.

[SamTheMouse]

Ban independent agents and make everyone go through a new FA player trading department, with any commission going into a fund dedicated for grass roots development.

[Doorbell]

Ban independent agents and make everyone go through a new FA player trading department, with any commission going into a fund dedicated for grass roots development.

That's a bloody good idea.

[Dave]

Ban independent agents and make everyone go through a new FA player trading department, with any commission going into a fund dedicated for grass roots development.

That's a bloody good idea.

Not necessarily.

For every Claude Anelka getting another £200k from his brother's latest signing-on fee, there are probably ten agents who are spending their time negotiating that the 33 year old having to move from League One to League Two gets the extra £200 per week which means he doesn't have to sell his house. Or helping the 17 year old that we've just decided isn't going to be good enough for us get a trial at Walsall or Kidderminster Harriers.

Just because the players we care about are going to more at the top-end, money-drenched side of things, that does mean there's not a whole industry below the surface in which agents play a very important part.