But things have changed. Now, even if there are 2 transfer windows, the rumours and speculations have become 365 days a year and 24/7 scenario.
Reason behind this is that the world is a much smaller place where internet and globalization means that things that went on behind closed doors before, now are instantly accessible by almost everyone immediately.
While the business of buying and selling players has always been a year round situation, the secrecy and mystic that scouts had in the past, it has been lost on this new era.
In the past, a team could watch as many players as they wished, and until a bid was made or someone leaked information, nobody knew anything about it.
Also, before players had agents or big organisations behind them, there was not an oiled machine to try and create or force a move from one club to another.
With all these changes, the way that clubs work, had to change also.
When before, they could take their time and repeatedly watch a player until they were sure if he was right or wrong for the club, now they have one shot or two to asses a guy and try to reach conclusions before any links being made and other clubs profiting from their hard work.
So when before you relied on expertise, now you rely on instinct. Two very different skills, meaning also the profile of a good scout has also changed.
These changes have brought with them the need to tie up any talent passed as good enough, almost immediately, or risk entering a bidding war, which will bring the asking price much higher.
So that is why we are seeing many early deals and pre contracts being signed nowadays involving players that most of us will think “ surely they are not as good as that to have to sign them so quickly”.
Surely, this kind of scouting means that no matter how good the instinct of a scout is, they are more likely to get it wrong now than were they before, when they had the time and the expertise to do so.
There still remain a few clubs with old fashion scouting systems, but they have also adapted to the modern times.
Anderlecht and Benfica to mention 2 of them, they send their missions to places where nobody goes. They assess a few clubs in those areas and they make co-operation deals with them. Those deals normally will give them priority over players from those clubs.
It has worked really well for them lately. They both know that they will have some European involvement, which means the unknown talents that they have discovered will be exposed to a huge worldwide audience.
Both clubs accept that they are developmental clubs who buy in order to sell. Invest to profit.
That does not make them a bad example at all. Anderlecht offers the players they bring from South America, Africa and anywhere else a great system to settle into their new lives. They have accommodation; they provide language courses, so the players develop as human beings too. With their motto being: “if you are happy as a person, you will perform better for your club”.
Benfica has different obligations, in that they are required to win titles too. They can’t only concentrate in giving it all to the new recruits. So you will see that their recruitment policies are a mixture of experienced and youth players, so they can keep the fans excited about trophies.
Then you have the clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Inter, Juventus and Bayern Munich that have the history, the name and the resources to not care so much about other teams finding out who are they scouting or who are they after.
The Russian market is opening up now rapidly, and their tactic has been to throw money at well known players to be able to then, attract less known who can in turn bring them some profit.
Chinese market is trying now to emulate the Russian blueprint, by tempting big names with big money moves.
The English teams work very differently from one another. While Manchester United still believes in the romantic way of scouting as many times as required, and then pulled their financial muscle, others like Chelsea and Manchester City pull their economic power first in order to bring players in.
Other changes that have become more noticeable now are third party ownership, and release clauses in contracts.
Third party ownerships exist in order for clubs to be able to afford a player, that if they had to own or pay for by themselves they could not.
So in South America is very common. A club brings a player in, but they buy 30% of his value, and then either a businessman or a consortium owns the rest. Meaning the club only pays 30% of his wages, etc. When it comes to sell the player, then both parties (businessmen and club) have to agree and they then split the money proportionally.
This practise, as common as it has become, it is very dangerous. For example some of the players playing in the Russian league are not owned by the clubs, so there are people outside of the football business paying for the players’ salaries.
These people are; for example, free to bet on the outcome of a football game. So it is not transparent enough, as they may bet against a team where they are paying some of their players’ salaries.
Release clauses, are something that clubs cleverly write into some players’ contracts in order to get a good return on the investment they made when they bought them or when they developed them.
With those purposes, it has always existed, and it is a fair way to secure the club’s future.
In the modern era, most players have release clauses. Why? It is simple. It goes back to affordability. If River Plate in Argentina was to sign a player, but they can not afford their wage demands, they can offer that player, a lower salary, but include a release clause in their contract, that will guarantee that player a lump sign on sum, when they are bought by another club. Meaning River are not paying him 200k a week as he wanted, but that player will make the difference when sold.
For example, continuing with River Plate, they have signed most of their young players, who were getting their first contract to huge release clauses, even before they played for the first team. That saved them losing them to other teams who can afford higher wages.
In some cases these release clauses do 2 things, massage a player’s ego (Hulk from Porto having an €83 million release clause), and showing the player that playing for your club will not make him lose money in the long term.
That is why many players sign a contract with release clauses, and if nobody comes to buy them, they then don’t want to sign an extension, as they don’t recover the “lost wages” unless they get sold on, and most clubs will agree to sell them instead to let their contracts run out.
My view of football may seem cynical, but it is a true reflection of the business side of the game, that most fans don’t see or think about.
When you love a club, all you are interested in is “is that player really want to come to my club?”, “Why does he want to leave?”
Fans are the only people who have remained pure, loyal and to certain extent naïve, but in a nice way.
They follow their teams through thick and thin. They spend their money. They don’t realise that no matter if your name is Manchester City, Arsenal, PSG or Carlisle United, the clubs need to adapt to the way business is commanded today or face huge loses.
No club or agents play a clean game. Journalists are afraid that if they tell what they know or see their will be losing contacts or sources within a club or with a player.
I, for once, with the whole Pasion de Multitudes team decided that we won’t play games.
We want the fans, the ones that have been kept out of the game, but bring their money into it, to be told what is going on.
We don’t ask or expect people to believe us or trust us, that decision is with the individual.
We have different methods and sources than the ones you are used to. We don’t think we are better than others, but we know we can get reliable information quicker than even some top companies. How? Well, there are some things that we can’t tell. A journalist never reveals its sources, not even in a court of law.
We know fans are used to being lied to by the press, by their clubs and by the agents, etc. So to expect to be received with open arms would be arrogant and patronising.
We report what we know, when we know it. We expect to be judged when what we said was going to happen, did not happen. And I put my name on the line for my Pasion de Multitudes team.
Now that you have a better idea of how the business that is football works, you will be more ready for the next chapter, which is coming tomorrow, bringing you information on some important transfers that may or may not happen involving big clubs in England, Italy, Spain and Europe in general.
Read tomorrow the: who wants who? At what stage of negotiations they are? Who do we believe is making smoke and who is making moves.
As always, all comments to this piece are welcomed providing that they are respectful.