Paul Pogba Deal

[Deleted]

There is something very worrying about this deal in which he agreed to sign an extension of his contract providing he and his agent received a 20% cut of any transfer should he leave the club, in this case Juventus. I think I am right in saying players who do not ask to leave, automatically get 10% of the transfer fee anyway and whatever percentage deal the player has with his agent, the agents fee comes out of Pogba's 10% cut. Juventus want the buying club, in this case Man United to pay that 20%....why? It has nothing to do with the buying club, it is not their concern. As it stands the offer to buy the player is £95million, so it represents a good deal for Juventus even after the 20% cut, but they want the deal set at £112million in order to clear £95million profit. One remembers Southampton holding out for an extra £5million from Liverpool for Lallana because of a sell on clause with Bournemouth which seems reasonable given that Bournemouth needed the money at the time, it helped them build a team to get into the Premier League. But this is something completely different and football needs to outlaw such a concession on signing a new improved contract for the good, and indeed the future of the game. The story behind Juventus signing Pogba from United had everything to do with the agent being a greedy so and so. The agent is on a percentage of his wage as well, and as he approached 18 years of age, United manager Alex Ferguson quite rightly didn't want him to be earning too much too soon, and offered him a very reasonable deal of £15k a week which his agent rejected because Juventus offered £60k a week. That's why he left, and United received £800,000 because he came through the youth system at Old Trafford. He is not worth £95million, he's a midfielder for cricks sake not a goal scoring machine. We are however moving into stupid money these days, defenders priced at £50million, goalkeepers at £35million, where will the madness stop? The point is FIFA needs to outlaw these percentage deals in transfers, otherwise where will it end? One day an agent might just say to a club, "You want my star player to sign another contract we want 50% of any future transfer arrangement should you want to sell him". That is basically how Juventus was forced to agree the 20%, blackmailed otherwise he'd have moved for nothing when the contract ended. Juventus agreed, but no doubt they decided if ever he did leave, they'd make the buying club pay the 20%, and that's why it is very worrying. The game needs to take back control from agents who are bleeding clubs dry with crazy demands, even little Eastleigh has experienced crazy demands from agents for players!!!!!

[Deleted]

To think, all this could've been avoided if Utd hadn't of given him away after signing him the first time! :-)

The whole sorry story shows everything that is wrong with the modern game. Like you say even we have issues with this but the problems multiply the further up the ladder you go.

[tenacres]

Any deal of this size is going to be quite complex and involve lots of people taking a cut out of it.

That's the nature of business and indeed business in football.

If Man utd & Juventus are sensible and work together they should be able to get the agents cut right down. If they offer 5% (rather than 20) and stick to it, then he will almost certainly take it (after all £5m is way better than no deal & no cut at all).

The trick is to be wise and have good negotiators at the club who understand the business side of football. Hopefully SD, MJ, CT and the others at EFC who get involved in transfer have got a few years of experience and can hold their own against others. Mistakes can be very expensive - even at this level!

[Deleted]

I get what you say Rendel but the problem is the contract for a 20% cut is legal and binding, it should never have been allowed, but the agent held the ace in that the player belongs to him and Juventus wanted him to sign a new contract, they caved in rather than lose him. Juventus are now playing dirty in asking the buying club to add the 20% cut to the agent over and above the transfer fee agreed. This is nothing to do with the fact that its my team, United who are on the receiving end, my concern is that football must stop agents taking control in this manner. I wonder if the agent has got a percentage cut in any sell on by United when the player reaches 28 as a way of resolving the issue at present? To me this is wrong and long term football will suffer for it as more agents follow what has happened here. The agent in question has earned almost £300million so far in transfer deals and a percentage of players wages. Just think about that for a moment, he has more than Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, Beckham, who are the big names in football, not a nobody who is taking hundreds of millions merely to represent players.