Transfer negotiations: how do they actually work?

OleBoiii

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Imagine the following scenario:

You are the owner of a relatively big club. One of your star players(2 years left on contract) tells you that he wants to leave and his mind is already set on one specific club(let's say Real). Both you and the player know that Real is very interested in signing him, but there are 3 other big clubs that are also interested. You know that the player only wants to play for Real and isn't willing to compromise, but if this becomes public then the other clubs will pull out of the bidding war. Not only that, but Real might not offer a dime more than market value. In fact, they may even go significantly lower. How do you solve this?

Do you trick the clubs to create a bidding war? If so: what if Real refuses to go beyond a certain price that is much lower than the highest bid? Also, in this scenario both the player and his agent must play along, even though it might be in their best interest to be transparent(for multiple reasons)?

Let's say you go for transparency and approach Real directly. How should you set the price? Do you concede to market value? And regardless of price: what if Real wont pay what you ask for? Do you bend over or do you piss off the player and his agent, and potentially ruin the atmosphere in the dressing room? His price will be even lower next year so if you're gonna sell him, surely you might as well get it over with now and get the highest amount you can get while simultaneously honoring the player's wishes? Why keep someone who desperately wants to leave?

I've been watching football my whole life, but I just realized how little I know about transfer negotiations :p
 
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SirAF

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I’m fairly certain there was an article by an agent posted here some time ago. If I remember correctly it went into great detail about the process.
 

sun_tzu

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Imagine the following scenario:

You are the owner of a relatively big club. One of your star players(2 years left on contract) tells you that he wants to leave and his mind is already set on one specific club(let's say Real). Both you and the player know that Real is very interested in signing him, but there are 3 other big clubs that are also interested. You know that the player only wants to play for Real and isn't willing to compromise, but if this becomes public then the other teams will pull out of the bidding war. Not only that, but Real might not offer a dime more than market value. In fact, they may even go significantly lower. How do you solve this?

Do you trick the clubs to create a bidding war? If so: what if Real refuses to go beyond a certain price that is much lower than the highest bid? Also, in this scenario both the player and his agent must play along, even though it might be in their best interest to be transparent(for multiple reasons).

Let's say you go for transparency and approach Real directly. How should you set the price? Do you concede to market value? And regardless of price: what if Real wont pay what you ask for? Do you bend over or do you piss off the player and his manager, and potentially ruin the atmosphere in the dressing room? His price will be even lower next year so if you're gonna sell him, surely you might as well get it over with now and get the highest amount you can get while simultaneously honoring the player's wishes? Why keep someone who desperately wants to leave?

I've been watching football my whole life, but I just realized how little I know about transfer negotiations :p
Your assuming his agent hasn't already told real he will only sign for you and this is the signing bonus and wages he wants... oh and this is my commission

Because I suspect that goes on as standard (see raiola touring all the top clubs to discuss haaland )
 

V.O.

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Bit late for this isn't it, Ed?
 

OleBoiii

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Your assuming his agent hasn't already told real he will only sign for you and this is the signing bonus and wages he wants... oh and this is my commission

Because I suspect that goes on as standard (see raiola touring all the top clubs to discuss haaland )
Yeah, the will of the agent(I'm looking at you, Raiola) adds a whole new complexity to these negotiations.

It makes you wonder how often players have been forced to stay at a club for way longer than they want, potentially ruining their career in the process.
 

OleBoiii

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Bit late for this isn't it, Ed?
Hey, I just recently learned that fans have opinions of their own. I might as well try to learn something in between my daily sessions of throwing coins at commoners!
 

Red_toad

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Ed loads the paper into the fax after weeks of considering lodging a bid and then preparing to make said bid. Then he dials in the number, presses send and walks away from the fax. Fax fails to send, rinse and repeat.
 

Powderfinger

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What it comes down to is that there really is no bidding war or bidding process. Its not a real market.

You set an initial price based on the sales price of similar players and then both sides bluff and bullshit each other until you either sell at that price or one slightly lower or the deal falls apart.

This is the main reason that transfers drag out forever. You can't rely on a competitive market mechanism to actually get you a market price.