20 Oct 2014 23:03:33
Question for the Eds and anybody else.

Hypothetical, so please bear with me.

Just suppose a club was going to lose a player on a Bosman, possibly losing £5/10/15m in the process, and let's assume the player has been loyal but wants to leave to join a bigger club, couldn't the club (secretly) get the player to sign a contract, but also allow him to join bigger club, thus guaranteeing they will get a fee for the player?

For example, Barca want Arteta, he is out of contract, so they will get him for nothing.
But, we get Arteta to sign a contract, on the understanding we will allow him to join Barca, allowing us to get, say £4m for Arteta, but Barca still get their man.

Slightly underhanded I know, but Barca get Arteta, Arteta gets his dream move back to Spain and we get £4m.

Illegal?

{Ed002's Note - Not illegal - stupid. If he signs a contract he cannot leave on a Bosman. If we had a bloopers page this would be on it.}

1.) 21 Oct 2014
Hold your horses Ed, what he meant is get Arteta to sign a new contract which will then let Arsenal sell him for a value, instead of him going for free. Like Liverpool did with Suarez, he signed a new 4 year deal contract then left 6 - 9 months later.

{Ed002's Note - You don't understand any of this. It has nothing to do with Suarez - there is no analogy. RTFP.}

2.) 21 Oct 2014
Perfectly legal and often done. The player gets the security of a long contract, usually at a higher salary, which provides security in case they are not sold. The club gets a saleable asset.
Contracts signed by Suarez, Bale, etc, clearly showed this. Some players like to run down their contracts, but there is a risk involved, if they are injured and cannot secure a deal once free. I am sure players signing such extensions, also get sign on fees, etc.

{Ed002's Note - Sorry - you did not read the original post. This is an example why we don't discuss money or contract.}

3.) 21 Oct 2014
Fair comment Ed. I must have misread the post, as it makes no sense for a player out of contract to sign a new contract with his old club, if he is intending to move, as he will be in a strong position to benefit financially as there is no transfer fee to be paid!

4.) 22 Oct 2014
Ed,

I'm pretty certain you read my post incorrectly.

No problem though.

5.) 22 Oct 2014
If Arteta signed an extension with us now as opposed to leaving free next summer, then yes, assuming someone wanted him for his salary and was willing to pay us we could profit. That doesn't happen, because as Robbie stated the player would lose their stong position. Ask this: why would Khedira sign an extension at Real to allow them to pocket a transfer fee when he could just pocket it himself?

6.) 22 Oct 2014
Ed,

I'm pretty certain you read my post incorrectly.

No problem though.

{Ed002's Note - The secret contract? Right.}

7.) 22 Oct 2014
I very much doubt players sign contracts to get their club more money. No matter how loyal it wouldn't interest them. For example bale I'm sure didn't sign a new contract to get spurs more money. He signed it for more money in his pocket then left soon as Madrid agreed a fee months later.

8.) 22 Oct 2014
To everybody above.

That's why I started the post by saying "hypothetically".

Read the post like Daywalker did.

9.) 22 Oct 2014
Easiest way is to just put a 1 year extra option in a contract.

10.) 23 Oct 2014
If we offer arteta a new deal. And after someone offers to buy him both parties would be classed as clinically insane

11.) 28 Oct 2014
28 Oct 2014 13:03:14
Dags - I know of an instance where exactly what you are asking about happened.

In 2001/02 Jason Koumas was at Tranmere and his contract was running down. As one of the best young player's outside the Prem he was always going to leave that summer, but instead of letting his contract expire and leaving on a Bosman he signed a 1 year extension so that Tranmere could get a fee. As a result the club received over £2 million rather than losing their best player for nothing, and Koumas got his move to the Premier League.

So it does happen!

{Ed007's Note - Stiliyan Petrov done it at Celtic as well. In January 2006 Petrov signed a new 4 year deal with Celtic committing to the club until 2010 knowing that he would be allowed to leave that summer. In August 2006 Petrov moved to move to Aston Villa for £6.5m}