Bosman, Lewandowski and the surge of player power

In the cloak and dagger world of football transfers, agents have plenty of tricks up their sleeves. Leaking stories to the media linking the player in question to any club, shamelessly flirting with other clubs and even using the player to say the age old and not very subtle sentence of “As of now I am a player. I am happy there but you never know in football” are all tried and tested methods. After all what better way to raise the stakes in a negotiation than to simulate a bidding war for the services of, what at the end of the day, is a prized asset. Player signs a new bumper contract, job done. Conversely the player joins a new club with a nice signing on fee and significant pay rise, job done. The old gambling cliche is that the House always wins. In football, the agent always wins.

The second, cash in on the player and sell him to the richest suitor. When the player wants out and there seems to be no chance of a new contract, this is the path taken more often than not. Selling the player (mostly at a cut price) recuperates some of the money that the club has spent on him over the years. This money can be spent to find a replacement or in today’s financial climate, more likely to service a debt.

The third and final option is to simply ignore all this and inform the player politely that he’s signed a contract so he bloody well adhere to it. The club then is guaranteed another year from the player but are destined to lose the player on a “Bosman” a year later.

Can he make the most of the Bosman ruling?

From the point of a view of the club, there is obviously no formula from which the best solution can be derived. There are simply too many variables to factor in ranging from the financial clout of the club in question to the willingness of the player. Having said this I don’t see option 3 being exercised by the clubs, especially the bigger ones, often enough for my liking.

On the face of it, letting a player go on a free seems to be a foolhardy move as the club has to let go of one of their prized possessions for free and then replace him a year later. But there’s a strong counter argument that the club is better served holding on to the player especially when the player plays a big role in the success of the club. The amount of revenue generated through progression to the latter stages of the Champions League for example is sizable to say the least.

Thus, if a player could be the difference between progression or elimination from the group stages then surely it’s a gamble worth taking. And the actual loss, if any, wouldn’t make that big a debt for any of the big clubs. Figures such as 30-40 million pounds barely raise an eyebrow in today’s transfer window, so a temporary loss of a few million shouldn’t really make a large dent in the club’s coffers.

And this is the exact approach that Borussia Dortmund and Jurgen Klopp have adopted regarding the Lewandowski transfer saga. Having already lost Mario Gotze to Bayern Munich, Dortmund could have sold Lewandowski to the same club. But they had other ideas. Klopp told Welt am Sonntag, “I think it is a known fact that Robert is going to play for Bayern after the upcoming season. Now the only question is how to shape the time until then. That is our concern and it is our commitment to our fans and members to ensure that we will have a more competitive team in the upcoming season.”

As a Manchester United fan, I can see parallels between this and the Nani situation. While Nani is certainly not as important to the team as Lewandowski, he is on his day easily the most talented winger at United. With figures as low as 10 million pounds being quoted in the media, I for one would rather see Nani stay at United the next season rather than watch him leave at that sort of price.

Player power is all the rage in present day football. Maybe it’s time for some of the clubs to take a leaf out of Dortmund’s book and play hardball with the players and their super-agents.