Transfer and Contract Management

[Tom12345]

https://foxesofleicester.com/2023/09/07/leicester-city-negotiate-deal-asap/

 

We have been very poor at this in the last few seasons.

 

As we tried to build a team for long term success, we spent too much money on players the manager (Rodgers) didn’t fancy; we signed crucial players on too short term of a deal (eg. I never get why you sign a player on big money but only give them 4 year contract which has proven to be a money waster); we let too many valuable players go on a free; we let big wage earners sit on the bench; we let players who declared they won’t be here be leaders (eg. Tielemans).

 

This legacy of a problem is still with us as we have again Nacho, Ndidi, Praet, Vesty, Vardy, Albrighton being allowed to leave on a free next summer as things stand today (while they can also sign pre-deals to leave in January which will become a major distraction as heads are turned).

 

I hope Enzo and the Club have a plan to mitigate this.

Edited 3 October 2023 by Tom12345

[Babylon]

It's going to be nigh on impossible to get them to sign up until they and we know what division we will be in next season... by which point it might be too late. I'm sorry but that's just the reality of the situation. Put yourself in the position of the player, why would you sign now? It's not like days of old where players needed the security, to a man they all have enough money to live on for the rest of their lives. They can afford to take the risk and see out a contract. 

[Qwerty]

I assume the hope is that we are doing well enough by January that promotion is almost inevitable, and then players will be prepared to extend their contracts.  If results drop off between now and then, and it looks like we might stay in the Championship, then the bigger players would be mad to extend their contracts with us.

 

Mind you, they might look at Tielemans and wonder if the grass really is greener.....

[sylofox]

As soon as I see a comment like "we let to many players go on a free" my fecking blood boils. What is it people don't fecking get. 

 

We can't force players to re sign another contract.

 

We can't force another club to buy them.

 

So they do walk for free not only from us. But from plenty of clubs even bigger clubs than us.

 

We would all re sign and love it being fans. But unlike us to most players it's a job.

[davieG]

3 minutes ago, sylofox said:

As soon as I see a comment like "we let to many players go on a free" my fecking blood boils. What is it people don't fecking get. 

 

We can't force players to re sign another contract.

 

We can't force another club to buy them.

 

So they do walk for free not only from us. But from plenty of clubs even bigger clubs than us.

 

We would all re sign and love it being fans. But unlike us to most players it's a job.

...and if they had signed on PL wages and we couldn't shift them like Daka and Souter we'd have an unmanageable wage bill which is probably still to big.

[volpeazzurro]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

It's going to be nigh on impossible to get them to sign up until they and we know what division we will be in next season... by which point it might be too late. I'm sorry but that's just the reality of the situation. Put yourself in the position of the player, why would you sign now? It's not like days of old where players needed the security, to a man they all have enough money to live on for the rest of their lives. They can afford to take the risk and see out a contract. 

Absolutely, I'd do exactly the same. At the end of the day it's a job.

[Tom12345]

1 hour ago, sylofox said:

As soon as I see a comment like "we let to many players go on a free" my fecking blood boils. What is it people don't fecking get. 

 

We can't force players to re sign another contract.

 

We can't force another club to buy them.

 

So they do walk for free not only from us. But from plenty of clubs even bigger clubs than us.

 

We would all re sign and love it being fans. But unlike us to most players it's a job.

Maybe I could have phrased this better, but all I was saying is that we could have managed the contracting situations better so that we don’t have too many valuable players that we could otherwise sell for something run down their contracts. Of course though I recognise it is not as easy as we just “let” it happen but there are people who get paid to manage this at the club. This season is a bit harder though given that we are in the Championship. It is part of the cost of relegation I suppose?

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, Tom12345 said:

Maybe I could have phrased this better, but all I was saying is that we could have managed the contracting situations better so that we don’t have too many valuable players that we could otherwise sell for something run down their contracts. Of course though I recognise it is not as easy as we just “let” it happen but there are people who get paid to manage this at the club. This season is a bit harder though given that we are in the Championship. It is part of the cost of relegation I suppose?

You can’t force players to sign, you can’t force others to buy them if they won’t. No about of managing can solve situations like that. 
 

We had our hands tied financially, which means those doing the contacts also did. Along with the new ffp restrictions we needed to abide by, the reality was we were probably trying to get people to sign contracts with pay cuts. 

Edited 3 October 2023 by Babylon

[sylofox]

1 hour ago, Tom12345 said:

Maybe I could have phrased this better, but all I was saying is that we could have managed the contracting situations better so that we don’t have too many valuable players that we could otherwise sell for something run down their contracts. Of course though I recognise it is not as easy as we just “let” it happen but there are people who get paid to manage this at the club. This season is a bit harder though given that we are in the Championship. It is part of the cost of relegation I suppose?

You cant manage it better if a player like Youri don't want to sign another contract. Taking any offer that under values his worth sends out the message the club is weak.

 

Soy on the other hand got pissed off by a cretin of a manager we should have sacked earlier. 

 

Others let go on a free because the club no longer had use for them, and no one wanted them on the wage we paid them.

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

You can’t force players to sign, you can’t force others to buy them if they won’t. Jo about of managing can solve situations like that. 
 

We had our hands tied financially, which means those doing the contacts also did. Along with the new ffp restrictions we needed to abide by, the reality was we were probably trying to get people to sign contracts with pay cuts. 

Just this.

 

But we will be saying it again next week, next month and next year.

[sylofox]

This place really is Ground Hog Day.

[Tommy G]

The only way to manage the contract situation better is put every new signing on a stonking big contract for 5 years, and every 18 months keep notching them up a better deal. This is financial suicide by the way, because you will have to hope you can improve and flog them - something that we have had varied success with in recent years. You will end up with some stinkers on long deals - think Bertrand, but you will have the security of a large squad each year. 

 

In summary that is the wrong approach, and while it's been mismanaged, we have had good money in the past for Maguire, Mahrez, Fofana, Chilwell, Kante etc with a good ROI. 

 

I don't think it's as bad as it's being made out, but it wouldn't fit the Rudkin/Top out agenda - if that pair had grown a pair and sacked Rodgers early enough we wouldn't be in the Champsionship now. 

[Leeds Fox]

21 hours ago, sylofox said:

As soon as I see a comment like "we let to many players go on a free" my fecking blood boils. What is it people don't fecking get. 

 

We can't force players to re sign another contract.

 

We can't force another club to buy them.

 

So they do walk for free not only from us. But from plenty of clubs even bigger clubs than us.

 

We would all re sign and love it being fans. But unlike us to most players it's a job.

Same here. The contract is the contract, to expect anything more from the player would be naive. 
 

Obviously as the OP (@Tom12345 ) suggests,

it would be good if we could manage these situations better. However you can’t force external factors. Players, agents and other clubs have their own agendas and so be it. The only thing we can do is offer an improved deal (or better than is being offered elsewhere), which isn’t always financially sensible or even viable.

[st albans fox]

Our problem is that we hold onto players for too long. 

every player has a value and we should embrace offers for them if valuation is met. That probably means selling them at the height of the powers whilst we doing well - we seem to have little confidence in getting in replacements - that reflects badly on us as a club  

 

we stopped doing release clauses because of Kante - who knew just how good he actually was when we signed him ?? 

 

we’d have been better off continuing with them but setting them at a high level. Then our hand might have been forced on players like wilf and madders earlier and we’d have got a lot more money in as a consequence. 

 

[Chrysalis]

Solution is longer initial contracts, then no need to extend on higher wages to keep them, and also can keep them for 4-5 years whilst still selling for a fee.

 

4-5 years is too short a contract to give a low 20s player now days.