In order to play football you need to have at least seven players on the pitch, it says so in law 3 of the FIFA guide to the game and in order to get players, for the professional game at least, you have to wrangle in the messy world of the transfer market, so here's a quick guide on what it's all about.
The first thing to look at is the process a club will go through in order to acquire a player from another team so, step 1, a manager at a club will compile a list of potential targets. These players will have been scouted by the club, using either the PFA transfer list, tip offs from Joe Bloggs or a players agent attempting to hawk his 'product' to a manager directly. In some rare cases players may come from other sources, the tale of Robbie Ryan being one, he joined Bristol Rovers after the club scouts son signed him on Championship Manager.
The manager will then go to his board or chairman with his list in order to be given permission to go for these players, he will also be given limits as to what transfer fees and personal terms can be offered. After this the gaffer will go through his list one by one, speaking to the players clubs and, if a transfer fee can be agreed, speak to the player about a contract. If the clubs can't agree on a fee or the player turns down the offer himself the manager will move onto his next target, and so on, until he successfully agrees a deal with a player. Money (hopefully) will be paid in due course and the signing can meet up with his new team mates.
That's a basic outline of what goes on, deals can stall on many levels and 4/5 times nothing will be agreed, only a lucky manager will get the player at the top of his list. Transfers can range from the multi-million pound deals for players such as Ronaldo or Robinho, right down to Western League clubs paying a hundred quid to eachother for a players services.
The loan window works much the same way except deals are reached on how high a percentage of a players wage a club pays, how long the loan lasts for and whether or not the player in question actually wants to join the potential club. With free agents clubs can go straight into contract talks.
It is these contract talks that make or break a deal and there are a massive amount of things that personal terms can involve. The starting point is a players basic wage, normally discussed in football in weekly terms. Yaya Toure for example will be on a staggering weekly wage of £221,000 when the 50% tax bracket comes in, before that he will be on a measly £185k a week. But it's not just about keeping the new signing happy, the rest of the squad has to be managed well, there could be carnage in the Man City saga if players revolt over how highly paid their team mates are. Other things involved in contracts can include a signing on fee, bonuses and in some cases relocation costs if the player has to move a considerable distance.
Some managers and clubs have a gift of attracting talent while some are poor in the transfer market, there's more to football management than what happens on the field of play. If a manager signs rubbish players and the inevitable happens, he gets sacked, that's a given, but if a manager at a mediocre club somehow signs top class players he then puts himself under even more pressure to get the results. Just look what happened to Sam Allardyce at Newcastle, bringing in Alan Smith, Mark Viduka and David Rozehnal and then getting it all wrong when trying to gel them together on the pitch.
Most of the transfer news this pre-season has revolved around Man City, spending £100million for the second summer in a row including the aforementioned Yaya Toure for £28million, David Silva for £24million and James Milner for £26million plus Stephen Ireland. Roberto Mancini seems to have a bottomless pit of funds to bring what's required and could field two teams of full internationals. The loaning of Craig Bellamy to Cardiff, while still paying at least half of his wages and paying him off to boot, shows that they will do everything in their power to keep their rivals at bay.
It is that Bellamy move that will be the undoubted transfer capture of the summer in the Championship, he scored ten goals in the Premier League last season and has already shown Doncaster how it's done but there have been other moves that have caught the eye. Before Bellamy the most surprising move was David James to Bristol City, despite interest from Sunderland and Celtic and he, along with some other decent acquisitions for City, should mean that they are in with a shout of the play offs. One player who has already shone this season is Adel Taarabt. He first joined QPR for the last two months of the 2008/09 season and has been there ever since, only signing a permanent deal this summer. His pace and skill on the ball has the potential to tear defences apart, one of the best wingers in the division for sure.
In League 1 I have picked out three midfielders who have made the move. Joey Gudjonsson has scored goals in the Championship for both Leicester and Burnley through the years and his scoring prowess will be a menace. Grant McCann had a decent season at Scunthorpe last term and even though he is now getting on he can still deliver some fine dead balls. Finally Guilherme do Prado signed on loan for Southampton having guided Cesena from the second tier of Italian football last year, scoring nine in the process. He has passed up a season as a Serie A squad player for Saints, one to be feared.
The transfer coup of League 2 is probably Rotherham keeping hold of star striker Adam Le Fondre, who scored 30 goals in all last season as the Millers lost out in the play off final to Dagenham. Do, however, look out for Tadhg Purcell, a young Irish striker who scored 9 in 22 for failing Darlington in the latter half of last season, now at Northampton he should be one to watch.
I hope this has enlightened you a little bit on the processes of the transfer market, while I'm sure the manager at your club will hope you now see how hard he has to work to sign players.
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