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In the days before agents, it is probable that Stewart would have ended up a Claret. Sir Alex Ferguson and Stan Ternent would have agreed the deal, Ferguson would have told Stewart he was coming to Burnley for a year, and that would have been that. Simple.
Now, agents are involved at every stage. Arguably, they are there to ensure their clients get the best possible deal. The days of managers dictating to their charges are long gone. In ‘The Glory Game’, the famous behind-the-scenes account of Spurs in the 1971-2 season, Hunter Davies tells of how Ralph Coates’ transfer from the Clarets to Spurs was conducted. The clubs agreed a fee, and in the utmost secrecy the deal was done in a matter of hours at an M6 service station. Terms were agreed in the back of Bill Nicholson’s car. The deal was simply offered to Coates and he accepted – with not an agent in sight.
The thought of an England international being transferred in such conditions today, is faintly absurd. Trevor Sinclair – a fringe member of the England squad – has moved to Manchester City, and details of that move, and an aborted move to Middlesborough, were plastered all over the press. All transfer details today are reported in the press. Even at our level, it is rare for Burnley – or any other club – to sign a player without any rumours going round.
Where do they get their information from? Invariably, from agents, or from representatives of clubs seeking to create an auction for the players they wish to sell. In Burnley’s case, without any transfer fees involved, it is the agents who tend to be the guilty party – just as in Stewart’s case.
The trouble is, their desire to do the best for their clients – and occasionally, themselves – means that they will circulate their names round to other clubs, and thereby make it impossible for managers to conduct their business in private. The minute the agent gets other clubs interested, they have created competition – and the player can simply pick to best offer. For managers like Stan Ternent, with only a limited wage ceiling to play with, it means there is always a risk that clubs with greater riches on offer will catch wind of things and move in.
There is, occasionally a risk that the cat will get out of the bag through some other means. Occasionally, it’s inevitable that some employee of the club who is in the know will let slip to a friend, and suddenly the news will leak out into the public domain. We, as fans, spend the summer thirsting for information, any information, about potential signings – we latch on to the slightest snippet of information about a signing. A player seen in the vicinity of Turf Moor, something a mate of a mate heard down the pub, it can often be something and nothing, but it can become a major talking point. And sometimes, it can hit the nail on the head.
In this era of insatiable press coverage – pages of newsprint devoted to speculation, 24 hour sports new channels on the TV, and internet sites like this one – stories will inevitably end up being reported. That is the nature of football today.
But it puts you and I in a quandary. I’m desperate to know who we might be signing, because the frustration of being utterly powerless and in the dark is a killer. It’s the reason we spend hours discussing who we might, personally, like to sign. But the trouble is that Burnley, with their strict wage structure, will be hit worst than most if a player ends up with competition for his signature – more often that not, more money will be on offer elsewhere, and that is invariably enough to sway a player’s decision.
So the question for us is simple. If we accept that, occasionally, fans might damage the club’s chances of making a signing by making too many noises, the choice is between stifling all speculation and taking that risk. Human nature suggests that the former may be impossible to achieve.
And even if we do keep our silence, the question of agents remains. The fact is that they are here to stay, and they are duty bound to give their clients the best possible deals. That is going to damage Burnley’s chances in the transfer market far more often – the conclusion must be that, one way or another keeping a secret in football today is all but impossible. None of the four players to arrive at Turf Moor this summer have arrived before Clarets Mad caught wind of them.
All of which must add up to frustration for Stan. Stewart may well just be one player he has missed out on in this fashion. For the time being, anyway, news is thin on the ground. But if anyone does have any news, then I’d love to hear it…