tbf to Everton, such tactics are needed by clubs who are competing with ridiculously well funded clubs. I actually don't blame them trying to snap up the kid before one of the wealthy clubs took him. #rootforthelittleguy It's all good as long as Bitters don't bang on about Liverpool tapping players up
Tapping up is blatantly widespread in football, and always has been. Every good manager does it pretty much all the time, cos the alternative is absolute chaos. Think about it - in a world in which tapping up never happened, by players, managers or agents, then no one would have any idea who was interested in moving where. Players could never make a transfer request, because for all they knew no one was interested in them, or they'd end up only being bid for by clubs who they didn't want to join. And all a manager could do would be to bid for every player under the sun, and only once an offer was accepted could they then find out if the player was interested. It would be utter chaos. Far more effective, imo, to have channels between managers and players, usually via agents, through which players can let people know if they may be open to a move. Obviously you can't take the piss, like Mourinho and Cole meeting in a hotel, or inducing players to break their contract, but I think there's tacit acknowledgement of the value of some back channel communications in order to actually keep the market moving. If there was no tapping up, the transfer rumours would be boring as f**k as well
