Will he be managing Southampton in the premier league in his first game? Swansea are the ones stretching on this one and I think they know it. Saints delayed the announcement/appointment for as long as possible to build make the case stronger.
When we signed Nigel he wanted the best outcome for the club he was leaving. He was/is an honourable man. By signing Martin we have weakened Swansea and if the situation was reversed and we were losing our much respected manager we would be squeeling for every penny.
Someone will probably say the tiered compensation is standard practice, but it’s a pretty stupid clause to have in someone’s contract. The price should be the price. I’m selling a table on Facebook, but it’s not £20 on the Millbrook page & £100 on the Chillworth page. The price is the price and someone who does the contracts at Swansea tried to be cute and it’s rightly blown up in their face. If they wanted £750,000 more then they should have said the price was £750,000 more for everyone.
Hanging on the wall in my living room is a rather good painting. If I decide to sell it I have a price in mind that reflects what I paid for it. However should the artist's work suddenly become popular and in demand I will adjust my selling price to reflect this new market. Swansea protected themselves from such a market situation by the clause in Martin's contract which was a wise thing to do. Saints had two options: pay up or walk away. The fact they didn't walk away proves that Swansea were right to include the clause.
Depends where the line is drawn legally, could be either (I am guessing, I have no idea really). 1. When we started negotiating. 2. When we triggered the clause. We will see who is right in due course I suppose.
It would be a remarkable contract that said: The position of the approaching club on the day of the first enquiry shall be held as their league position for the purposes of the determination of financial compensation.
I'd imagine SR wouldn't have acted as they have done, without having chatted with their lawyers first. Confident they'll win, but, to be honest they're just shooting themselves in the foot, because how on Earth are we expecting Swansea to sell us Grimes (or whoever else), after all this?
Because this is business? Tottenham never have any issues and Levy is a total arsehole. Did people think they were going to give us their backroom team and some of their players over dinner and a fine red wine?
If depends on the nature of our 'first enquiry' surely? If we've made an official approach asking for their permission to speak to him then it's more than possible that's what the clause states. I suspect that legally we're in the right but may have gone against the 'spirit' of the agreement. Which I completely get in terms of saving us money but it may bite us if we're gonna go back for their captain and top scorer and they'll surely chuck the difference (and extra) on top? Like I say though it's impossible to know for certain as none of us are party to that information. All speculation at this point.
My personal experience with business contracts is that they cost a fortune to draw up, never precisely cover the eventualities that you thought they would and aren't worth the paper they're written on. That's a position that would seem to fit this scenario rather well too!
How does one go about finding out about said contract clauses without opening up some form of communication with the club? I know this isn't Football Manager but I can see every little clause a player or manager may have straight away so I can make an informed decision regarding signings without opening up any sort of negotiation. Obviously this isn't Football Manager so surely the said club has to give us the information freely without any obligation or issue arising. It's a bit like having a chat in January about player X who will be a free agent in the summer. We start the negotiations when he has some value(although quickly diminishing) but make it official when he is a free agent, we do not have to pay a nominal fee because we spoke to him when he had 6 months of his contract remaining.
Isn't is also the same when you buy a house for example? You make an initial contact when you view, only when you put in an offer does any legal terms become valid?
