How we nearly got Sebastien Bassong instead of Anton.Ferdinand. Before Jorge Mendes or Mino Raiola, there was Jon Smith. His agency, First Artist, represented more than 400 clients – including Diego Maradona and the England team. Smith was football’s first super-agent. His book, The Deal, is part-memoir, partexposé on how football agents make – and justify – their money, the machinations of transfer deadline day, and negotiating with the game’s most influential people. .........Does a transfer that didn’t come off for you stand out in your memory? “One of the transfers [that didn't happen] that I got upset about was on deadline day. You try to circle all the bases. You try to make sure you are on the right side of the seller – the selling club is dictating terms. You try to make sure you are close to the purchasing club, so you can make the right deal. And obviously the player and the player's family have to be in your orbit. “On the very last day one day, we had a very nice lad called Sebastien Bassong at Tottenham, and his transfer [out of White Hart Lane] had broken down, for whatever reason. [Then QPR manager] Harry Redknapp was our friend, and QPR were telling us: 'Let's get Bassong.' We'd taken Bassong into Tottenham, and it was okay, it was working, but not that well. It was to everybody's delight, in a way, that QPR had come in for him at the very last minute. So Bassong says goodbye to all the lads at the training ground. Gets in his car, goes to Loftus Road. [But] we hadn't done our job right. We hadn't circled Harry. We couldn't find him. He was on the phone doing whatever he was doing on deadline day - shouting and screaming at people in his normal way. We'd been dealing with the hierarchy at QPR, who were trying to put things in place in the final few hours [of the window]. They'd lost one [centre-back], they had to get another. please log in to view this image “Daniel [Levy] was happy to sell. We then got a phone call from Harry. [We tell him:] 'We've got Bassong coming over to you.' He said: 'Why? No, I don't want him, I want Anton Ferdinand.’ [We said:] 'Yeah, but the Anton Ferdinand deal has broken down.' [Redknapp responded:] 'Yeah, but we're only a little bit apart, I'm sure we can sort it out… Give me five minutes.' “So, we get a phone call back about 15 minutes later: 'We've called Anton back, we think we can do it.' We've now got to tell our lad, who is sitting with a representative of ours at Loftus Road: 'So sorry.' And it makes us look pathetic. And bad. But it's one of those crazy moments. And we had to say to him: 'Sorry, you've got to go back.' Poor old Bassong had to go back to Tottenham. But it goes beyond that. The player now knows he's surplus to requirements at Tottenham. They're going to sell him as soon as they get another chance. So your heart has to be in the right place when you are in the emotional cauldron of a football stadium. And that can be really tough for a player. And we felt we had let him down because our intelligence wasn't good enough that day. “There are many highs, but when the lows are low, you're letting down a lot of people. A player, his family, supporters - you let down a lot of people when you goof up on your job.” The Deal: Inside the World of a Super-Agent by Jon Smith is published by Constable Read more at http://talksport.com/football/young...0m-top-agent-spills-beans#Wj7pVDkypwFEym1R.99
Talking of old boys Joey '****er' Barton has been told to stay away from the Rangers training ground after an altercation with a team mate.
Absolute BS - Was part of The most useless package of panic buys ever known to man: Wright Phillips Barton Traore Ferdinand Luke Young Without a doubt - the start of this 5+ years recruitment nightmare. Remembering we had also acquired Dyer and Boothroyd already. Redknapp was no where in this, but heh, why does a good story have to be embellished by anything to do with truth and accuracy?
He sure was - Had all the Danish Chelsea clan at my place to see the game. Absolutely my favourite game - We were atrocious against 9 men for majority of match and furthermore Chelsea were robbed by diabolical reffing decisions even with just 9 on the field. My family were literally going ballistic.
The funny thing was that Fernandes was being advised by an Italian agent associated with Fiorentina when he bought us. He didn't want Warnock from the start and a few foreign options were on the table. The away win at Everton changed all that. In fairness to Warnock we were relatively flying until a last minute equaliser from WBA where we had dominated, a win would have taken us to top 10 after about 12 games. Don't think Warnock won another game after that and Hughes came in, in January with us in 17th. We were never to get above that position in all of Hughes, Redknapp or Ramsay's tenure.
Wright Phillips ( The Club Mascot ) Barton ( Mr Personality Of A Fart ) Traore ( The Invisible Man ) Ferdinand ( Mother had to drive him, bless him ) Luke Young ( M.I.A. ) Take a good look above ............... there in print, must be the five worst buys in transfer history ............... and we got them all!
