Boro need to keep cards close to their chests this summer
THE transfer window opens next Wednesday and Middlesbrough, like most clubs, will be hoping to strengthen their squads this summer.
While the majority of the action in the transfer window is likely to be at least a week or two away yet, with players away on holiday before returning for pre-season, there might be the odd deal here and there going through early.
As with most transfer windows in recent years, supporters can again expect to see the fee given for the transfer as ‘undisclosed.’
While fees quite often do leak out into the press they are not always accurate.
A good example at Boro would be the purchase of Martin Payero where it is often reported Boro paid 6m to Argentinian side Banfield for him – but the truth was they paid just half of that upfront with the other half based on potential performance-related add-ons.
The Teessiders are hoping to strengthen their squad this summer with first-team-ready players to have another push for promotion next season.
It is unknown how many players are being targeted yet but one thing we can be certain of is there will be some undisclosed fees paid out by the club this summer.
So why are transfer fees so often ‘undisclosed’?
Leading football finance expert Kieran Maguire explained: “In terms of individual deals, let’s say people believe you have a budget of £50m this summer and you go and sign a player for £40m, selling clubs know you don’t have a lot of money left.
“So by keeping the fees undisclosed you create a bit of uncertainty.
“I know practically all of Brighton’s deals when we buy players are for undisclosed fees.
“We are owned by a poker player, and he will say, ‘never reveal anything of your hand.’ That is why we see so many individual deals for undisclosed fees.
“Nobody is entitled to know what you and I earn because that is private information.
“In the same way, these are private limited companies and therefore they can argue in terms of individual transactions, ‘we’re not going to give anything away.’”
He added: “Where there is a statutory obligation, for example, to disclose the total amount of money paid in wages, that’s when the club will show it.
“Similarly, clubs are obliged to show the total amount paid for transfer fees in a financial year in their yearly accounts.
“There is no legal obligation to show things on a forensic or granular level in terms of individual purchases or sales. Sometimes they might choose to do it.
“That can often be in an attempt to send out a message, maybe to the fanbase – like, ‘look at us, we’ve just spent x amount of millions on this player.’ Most of the time they would rather keep it closer to their chest.”
In the same way, it works for the selling club too. If Boro were to sell somebody this summer who would need replacing, it would not be advantageous to them for it to be public knowledge how much they had just received in selling a player.
If the selling club of the player Boro were looking at as a replacement was aware of a significant transfer fee just received by Boro then there would be nothing stopping them adding a little extra money to their valuation – making negotiations more complicated.