Every so often, the mercenary world of football throws up a charming story, and one such example is the windfall Maidenhead will receive as part of the Max Kilman transfer.
Maidenhead sold Max Kilman to Wolves for £40,000 in 2018 and have a significant sell-on clause, as confirmed by their chairman, Peter Griffin, back in April. It is reported to be 10 percent.
The non league club were believed to have originally negotiated a 20% sell-on clause but it’s understood that Wolves renegotiated to 10% as the Kilman deal become more likely.
That would give former Hammer turned Maidenhead manager Alan Devonshire £3,990,000 to invest, a huge amount for a club in the fifth tier of football.
To say that this is an incredible amount of money for a semi-professional football club would be a massive understatement. Almost four million pounds would keep the club running for years, and the fact that a former Hammer is in charge makes the story even better.
The structure of the deal also goes some way to explaining why Wolves were holding out for so much money from West Ham, with the knowledge that so much would have to be forwarded to Maidenhead.
They’re the only people who deserve the money in this deal. Very nice bit of business for them and the only thing that softens the blow about the hideous amount of money we’ve been screwed out of.
How did Wolves renegotiate from 20% to 10% when a sale became more likely ? Why would Maidenhead agree to that ? Something there doesn’t sound right.
It was either that or we’d have had to pay the extra £4 million which we refused to do and Wolves refused to foot the bill. Maidenhead were faced with a dilemma which they chose to resolve by settling for 10% – a figure they could have only dreamed about when they originally sold Kilman
Always good to see clubs way down the pyramid secure vital funds to ensure financial stability. Devonshire was pure class and so this makes a great story.
If only we had prime Devonshire on the wing now! So many good memories watching him from the Chicken Run.
…..Saw him make his first team debut vs QPR in the number 9 shirt…..and when the team was announced there was the reaction of “Alan who?” from the terraces. Football news didn’t travel fast back then!
Happy to hear Alan Devonshire will benefit from this deal. Maybe he can unearth another gem for us as a payback maybe someone as good as he was, who, if my memory serves me correct came from Non league to cup winner with West Ham in a short period of time .
Alan played non-league for Southall and worked at the Hoover factory as a fork lift driver before he signed for West Ham. He actually earned less in a week at first by turning pro!!