By Pete Ellis
Agent provocateur or merely a football agent?
If you were to name the two biggest transfer sagas of recent years, the chances are the Raheem Sterling move to City and the Saido Berhinho non move to Spurs would be right up there.
Raheem believing he was the English Messi and wanting out of Liverpool was worthy of an episode in the Brookside soap while Berahino was being touted as a £20m player to Spurs, which seemed to me to be uncharacteristically generous from everyone’s favourite the desperately dour and dull Mr Levy.
So what connects these two sorry affairs?
The agent. The guy that has these players “int€re$ts” at heart.
Call me crazy, but were both these players ready and willing for a big money move?
Even if they were, was it handled in a manner that would fill you with confidence if you were a player?
Sterling’s gamble in playing hardball eventually paid off. Berhinho has suffered an embarrassment of a season in contrast, often holding the bibs on the bench while the fourth choice striker comes on to try and rescue a game.
It’s a risky strategy, and one that causes serious rifts with both club and fans if you don’t get you move.
With young Mr Oxford, the papers say that he’ll sign a mega deal for for years with City, United, Liverpool etc.
The fact he can’t sign anything longer than two years at the moment is irrelevant (as it makes the story less spectacular).
I think the Oxford family will probably know where Reece is likely to get more game time, and also where he can get more money. His agent knows, and I suspect we can imagine what option he prefers.
Regardless, Reece is a young man that has not said he wants to leave, so let’s hold off on the character assassination just yet.
He could decide to go down the Reece Burke route and prove himself to be one of the outstanding players at League One or Championship level.
He may want West Ham action instead, but whatever he decides, if he stays we’ll certainly back him, and if he goes, then it’s a shame but better players have gone and we have been ok.
Let’s wait and see what happens, as even as I write this, more reports of another club bidding and a signature on a new whufc deal are being touted about in equal measure.
We want everything NOW and the requirement to put in the graft is sometimes an inconvenience.
The fact people pollute our TVs most Saturday nights with a poor singing voice or a mediocre party trick are proof enough of that.
Same with young players. There are those that want the Audi TT at 17 and those that are more interested in playing the game and developing themselves.
Burke is clearly a young man that wants to do the graft. I suspect Oxford is the same, so let’s hope he decides to show it at West Ham, rather than a reserve squad elsewhere. I still have faith in him staying, despite the agent that he has.
Over to you young Mr Oxford. Whatever you decide I’ll wish you well (although how well will be up for discussion)!
Transfer windows, Twitter ITKs, and agents.
What a delightful cocktail…..
The views expressed are those solely of the blogger and are not necessarily shared by ClaretandHugh
Bang on
The agents and paper plus the pundits are full of ****e,
These young men need to remember what happened to the young talent that have ruined there careers before they started,
The agents are short sighted as well,Oxford with another couple of years could be worth
£50 million plus what’s his cut on that,