Free transfers

[Alex W]

What i want to know is does Lewis Mcgugan support forest? as that would take us out of any signing of him.

Can I just ask, in this theoretical situation, why would that make any difference? Commons had a Forest tattoo, he signed for us for just two grand (or so) more than he was on at Forest.

Loyalty is nothing in football nowadays.

[Boycie]

Can I just ask, in this theoretical situation, why would that make any difference? Commons had a Forest tattoo, he signed for us for just two grand (or so) more than he was on at Forest.

Loyalty is nothing in football nowadays.

You did a great job in persuading him to come to us Alex. 'http://www.dcfcfans.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

[Leicester Ram]

This reminds me of a certain suggestion thread, about players?

[blackNwhites]

We will sign a maximum of none of those players.

[Albert]

No mention of that in the FIFA regulations available on the FA websit

Taken from page 20 of this document

http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/more/~/media/810AAD5B02A743A797F5FDCC998F63A6.ashx

[url=http://www.thefa.com/~/media/Files/TheFAPortal/governance-docs/rules-of-the-association/fa-handbook-2012-13.ashx]From this document, under the section "C. RULES RELATING TO PLAYERS", subsection "PLAYERS WITH WRITTEN CONTRACTS" "1 (j) Agreements Between Club & Players" as found on page 110 of the document, we can see the following relevant sections:

(ii) There shall be no right to a compensation or transfer fee by the previous

Club of a Player who has attained the age of 24 years on or before 30th

June and whose contract with that Club has expired. If a Club wishes to

of er re-engagement to a Player or exercise an option contained in the

agreement the following practice shall prevail.

(iii) Within 7 days of the fi rst Saturday in May, or the date of the last

competitive Match of the Club’s fi rst team, whichever is the later, the Club

must give notice in writing to the Player indicating that either the Club

of ers a re-engagement or, if appropriate, exercises any option contained

in the agreement.

(iv) If the notice of ers re-engagement it must specify the period which

the Club is prepared to agree and the terms and conditions to apply,

which must be the same or not less favourable overall than those which

applied during the initial period of employment – or the option period (if

applicable).

(v) The Player must notify in writing the Club holding the registration within

28 days of receipt of the said notice whether or not the of er of reengagement is accepted.

(vi) If the of er is rejected the Player is immediately free to negotiate with

another Club.

(vii) If the Player does not reply in writing to the of er of re-engagement then

at the expiry of a period of 28 days, the Player is free to negotiate with

another Club.

(viii) In either of the instances as set out in Rules C1(j)(vi) and (vii) above,

the Club holding the Player’s registration has the right to receive

compensation. The Player’s registration for the new Club will not be

accepted until such time as the Club has confi rmed in writing to The

Association that it will negotiate a compensation fee with the former Club

failing which it will abide by any decision taken by an appeal committee

comprising those persons pursuant to Rule C1(j)(xii) (a “League Appeals

Committee”).

There we go, that was surprisingly hard to find. Long story short, for players 24 years or older at the end of the season, we can only approach to sign them after the season is already over. From what I can tell we can only sign a player on a precontract deal 6 months in advance if they are contracted to an overseas club. For that matter, clubs overseas can sign players here in England 6 months in advance, hence the speculation around Walcott at the moment. For example:

[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/nov/19/arsenal-theo-walcott]Relevant part from this article:

Theo Walcott is open to a move abroad and could sign a pre-contract agreement in January with any overseas club – a move which might concentrate the minds of Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool, who were all interested in buying the Arsenal forward during the summer. The forward, who is out of contract in the summer, cannot agree to join another Premier League side until the close season.

[davenportram]

From the same document you quoted

(ii) Until the existing agreement or any renewal of it has terminated:

(A) a Player may not enter into any agreement with any other Club in membership with The Association, or an Affiliated Association, or of any other national football association; and

(B ) the Player may not be approached by any other Club, or Club Official of any other Club, or any person with a view to inducing the Player to leave the Club for which the Player is registered, except with the written permission of that Club.

Part A implies they can't enter into agreement with clubs in other countries either (maybe why the pre contract deals were thought to be non- binding in the past) and

Part 2 implies that if the club the player is leaving agrees then another club can start negotiations with the player.

[Rams_Forever86]

Can I just ask, in this theoretical situation, why would that make any difference? Commons had a Forest tattoo, he signed for us for just two grand (or so) more than he was on at Forest.

Loyalty is nothing in football nowadays.

Yeah but he only moved because he wasnt wanted .Its like steve g is a liverpool fan and their captian but if earlier on in his career he wasnt wanted or needed and everton offered him first team football the he would go.You will hardly ever get a footballer who is a die hard fan as they prefer to play the game than watch it otherwise they would be happy on the bench.

[Animal is a Ram]

Yeah but he only moved because he wasnt wanted .Its like steve g is a liverpool fan and their captian but if earlier on in his career he wasnt wanted or needed and everton offered him first team football the he would go.You will hardly ever get a footballer who is a die hard fan as they prefer to play the game than watch it otherwise they would be happy on the bench.

Saul Deeney? 'http://www.dcfcfans.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ph34r' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':ph34r:' />

[RamNut]

We seem to have improved a bit in the scouting department.....

The recent signings - jacobs, coutts, freeman, and gjokai - seem to be a definate improvement on some of the earlier signings.

Apart from coutts - who has been surprisingly good - i hadnt heard of the others.

Probably be the same next summer - three or four that we haven't heard of.

Thats the way i like it.

Who'd ever heard of archie gemmill, roger davies, john robson, colin boulton etc.

[Albert]

We seem to have improved a bit in the scouting department.....

The recent signings - jacobs, coutts, freeman, and gjokai - seem to be a definate improvement on some of the earlier signings.

Apart from coutts - who has been surprisingly good - i hadnt heard of the others.

Probably be the same next summer - three or four that we haven't heard of.

Thats the way i like it.

Who'd ever heard of archie gemmill, roger davies, john robson, colin boulton etc.

I have trouble thinking of bad signings since Clough arrived. The only real flops I can think of are Croft, Hendrie, Martin and Maguire. Normally people have to resort to citing Porter (injury problems), backup players or young players to try and maintain the point. The fact that we complain about Doyle being a poor signing shows how good we've got it in terms of our hit to miss ratio signing wise. The issue under Clough hasn't been the scouting or decisions, it's been the funds they've seemingly had to work with.

[randombc]

I have trouble thinking of bad signings since Clough arrived. The only real flops I can think of are Croft, Hendrie, Martin and Maguire. Normally people have to resort to citing Porter (injury problems), backup players or young players to try and maintain the point. The fact that we complain about Doyle being a poor signing shows how good we've got it in terms of our hit to miss ratio signing wise. The issue under Clough hasn't been the scouting or decisions, it's been the funds they've seemingly had to work with.

And of them 4 Maguire seems to not be settling in anywhere, isn't a regular for Sheffield Wednesday, and Martin was homesick. Croft and Hendrie were freebees. Not often does Clough spend 'big money' £300,000+ and the signings don't work out.

[PrivateDerby]

This reminds me of a certain suggestion thread, about players?

I miss that.

[Albert]

And of them 4 Maguire seems to not be settling in anywhere, isn't a regular for Sheffield Wednesday, and Martin was homesick. Croft and Hendrie were freebees. Not often does Clough spend 'big money' £300,000+ and the signings don't work out.

Unlike the man he replaced I don't think he's actually wasted any real amount of money on anyone. His "unsuccessful" signings generally leave with people questioning why they aren't being played, for example Cywka and Moxey (who seemed to suddenly amazing the moment he left, at least according to some forum users). I do wonder how the money would be spent if we do end up selling Hughes for a large sum somewhere down the line.

Hendrie wasn't actually free, he was part of the deal taking Stewart to Sheffield United. Croft also arrived with a fair amount of expectation and is apparently not amongst our cheapest signings wage wise.

[randombc]

Unlike the man he replaced I don't think he's actually wasted any real amount of money on anyone. His "unsuccessful" signings generally leave with people questioning why they aren't being played, for example Cywka and Moxey (who seemed to suddenly amazing the moment he left, at least according to some forum users). I do wonder how the money would be spent if we do end up selling Hughes for a large sum somewhere down the line.

Hendrie wasn't actually free, he was part of the deal taking Stewart to Sheffield United. Croft also arrived with a fair amount of expectation and is apparently not amongst our cheapest signings wage wise.

Agree it would be interesting to see if we did get big money for Hughes how it would be spent, and to see if the board would pocket it or give it to the manager to reinvest. I'd hope half of it would be reinvested, could buy a decent striker!

[Pudding Jack]

Agree it would be interesting to see if we did get big money for Hughes how it would be spent, and to see if the board would pocket it or give it to the manager to reinvest. I'd hope half of it would be reinvested, could buy a decent striker!

but it totally depends on how much they'd get for him. they'll likely take half at least and you couldnt really blame them. 7 million loss last year... whatever the year before.... thats why i couldnt see us selling him for less than 6 million. next year. if his growth continues

[trekkie_ram]

The signing of Lee Hendrie disposed of Jordan Stewart, that was definitely a win in my opinion. Lee Croft was Norwich City PotY, and was an excellent signing at the time, he served his purpose, and with a bit more fitness could have been much more. Chris Maguire had all the potential, but he wasn't in-step with what Nigel wanted him to be, we cut most of our losses though.

Nige couldn't afford to be too picky in his early transfer windows, he brought in what we needed, rather than what he wanted, but now he has a decent young framework he can be a little more picky about future tweaks. The future's bright, the future's white.