There are several ways, it seems, to conduct a transfer. The traditional way, and arguably still the best, is for the prospective buying club to contact the prospective selling club about a player’s availability and, if they receive a positive response, agree a fee and obtain permission to talk to the player concerned. Then, when personal terms have been agreed, the medical has been passed and the contract signed, announce the transfer to the media.A less scrupulous way is to set up a clandestine meeting with the player (and of course his agent), and arrange a deal behind the back of the club to whom he is contracted. The player, duly unsettled by the riches on offer, then becomes disaffected enough with his employers to make the move virtually inevitable. This method is known as “tapping up” or “doing an Ashley,” but to be carried out effectively it is advisable that the media are kept firmly out of the loop. Therefore the choice of restaurant or motorway service station for the tapping up is important. Otherwise, inconvenient legal proceedings can follow.
A third way seems on the face of it to be less subtle but is in fact quite sophisticated, and can ultimately lead to the same outcome as the tap-up, but without legal consequences. It is now known as “a Ronaldo,” or sometimes “an Adebayor,“ and instead of involving restaurants and subterfuge to avoid the media, actually relies on the press to do the tapping up. The would-be buying club simply feeds journalists a steady stream of sound-bites declaring their admiration for and intention to sign a particular player, irrespective of his employer’s wishes.
At some point the club to whom he is contracted feels obliged to issue a statement insisting that the object of their rival’s desire is not for sale. That provokes a lively debate - again through the media - and provides the player (and of course his agent) with plenty of opportunities to ratchet up his response from “flattered” to “interested” to “desperate to join,” - though a favourite tactic is to be ambiguous or contradictory for as long as possible so as to avoid any disciplinary action from the club that pays your wages. Gareth Barry needs to work on that aspect of his game because he badly misplaced a pass with an outburst against his club, Aston Villa, and manager, Martin O’Neill, incurring a fine and a suspension. Barry, hitherto a one-club man, revealed his inexperience there, because an unwritten rule of “doing a Ronaldo” is that money should only ever flow into, never out of, a player’s pocket.
Done properly a “Ronaldo”, unlike an “Ashley,“ has the estimable merit of being endorsed by the head of Fifa, who knows a thing or two about unscrupulous deals (though not, it seems, about the nature of slavery).
It is a fact of football life that “Ashleys” and “Ronaldos” generate a great deal of heat without shedding too much light. From the media’s point of view, a preferred consequence is a public slanging match between the two clubs concerned, ideally punctuated by plenty of those ambiguous or contradictory “statements” by the player, including the disingenuous “It’s out of my hands. I just want to play football.”
And when the slanging starts, we can often get some interesting developments. For example, if the would-be buying club is Real Madrid, they are allowed to operate by their own special rules because they are, well, Real Madrid (and after all, they invented and continue to refine the “Ronaldo“).
The club refusing to be sellers - for example, Manchester United - may therefore find themselves at a disadvantage. On the other hand, they do have unrestricted access to the moral high ground, and usually rush to occupy it with evangelical zeal.
Thus this summer, Manchester United’s manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, has been righteously indignant about Real Madrid’s open interest in a certain Portuguese winger. Fergie has been irritated by the Bernabeu’s apparent inability to grasp the phrase “not for sale,“ reiterating only today that his star player will not be leaving.
The United boss stated: "I wasn't panicked because the player is under contract so the strength and the rights are with Manchester United.”
It‘s an interesting comment, and eerily reminiscent of what Bayern Munich were saying about one Owen Hargreaves not so long ago. Yet on that occasion, Ferguson was happy to disregard Bayern and continued to talk up Hargreaves‘s Old Trafford future, effectively measuring the player up for his new United shirt even as the Bavarians were insisting Owen was goin’ nowhere.
Nor was the Hargreaves case an isolated one. United have a bit of previous, as a recap of the unsettling tactics they employed to secure the signings of Jaap Stam, Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick would reveal.
Spurs and their fans might suggest that similar tactics are being used right now to ensure that the unsettled Dimitar Berbatov - a player Tottenham would like to keep - will head north from White Hart Lane before the new season gets underway.
Fergie has “good expectations that this deal will go through,” and said this week: “Berbatov has been impressive during a long time and would be a great addition to our attack…I think time will work for us more than against us. We will not stress this situation. We are hoping to have a constructive conversation with Tottenham in the near future.”
So if, somehow, Real Madrid were to get their way and sign Cristiano Ronaldo, would it be a case of the biter bit as far as Manchester United are concerned?
Not that United and Real are the only clubs to bend the spirit if not the letter of the law when the transfer window yawns open. AC Milan and Barcelona conducted their as yet unfulfilled pursuit of Arsenal’s Emmanuel Adebayor through the media, while Liverpool have been using similar methods throughout the summer in their attempts to sign Villa’s Barry and more recently Tottenham’s Robbie Keane.
Liverpool, of course, used to be the model of how to conduct a transfer: discreet, classy, respectful, with each of their acquisitions announced as a fait accompli. Now they trail their wish-lists through the media. In contrast, Arsenal - who are being pilloried for a perceived lack of activity in the market - are continuing to conduct their business with a bit of respect towards would-be selling clubs. They have been victims more than most of this modern, distasteful trend towards the public tapping-up of players.
No club likes it when their star players are targeted in this underhand and essentially disrespectful way. So it is nothing less than hypocrisy when they employ those same tactics to unsettle their own transfer targets.
It is precisely this point that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has so forcefully made in respect of Manchester United's pursuit of Berbatov and Liverpool's of Keane. Levy has reported North West giants to the Premier League for alleged breach of their rules. And with both players' heads now turned by the overtures from Old Trafford and Anfield, respectively, you can certainly understand Tottenham's frustration.
It would be helpful if Fifa showed a rare bit of leadership by clarifying and redefining the rules or at least laying down a transparent code of conduct.
In the meantime, the biggest bullies in the playground will continue to get their way. But at least it gives us plenty to read and argue about during the cricket season.
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