Shadow industry around football

There’s speculation in one of the ‘papers today that Celtic are interested in a 28-year-old forward playing in the English second-tier whom few of us have heard of.  Celtic will sign a player of this profile on occasion, but he will not feature in a target list over two months before the transfer window opens.  Lists with that profile on them are visited late in a disappointing window.

Footballers and their agents are always looking to maximise their return.  Newspapers are always looking for stories.  What does an agent need to do to be able to tell a newspaper in good conscience that Celtic are looking at a player?  I think an email and phone call to one of the scouts is enough.  There’s a whole shadow industry around football which sits in plain sight but is underappreciated.

“You can’t just drop someone into a football club from the other side of the world and expect them to adapt to the culture, food, training, all these various facets it takes.”  Brendan Rodgers, talking about Yang’s recent good form after arriving at the club in the summer.

He added, “People not only forget it, but don’t understand it, or don’t want to understand it.”  Too succeed at the game we need to understand key components of the game.  None is more important that how to support the development of players.