Modern day football is a lot more than loyalty to your parent club. As the brand of football develops around the globe, the game is becoming increasingly commercialized. One aspect of such a growth is the uncontrollable influx of money into the sport. Every professional; manager or player is now available for hire and some have gone as far as to be labelled “mercenaries”.
The days of the mutual agreement, mouth’s word and pre-contract agreement are now well in the past and anything that does not stand in court, is well within the law to be exercised. The latest example of such a player transfer comes with the report of Kenny McLean. The Aberdeen midfielder has agreed to a deal with Norwich City for a fee believed to be worth around £200,000.
McLean is a 26-year-old Scottish midfielder who currently plies his trade for Aberdeen. The versatile player predominantly plays as a central midfielder but can more than fill in on the left flank should his team require. The player has another six months left on his current contract at Aberdeen and come June, he would have become a free agent.
The state of his contract meant that McLean was well within his rights to discuss pre-contract agreements with other clubs and join them once the season got over. However, Norwich City has gone around the pre-contract set up by signing the player for £200,000. They will immediately loan back the 26 year old for the rest of the season raising the question as to why pay the money for a player they could have acquired for free in the summer. A simple pre-contract agreement deal would have settled the issue.
However, Norwich is unwilling to take any risk regarding the player’s future and sees profit in snapping up the youngster at the cost of £200,000 rather than signing a pre-contract which can be broken within the law by both the club and the player. The most famous example of such a pre-contract deal falling through was when Jaroslaw Fojut had agreed to sign for Celtic in January 2012 but the Hoops pulled out of the deal owing to a cruciate ligament injury sustained by the player.
The Scot has played 29 games for his current club this season scoring 4 goals and setting up 2 more. He will have a chance to finish his season at Aberdeen and help the Dons finish as high as possible on the table as they are proving to be Celtic’s closest title challengers this season.
