In his fortnightly exclusive column for CaughtOffside, Jon Smith, one of football’s first-ever agents and a man who was an integral figure in the forming of the Premier League, discusses how the Saudis must establish a decent reputation over a 30-year plan, the brilliant transfer window for Arsenal and Spurs, why TNT Sports have got it wrong, the transfers to look out for this summer and more!
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Saudi’s must establish a decent reputation, Jordan Henderson’s ambassadorial role and why the Pro League needs a 30-year plan
I’ve been speaking to some people from Saudi Arabia recently.
I was one of the people involved at the beginning of Premier League and I was also involved in the early days of the MLS in America and the A League in Australia – which is only just beginning to mature now.
MLS must already be at circa 30 years of evolution, so you see these things don’t come cheaply – though that’s not going to worry the Saudis too much – but also they don’t just materialise either.
My other caveat is look at the Chinese. President Xi made his statement about enjoying football and wanting more top football in China, and the Chinese Super League to represent the best in the world of football but it didn’t quite work out that way.
I guess part of that was because of their relatively closed society and having all that cash leaving the country all in one go via some very interesting deals, so they clamped down on it.
But I think doing what the Middle Eastern countries are doing is using sports as the political tentacle. I don’t mean that in a bad way particularly but, you know, Saudi have a difficult international reputation and, as such, establishing political influence other than through finance has its barriers.
Whereas if they’re helping sport, it doesn’t really have that many barriers because sport is very international. I think it’s a very clever move, I think they can afford it, and so now you come to the question of does it work or how can it work?
Money talks, full stop. Second line on that is money talks, full stop. The third line, I guess, says the same thing, but it also says that you’ve got to have a desire to win. Young men and young women I guess will follow, but you’ve got to have your sporting appetite satiated as well.
Just going there, kicking a ball in what I’m sure will be a very pleasant environment but not in a competitive environment, will therefore affect your international potential so there are these consequences on a sporting level.
I think the Saudi Pro League will have a faster route map than some of the other leagues because they’ll have more money to throw at it – but they don’t have the infrastructure around it. The ownership is is very tight and, I’m hesitating to say this, probably uncompetitive at the moment.
So I think, if there was a 10, 20, 30 year plan, it would allow the league to flourish and bring in some really good players.
Jordan Henderson is sort of a older citizen of the football playing community but he’s a great ambassador for the sport. I think that’s a really, really good thing to bring him in because he will help to bring the younger lads through as well.
I know people have mentioned his support of the LGBTQ community being at odds with moving to Saudi, but you have to remember that footballers say and do a lot of things with every good intention and often have to move through more complicated circumstances which challenge their beliefs, but I honestly think that Jordan is genuine.
The challenge currently is if you were a 25-year-old and you sign a four-year contract to go and play in Saudi, you’ve sort of sold your sporting soul because by the time you come back you’ve got to rebuild your reputation.
You’ve basically gone there for the bank account rather than the cups and winning medals and it’s an interesting dichotomy of views. I think it’s going to take a lot longer because of all the things I’ve said and I think it needs to be planned over a period of years to create a competitive league in an environment that people want to play in, rather than just cashing the cheques.
The other thing is that the Khashoggi incident has affected a lot of things. I’m led to believe that although it wasn’t on his direction it happened on his watch, so I think he and the Saudi authorities have a lot to prove to the world.
To prove that, actually, there is a sea change, and the sea change revolves around respect for everyone. Sex, colour, creed, sexual predilection whatever – but again, that’s going to take time.
You need ambassadors in there. Maybe a Jordan Henderson to articulate that to people and to help lead the way for that Kingdom to join the mainstream.
It’s a big step but if they want to join us in a new world.…
Arsenal and Spurs’ brilliant window, and transfer bun fight ahead as agents fail FIFA exams
Arsenal have had a wonderful transfer window, and I’ve been particularly impressed with what they’ve done. They’re in a great position but the only negative – and it’s not really even a negative – but it’s the anticipation and expectation now.
Everyone will be expecting Arsenal to win the league or the least challenge Man City for it.
If they don’t start well, if things don’t quite happen or integrating all those players quickly doesn’t come off, there might be a problem.
I said to you in a previous conversation that I thought Arsenal’s best year was probably going to be 24/25 and I still stand by that at the moment. I have been known to be wrong though.
Tottenham are quietly going about their business and have brought in a few, and they’re looking at Clement Lenglet at Barcelona.
It’s early days for everyone though.
Liverpool have got a bit of work to do, Man United have got a bit of work to do, Man City don’t have that much but they’ve got a bit to do. Bizarrely, I think Chelsea have done well because they’re trying very hard to sort out everything and they’re taking some interesting steps to do so.
Nobody’s really moving apart from one or two of the bigger transfers and then there’s going to be the normal bun-fight, but it needs one or two deals to move in early August.
In each summer window everyone goes off on holiday, they come back to pre-season training and review their playing staff and then the market starts moving again towards the end of July/beginning of August.
Everyone starts shuffling the pack a bit and then it starts picking up pace, and I don’t see this summer as any different.
The only potential issue this year is that only 18% of the agents that took the English exam to become agents under the new FIFA regulations passed it, and if they don’t pass on their next chance to do so on September 20, they’re out of the game for a year.
So there’ll be a lot of agents looking for deals to bank cheques in case they can’t work for a year or so. Expect a flurry of last minute transfers because of that.
Having women at all levels of the game is brilliant but TNT Sports have taken it too far
If a female manager/coach is good, and she’d have to be to flourish in the men’s game, then I think it’s great that they are being considered for roles that are traditionally male dominated.
From a marketing standpoint too I think it’s great that women are in all aspects of the game now. I think it speaks volumes.
I’ve always been a marketing person at heart and that’s what we did with the Football League when we helped change it into the Premier League.
Do you remember a programme that was on ITV in 1989, The Manageress I think it was called starring Cherie Lunghi. We used that for promotional stuff at the time and although that was fictional, the idea that a woman was infiltrating the men’s game was about way back then. It was already out there.
When they started putting women on all the match day events on Sky and BT I thought really, is this just another box ticking exercise, but most of them are really good and they know what they’re talking about. Why wouldn’t they?
I think it’s worked and the sex barriers are definitely coming down but TNT Sports having an all women presenting team is too much. I know that minorities have to fight but having a completely female crew isn’t balanced.
Personally I have a problem when it just goes too far – and TNT have done that in my opinion.
Kalvin Phillips should move, Caicedo to Chelsea will be one to watch and Daniel Levy might need to let Kane leave Tottenham
I’ve been involved in the acquisition by our group of Charlton Athletic, so I kind of know what’s going on down there and there will be a few more people coming into Charlton, but I think that there are some obvious transfers elsewhere still to be done.
Kalvin Phillips for example. He is at the greatest team on the planet at the moment, but he should move.
I think Liverpool absolutely have to sign a couple to get over Henderson possibly leaving and Joshua Kimmich is a deal waiting to happen because Tuchel wants him out.
I’m not sure how much of the money that West Ham have sucked in from Arsenal is going to be spent because the Rice deal is being paid over two years. They won’t have it all in one go anyway.
Leon Goretzka is out there to be done, somebody will get him and it might well be West Ham.
The boy at Southampton, Lavia… he might end up at Arsenal as well but I don’t think there’s any particular ‘new’ news.
I think the interesting one is going to be Caicedo at Brighton. Can they hold on to him? The Seagulls have turned down an enormous bid from Chelsea and they don’t have to sell him.
Harry Kane? We used to represent him when he was much younger and when I was very front line active. I like him a lot, Harry’s family are good folk and I’ve also been very public that I’m very supportive of Daniel Levy as well.
This could be an interesting moment for Daniel too. Does he cash in a big asset at a good price or does he leave the asset in situ to challenge for trophies in the new manager’s first year?
It’s a difficult decision as Harry is embedded in the Tottenham team but the difference in value between this year and next year when he will be 30 is going to potentially be sizeable as there won’t be much residual value for the potential purchasers.
And of course, there are some younger guns such as Ivan Toney out there. He’s got great feet and a terrific head on his shoulders, and he might even fill that large gap left by a potential Kane exit.