In recent years there have been COUNTLESS times that this or that clause in a players contract, be that players sold or still under contract, have come back to bite us in the arse, yet I cannot recall the last time we actually saw one of these that benefited us?
Well, not under the Storrieteller era anyway!
We signed player after player, and subsequently sold them again, to then find out that we did this then having to pay a ‘sell on fee’ to such and such a club – at times we have even had to give a sell on fee to the club signing them, in the case of Younes Kaboul going back to Spurs I seem to recall.
Others such as Sulley Muntari and Lassana Diarra came and went with us then having to pay sell on fees to Udinese and Arsenal respectively.
I wonder just how many of these players, the likes of Kaboul, Muntari, Diarra, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Glen Johnson and Niko Kranjcar were actually sold with a sell on clause BENEFITING Pompey?
My betting would be that Storrieteller did not sell many, if any, of these players with the foresight of looking for Pompey to get a sell on fee for their eventual sale…
I believe that Spurs stand to pocket some £6m from the sale of Darren Bent from Sunderland to Villa, because they had a sell on fee clause inserted when they sold him.
These clauses, maybe not so much sell of fees, are something that I hate, it seems that you can add them in for all manor of things. Yet it seems that we are, or at least were under the Storrieteller regime, happy to insert them left right and centre, so long as PFC does not benefit!
One thing that David Lampitt needs to take note of is these clauses and making sure we look to benefit from them, and from the looks of it given the ‘small’ clause involved in Matty Ritchie’s transfer to Swindon, we will.
I would ‘guess’ that we will soon find out if Storrieteller actually did do a ‘good bit of business’ for Pompey with one player as Kranjcar looks destined to leave Spurs this month.
Talks of a £6m move to Newcastle – quite how we could flog him for £1.5m, contract drawing to an end or not, and then Spurs sell him for four times as much less than 18-months later is crazy – are rife. Although ‘if’ this move, or another, happens we will have the ‘sell on fee’ question answered as far as he is concerned.
I will not be holding my breath though!
But lets just hope some foresight was given and sell on fees for all these high profile players that have left in the past 24-months or so, most of whom arrived with such clauses inserted to their contracts to begin with, were inserted when they departed, as we could be on for a much needed windfall from the ‘probable’ moves of Kranjcar, Muntari and Diarra this month.
As said though I will not be holding my breath, but will be keeping my fingers crossed…
PLAY UP POMPEY!
