The HSBC Letter

Players clearly need representation, but it's a pity that the PFA doesn't offer a sufficiently attractive service. (I've no idea exactly what the PFA offers, but it's clearly not attractive enough for top players to use them.)

 

I've lost the Horn.


Agents are in it for them self, nobody else. It's in their interest to screw as much money from the player or the club as possible. If it's more tax efficient for them to act on behalf of the Club and offer free advice to the footballer then that's a tax loophole that needs closing.

 

Having read the article last night, I was under the impression that the agents were the ones who needed to provide more clarity, rather than the clubs.

 

that's the joke

 

Yes that would be a common sense approach. Therefore it will never happen


While i dont advocate shooting football agents (maybe with paintball guns) i could understand the frustration of GT having to work with them. Things must have changed drastically in his managerial career. From a time when, if there were agents, they operated very much in the background. To a time where they seem to call the shots.. and control the numbers.

 

Beat me to it!

 

I quite fancy Cheltenham away on a wet Tuesday night.

 

Anyone think that we might get slapped with a transfer embargo whilst they investigate?

 

No, I don't think so. First of all, they'd also have to slap Chelsea with one - which they wouldn't dare do. Secondly, I still don't think this is a club issue. I read the article last night and while it's not an area I understand particularly, I got the impression that the lack of clarity was down to the agents themselves, rather than the clubs.

 

The source appears to be a return completed by the clubs to the FA though.

 

Maybe I should change my username to Boy?

 

With your avatar it might give the wrong impression.

 

Is there even an investigation? Article implies FA aren't bothered.

 

The HSBC is actually 7 letters

 

this comes to mind...

 

There was a school of thought, perhaps justified given this news, that Vydra wanted to go against the wishes of hos agent. Certainly, given the articles at the time, that is the impression I got. Seemed at the time that some fans didn't cope well with the idea that Vyds may want to go somewhere else without being pushed by Chovenec. Always sounded to me that the agent was reluctantly acting on his clients instruction.

A few people said that at the time...

 

"HSBC" is quite clearly four letters.

 

..and two characters. Well done. However it was: The HSBC that I was concentrating on.

 

Were any of these transfers carried out under the scrutiny of the FA? Can't remember exactly when that went from, but it would be jolly funny if these transfers were actually rubber stamped by the FA itself during that period when they were meant to be verifying every transfer we made: the Transfer embargo that wasn't an embargo.

 

Anyone got any kit ideas for when he have to reform as AFC Watford or shall we stick with yellow

 

There might be some ideas in this thread....!

http://www.wfcforums.com/showthread.php?12752-AFC-Watford-United&highlight=AFC+Watford+united

 

Shirts v Skins. Home matches in Cassiobury Park, with jumpers for goalposts.

 

I reckon he's got inside information of the club having to reform and facing a change in nickname.. though he didnt fancy using MooseMeister

 

That's my username on the other forum I frequent.

 

I keep referring back to this thread. Gone very quiet, nothing for well over a month. Anybody heard anything, or has the whole thing just been dropped?

 

As I said much earlier in the thread a few months ago, its existance makes the EFL look bad. Officially the last thing the club mentioned was in early November when they said they'd sent a preliminary report to the EFL and a fuller one would follow a week later. Bottom line is no one died as a result, the club fulfuilled the fixtures, the transfer of shares were internal and to someone who'd already passed the fit and proper test.

Having complied with a report, I strongly suspect that as the EFL looks bad that both them and the club have agreed to call it quits, or at least come to a gentleman's agreement and quietly closed the case. As we're not under their juristiction any more there's probably very little they could do other than issue a fine, if the EFL went to the FA then it may open the possibility of the FA investigating them as well as us and if they have other unreported short-comings I reckon they wouldn't want anything getting out in the open.

 

It was a complete non-story and an attempt by some bloke at the Telegraph to dig some dirt on the club/owners in the hope that it would evolve into a scandal - hence the pathetic HMRC story the next day.

 

Along the lines of "Oh that document's too old, leave it with us and we'll knock something up ... Don't worry we won't be checking it nor will anyone else"

 

They tried to imply that the big Sam story was not just an act of pique, with horrified Tele journos taking Umbrage at the appointment of such an uncouth manager to Englands top job, to get him out of the job by making out it was part of an ongoing investigation, rather than a targetted act designed to do exactly what it did do.

Subsequently, they had to do something to justify their claim, but it was a pretty pee poor attempt. They wouldn't have run it if they hadn't run the Sam story.

 

Hope you lot are right

 

Given the source of the investigation was a journalist writing about the 'scandal' I can't see any prospect at all of it being quietly closed without public comment.

 

Thank you for your reply, I am thinking that we can regard this thread as now being obsolete, and concentrate on the football. Yippee !!!

 

If pressed for a public comment, if I'm right with what I suspect then WFC would say we have handed a report to the EFL and are awaiting a response; the EFL may well say something along the lines that the document was likely to have been submitted without the knowledge of the club's heirarchy and we are satisfied with the response from WFC.

I never said that the issue over and this thread obsolete, I'm only putting two and two together. In the grand scheme of things it's fairly minor, if the EFL wanted to create more out of it then something would have happened by now; however their hands are tied because we're not in the EFL and secondly it implies the EFL didn't check the document in the first place.

 

Hard to tell in January how many points we'll need to be deducted to be relegated. I'm expecting news in March/April.