WHY SAY ANYTHING?

When Sam Goldwyn was misquoted as having said that “a verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on” a more accurate misquote would have been that a contract of any description isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

Whilst that would not be strictly true it is getting to the stage, particularly in professional top flight football, where the necessity of a contract could be called into question.

Over at Manchester City the dastardly deed has been done. Pep Guardiola has signed a contract extension which will keep him at The Etihad until 2021. Unless he leaves before the end of the contract! Or maybe he will fail spectacularly and get fired before the end of the contract!

In other words, apart from meaning that somebody will have to pay somebody else a lot of money should the contract be terminated early, what is the point of it all?

José Mourinho was always famously relaxed about his contracts stating that he trusted the club and his agent to come up with one eventually and, when they did, he would sign it. He appears to be well aware that the only part of the agreement which is binding would seem to be the compensation owed should either party break the agreement.

In fairness, at some of the lesser lights in the football world, contracts are very important. What would have happened, for example, had Marco Silva not been contracted to Watford when Everton decided he should be their next manager?

Marco Silva – Still in demand with Everton but still in dispute with Watford!

Simple, he would have upped sticks and left and Watford would have had to replace him. As it was, he completely lost focus due to the interest from Everton, (not to mention that he also sulked because Watford wouldn’t allow him to speak to the Merseysiders), was then fired so Watford had to replace him anyway and is currently out of work until he starts his new job which is likely to be as manager of……….yep, you guessed it! Everton!

So, by having a contract, his employment with Everton was delayed by several months but they still got their man and Watford still lost theirs! That was a well written contract that was!

(At the time of writing this article the two parties, Watford FC and Marco Silva, are still in dispute over the dismissal, more proof that the contract was obviously crystal clear and beyond any misinterpretation).

All’s fair in love and football…..

Manchester City may have won the Premier League title, breaking seven records in the process, but 2nd placed Manchester United were actually paid more money then Pep Guardiola’s men.

Why? What sorcery is this? We can almost hear the conspiracy theorists and ABU’s spluttering over their tea, coffee, Bovril or teeth at reading this shocking news!

It’s quite simple really. In our table below you can see how the Premier League’s payout money was split between the clubs and, for winning the title, City received £1.4 million more than United. The Red Devils, however, received over £300k more than City thanks to an extra 2 games shown on live TV.

Throughout the season José Mourinho’s side were shown on live TV in the UK 28 times as opposed to City who were only on 26 times. This resulted in domestic broadcasting payments of £32.65 million being paid to United while their rivals received £30.39 million.

The other surprising aspect of the live TV agreement was that Arsenal and Liverpool were also shown 28 times whilst Chelsea were afforded the same airtime as City, 26.

Poor old Tottenham Hotspur only made it on screen 25 times which must have left Daniel Levy crying into his coffee.