There is no such thing as best practice when it comes to running a football club. Nor do the business schools at places like Wharton or Harvard offer courses in such matters.
Players are, at once, employees, capital, machinery and product.
They are almost entirely responsible for a club's performance on the pitch and largely drive performance off it. In this respect, little has changed over the past 100 years: attracting and retaining talent remains paramount to a club's success. And yet there is no generally accepted procedure on how this is best achieved. A century of footballing know-how has yielded very little in that regard.
"You can say that there is a continental model, with a director of football figure who makes the buying and selling decision and a British model, where the responsibility rests with the manager," says Seb Ewen, an agent with the SEM Group.
"But, in fact, every club operates differently, because the dynamic is different."
The idea behind the continental model, which is widespread just about everywhere in Europe except Britain, is to free up the manager to work with the players on the training pitch.
The manager takes a much more active role in training, tactics, player selection and scouting opponents.
"When I worked in England, I left all the transfer and contract activity to others," says Gianluca Vialli, the former Chelsea and Watford manager.
"I would express an opinion of course, but most of my time was devoted to the squad, because that's what I was comfortable with. That's what I knew best."
In the continental model, the boss specialises in nothing other than managing. They are the guys picking the team and making the matchday decisions, so the more they can teach their players and the better they know them, the better off the team will be.
And, when you are doing that, there is not enough time to deal with transfers and contracts.
"When I was managing Nottingham Forest, I made it a point to take training every day," says David Platt, the former England midfielder.
"What I found is that it quickly became impossible if I wanted to be a British-style manager.
"I had meetings every day: with the chairman, with the commercial director, with the communications director, with the ground staff, with the head of the youth academy and so on.
"Then we had external commitments, with supporters' groups, with football-in-the-community and with the media. And then I had to meet with my scouts, talk to other clubs about players, talk to agents and know what was going elsewhere.
"Something had to give, even working 16 hour days you couldn't do everything. So I ended up leaving training to my assistants far more than I would have liked. It somehow became less of a priority than the other commitments, though I know it shouldn't be that way."
In a nutshell, that's why the continental model is so popular. In fact, the figure of director of football - sometimes known as general manager - exists in most sports clubs around the world.
There simply is too much for a single person to do. But, equally, it's a question of specialisation.
"Coaching your own players, working on their individual technique, assessing their strengths and weaknesses and forming a cohesive unit is one skill set. Evaluating other people's players from afar is an entirely different matter," says Franco Baldini.
Baldini is a part of Fabio Capello's England staff. Prior to that however, he has been involved in football as a player, scout, agent and sporting director, both at Real Madrid and Roma.
"Most managers are inwardly focused, their attention is entirely taken up by their own team and their own players.
"They don't often see opposing players and, when they do, it's usually against their own team, which means that's where their attention is. What's more, they generally see the opposing players from pitchside. And you can't really see anything from there."
Baldini's point is that, to accurately judge a player, you have to watch him repeatedly. And you have to do it in person.
There's another factor which comes into play. Football is globalised to the point that, to succeed, clubs have to be comfortable calling upon talent from every corner of the globe.
Which means whoever does the buying and selling for a club needs to have a clear handle on leagues across the world. And that is impossible for a British-style manager to do.
"That's why, if you want to be a training ground manager, you have to be good at delegating and placing your trust in others," says Ewen.
"You have to have a chief scout who you trust and who's on your same wavelength, coupled with a good scouting network. Most pick their players from the guys who are pre-selected by their scouts. Or, in many cases, agents."
Of course, relying on agents to bring you players is fraught with peril. Not least because they will try to push footballers in whom they have an interest. "It can be tricky sometimes," says a high-profile agent who asked not be identified, but has worked between England and the continent for more than 15 years.
"Some clubs only want to deal with two or three agents.
"I'll give you an example of a player who moved to the Premier League: first the player had two agents, one of whom had known him since he was a boy, the other was a senior guy who began looking after him when he made it big.
"These agents wanted him to move to England, so they hired a British agent to help find them a club. That club had also instructed an agent, a guy they trusted and who they always worked with, to act as the buying agent.
"The selling club, sensing that their player wanted to move, had instructed a local agent to act as the selling agent.
"This guy, knowing there would be interest in England, teamed up with an English agent, me, to do the deal. So when we actually hammered out the contract, there were six agents involved."
Six agents means six commissions, which sounds like the acme of inefficiency. In many ways, it is both inefficient and expensive to do business this way. Would things have been different with a director of football in place?
"Maybe a bit," says the agent.
"The club felt they needed a buying agent because they simply weren't equipped to deal with foreign agents or clubs. The manager scouted the player, but, beyond that, he did not know how to approach the player or the club. A director of football who is comfortable on the international scene could have moved more efficiently, going to the club direct."
An over-reliance on agents in the transfer process can bring a lack of transparency.
This is especially true in the British model, where a number of managers have agents themselves, a situation which one Premier League director of football describes as "a walking, talking conflict of interest that nobody talks about".
But that is what happens at the top. Before a potential transfer reaches a director of football or manager, there are dozens of people involved further down the food chain. And it is here that scouts rule supreme.
"If you're an agent who wants to place a player, unless it's an absolute superstar, you're going to have to go through the scouts and, ultimately, the chief scout," says Ewen.
"And this is where the personal relationship between the scout and manager becomes almost as important as that between manager and director of football in the continental model."
Scouts are inundated with offers of players at every level. Their job is to pre-select and rank them.
They too can be influenced by agents, of course, but ultimately they are the guys who will watch a player half a dozen times and advocate his case.
"When you scout, you try to get as complete a picture of a player as you can," says Tor Kristian Karlsen, director of football at Fredrikstad, in the Norwegian top division, who has previously scouted for Bayer Leverkusen (where he sourced Lucio and Dimitar Berbatov), Parma and Watford.
"If you think the player may have a future you put him forward."
This process takes place even in those situations where agents go direct to the manager or director of football. Ideally, the player would then be scouted more. In practice, it does not always happen.
When Sven Goran Eriksson took over at Manchester City in the summer of 2007 he signed half a dozen players having not seen them play.
He was lambasted for this in the English press: in fact he relied on contacts and reports from people he trusted.
Many of his signings did work out. Still, you cannot help but notice just how unscientific a process this is. Opinions, rather than facts, rule the roost.
That is why the one thing everyone agrees on is that there can be only one person with the final say.
In some cases it is the manager, in others the director of football, in others it is the chairman.
Conventional wisdom in England has it that the manager must have the final say since he is the one who will be working with the player.
On the face of it, it makes sense. But proponents of the continental model raise two objections.
The first is specialisation. The second is that directors of football can take a longer view since they are not judged by results on the pitch
Ultimately it is about personality and credibility. A strong-willed, successful boss like Capello tended to get his way even at a club like Real Madrid. A novice manager, particularly when leading a club in a precarious financial state, will necessarily have to defer.
And perhaps that is why there are no courses in football transfers. It is not a science, but an art. And a rather rudimentary one at that.
gmarcotti@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Stormy seas
Weather warnings show that Storm Eunice is soon to make landfall. The videographer and I are scrambling to return to the other side of the Channel before it does. As we race to the port of Calais, I see miles of wire fencing topped with barbed wire all around it, a silent ‘Keep Out’ sign for those who, unlike us, aren’t lucky enough to have the right to move freely and safely across borders.
We set sail on a giant ferry whose length dwarfs the dinghies migrants use by nearly a 100 times. Despite the windy rain lashing at the portholes, we arrive safely in Dover; grateful but acutely aware of the miserable conditions the people we’ve left behind are in and of the privilege of choice.
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
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GULF MEN'S LEAGUE
Pool A Dubai Hurricanes, Bahrain, Dubai Exiles, Dubai Tigers 2
Pool B Abu Dhabi Harlequins, Jebel Ali Dragons, Dubai Knights Eagles, Dubai Tigers
Opening fixtures
Thursday, December 5
6.40pm, Pitch 8, Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Dubai Knights Eagles
7pm, Pitch 2, Jebel Ali Dragons v Dubai Tigers
7pm, Pitch 4, Dubai Hurricanes v Dubai Exiles
7pm, Pitch 5, Bahrain v Dubai Eagles 2
Recent winners
2018 Dubai Hurricanes
2017 Dubai Exiles
2016 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
2015 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
2014 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
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The specs: 2019 Mercedes-Benz C200 Coupe
Price, base: Dh201,153
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'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
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In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
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Abramovich London
A Kensington Palace Gardens house with 15 bedrooms is valued at more than £150 million.
A three-storey penthouse at Chelsea Waterfront bought for £22 million.
Steel company Evraz drops more than 10 per cent in trading after UK officials said it was potentially supplying the Russian military.
Sale of Chelsea Football Club is now impossible.
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Women’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier
ICC Academy, November 22-28
UAE fixtures
Nov 22, v Malaysia
Nov 23, v Hong Kong
Nov 25, v Bhutan
Nov 26, v Kuwait
Nov 28, v Nepal
ICC T20I rankings
14. Nepal
17. UAE
25. Hong Kong
34. Kuwait
35. Malaysia
44. Bhutan
UAE squad
Chaya Mughal (captain), Natasha Cherriath, Samaira Dharnidharka, Kavisha Egodage, Mahika Gaur, Priyanjali Jain, Suraksha Kotte, Vaishnave Mahesh, Judit Peter, Esha Rohit, Theertha Satish, Chamani Seneviratne, Khushi Sharma, Subha Venkataraman
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Company%20Profile
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
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Transmission: Single-speed automatic
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Ballon d’Or shortlists
Men
Sadio Mane (Senegal/Liverpool), Sergio Aguero (Aregentina/Manchester City), Frenkie de Jong (Netherlans/Barcelona), Hugo Lloris (France/Tottenham), Dusan Tadic (Serbia/Ajax), Kylian Mbappe (France/PSG), Trent Alexander-Arnold (England/Liverpool), Donny van de Beek (Netherlands/Ajax), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon/Arsenal), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Germany/Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Juventus), Alisson (Brazil/Liverpool), Matthijs de Ligt (Netherlands/Juventus), Karim Benzema (France/Real Madrid), Georginio Wijnaldum (Netherlands/Liverpool), Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands/Liverpool), Bernardo Silva (Portugal/Manchester City), Son Heung-min (South Korea/Tottenham), Robert Lewandowski (Poland/Bayern Munich), Roberto Firmino (Brazil/Liverpool), Lionel Messi (Argentina/Barcelona), Riyad Mahrez (Algeria/Manchester City), Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium/Manchester City), Kalidou Koulibaly (Senegal/Napoli), Antoine Griezmann (France/Barcelona), Mohamed Salah (Egypt/Liverpool), Eden Hazard (BEL/Real Madrid), Marquinhos (Brazil/Paris-SG), Raheem Sterling (Eengland/Manchester City), Joao Félix(Portugal/Atletico Madrid)
Women
Sam Kerr (Austria/Chelsea), Ellen White (England/Manchester City), Nilla Fischer (Sweden/Linkopings), Amandine Henry (France/Lyon), Lucy Bronze(England/Lyon), Alex Morgan (USA/Orlando Pride), Vivianne Miedema (Netherlands/Arsenal), Dzsenifer Marozsan (Germany/Lyon), Pernille Harder (Denmark/Wolfsburg), Sarah Bouhaddi (France/Lyon), Megan Rapinoe (USA/Reign FC), Lieke Martens (Netherlands/Barcelona), Sari van Veenendal (Netherlands/Atletico Madrid), Wendie Renard (France/Lyon), Rose Lavelle(USA/Washington Spirit), Marta (Brazil/Orlando Pride), Ada Hegerberg (Norway/Lyon), Kosovare Asllani (Sweden/CD Tacon), Sofia Jakobsson (Sweden/CD Tacon), Tobin Heath (USA/Portland Thorns)
Third Test
Result: India won by 203 runs
Series: England lead five-match series 2-1
The Details
Article 15
Produced by: Carnival Cinemas, Zee Studios
Directed by: Anubhav Sinha
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Sayani Gupta, Zeeshan Ayyub
Our rating: 4/5
Planes grounded by coronavirus
British Airways: Cancels all direct flights to and from mainland China
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific: Cutting capacity to/from mainland China by 50 per cent from Jan. 30
Chicago-based United Airlines: Reducing flights to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong
Ai Seoul: Suspended all flights to China
Finnair: Suspending flights to Nanjing and Beijing Daxing until the end of March
Indonesia's Lion Air: Suspending all flights to China from February
South Korea's Asiana Airlines, Jeju Air and Jin Air: Suspend all flights
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Company%20Profile
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