Agents in football - discuss

They are football's necessary evil. They are the middle men who can make or break a transfer.

Never mind whether a player wants to join a club or not. If the agent doesn't get the fee he wants then he's not going to that club.

Tony Mowbray certainly isn't happy. After Saturday's game against Mallorca I witnessed an uncharacteristic outburst from the Baggies boss in which he claimed that he was fed up of 'outsiders' and 'advisers' interfering in the club's transfer business.

It's a source of frustration for Mowbray, who was brought up with working class values and completed his footballing education against the backdrop of a football club which was on the verge of permanent closure. Agents were the people you used to sell your house or book a holiday with.

Over the years I've dealt with many agents. I could name a few who are the rudest, most arrogant and vile people you could ever wish to meet. I imagine them to have pin-striped suits, side-partings and slick-oily hair. They probably have bad breath.

One agent, who openly links his players with other clubs to drum up interest in his client or earn a new contract, wasn't too pleased to hear that I wouldn't play ball when he asked me to link a player to Albion. I suspect there are many more like him - in fact, I know there are. I could even tell you about one who managed to secure a move for his client to a football club in return for the player's close family each receiving a new house. Had this arrangement not been put in place then the player would not have moved to this particular club.

Yet a few agents I consider as friends. One of them is a good mate who is one of football's nice guys. So they're not all bad. Unfortunately they're given a bad name by those who are.

But it's those who are who cause the issues and problems.

It's high time these people were brought to task. But they won't be because they technically run football.

Albion now find themselves in a position where they want a player, the player wants to join them yet the middle man is calling the shots.

Surely that can't be right?

Sadly, Albion have to find a way of dealing with these people. It's just a pity for Mowbray and co that some of these individuals, who probably don't know a crop circle from a centre-circle, are playing God with Albion's survival prospects.

Brian Clough, when at Nottingham Forest, once said that he would happily throw all the bad agents into the River Trent. I can see his point but the poor fish might have had something to say about that don't you think?