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Secret Agent: The Transfer Window is the busiest time of year

The Secret Agent looks after 30 footballers from the Premier League down. Now is his busiest time of the year.

With responsibility to find clubs for footballers, I don’t sleep well in the transfer window. Some players ring me every morning and ask what I’ve done for them. I do a lot but I can rarely give them the answer they want to hear, which is that a great club has come in for them. It’s tough because I know and like the players I work with, plus their partners and families too. Some are from hard backgrounds; football has helped them find a better life. What I try to explain to the players is that I don’t control who clubs buy - that’s their decision.

Sometimes I’ll say to a player: “You don’t know what it’s like waking up in the morning being me and trying to sell you.” It makes them think.

I travel throughout the year and visit sporting directors and managers all over Europe. I can see four or five clubs a day, four or five days a week. I ask them what they’re looking for and we talk. Sometimes, they might say that they’re after a player in a specific position and I’ll have someone which fits their standard. I’ll give his name and they’ll type it straight into a database right in front of me. If it’s a striker who has scored twice in 25 games in the previous season then they’ll likely say ‘he’s not for us’ straight away. If he’s a defender with only six games in the previous season, they’ll say the same. There might be exceptional circumstances, but the clubs are rarely interested if the statistics don’t look good. They have to sell the player to their coach, to their fans.

Personal relationships are vital, the trust between agents and clubs. I go to some clubs where I meet people who nod at me but have no intention of doing business, even if I was offering them great players. They use the agents they trust - and with other clubs I’m one of those agents. From the club’s perspective, they are approached by hundreds of agents offering hundreds of players every week. They have to be selective.

I have to do the same. I personally get 100 emails each week from players wanting management. If the email is just copied from the FIFA list, I delete it as they’ve done nothing to research me. If they’ve done some background and I like them then there’s a chance we can work together.

I’m good with people, straight with my players and don’t over promise. I’m realistic and tell them things they don’t want to hear. Other agents may tell them that they’d be perfect up front with (Lionel) Messi, Neymar and (Luis) Suarez at Barcelona, but that will lead to disappointment. And those other agents will try and tap my best players up every week. They’ll promise them the earth. It’s very competitive, but I tell my players that I’ll work hard for them and do the best I can.

One of my biggest players is always getting approached. He’s thriving in the Premier League. He’s fine for this season, though he’s being linked to some very big clubs, which does him no harm. At least he has a contract – and a very good one.

Now is the most important time of the year because it’s the main one to transfer players.

If you get to August 1st and nobody has started to show interest in one of your players then it gets really hard. The squads are full; budgets have been agreed.

The players have also been out of contract since July 1st and earning no money for a month. They’re unemployed and start to get nervous. I don’t blame them; it’s their livelihood.

In England, clubs ask players to go on trial. You don’t get that in Spain or Italy – only in exceptional circumstances if a player has to prove that he’s recovered from an injury, for example. In England, even Premier League clubs want to see players on trial.

As the days tick down to the end of the transfer window, the job becomes even harder. You get calls from other agents asking for a hand with their players. You start to read the media to see if anyone is injured and might need replacing with one of my players. Or you pray that the clubs don’t get the players they want by September 1st and have to come to you.

If you move a player – a free agent – in September then it’s not ideal. They will have missed out on two months of pre-season and the start of the season. Realistically, they’re not going to get in the team until mid-October.

Money can be very tight lower down. One club asked one of my players to play for free and said ‘invest in yourself’. He’s a professional, he can’t do that and I told him so. Yet he’s in competition with 19-year-olds who will play almost for free.

You have to be close to your players and we value personal treatment. That’s the secret of Jorge Mendes (a Portuguese football agent), he keeps his players happy, he’s close to them. He’s not a genius in contract negotiations but he doesn’t need to be, he has a lawyer. And now he’s got the best customers, the biggest clubs.

There are other agents who’ll call their players once a year or only when a contract needs doing. If they’re any good, the players won’t stand for that, thinking that they’re the last monkey in the jungle.

Players need to be reassured and often need someone to talk to. Right now, I’m doing a lot of that.