The Transfer Market: The Inside Stories

Almost as much is written in the soccer media about transfers as about the game itself. Records are smashed and billions spent each transfer window, but how does the transfer market work? How does a transfer come together? How do you become an agent, and what do they actually do? And what are the effects of a move on the main stakeholders? For years, transfer gossip columns have been Alan Gernon's guilty pleasure. Now, he explores how many of these rumors are accurate, planted by agents, or simply made up—and how easy is it to plant a transfer story in the media. Along the way, he discovers how the market works and how a transfer happens; what a move actually means for a typical player in a world where you could buy over 160,000 League Two players for the price of Neymar; and that almost 30% of transferred players worldwide are moved between clubs against their wishes. He also uncovers how to become a soccer agent overnight, and why British players are reluctant to move abroad. He speaks to players about the pressures and real-life effects of a move, and tries to figure out how much the stars of yesteryear would be worth in today's crazy transfer market—where Premier League clubs spent a record £1.4 billion in the summer of 2017 alone.