It didn’t take much. In fact it took very little.
He was asked in an interview how much cash it would take for Swansea City to become a top four side in the English Premier League. It was a cool and deliberate question, maybe some would say a well placed and premeditated question. This was actually instigated some 7 weeks ago to be precise. He answered in the hundreds of millions, as you would expect. And of course as he did so the less scrupulous of journalists ( the next link in this story) and there are many, wrote about how he wanted this particular amount to further the Swansea City cause. In some cases demanding the club spend that money – It was the first nail in the Michael Laudrup cash for players lid.
The less educated journalist, preaching Laudrup’s demands to the less educated reader, and bingo ! You have yourselves a problem. This summers hot story.
So lets pause for breath.
This was the first time we as football fans had heard about Michael Laudrup’s money demands, the Swansea City board having an issue, and immediate club progression. However you dress it up, the words Laudrup, Swansea, cash and players was a topic. Up until then as League Cup winners, Europa League pre qualifiers and top ten finishers Swansea City were just the best good news story there was. But like all good news stories those pesky journo’s will build you up and then knock you down.
They do it with everyone. Especially when a well placed question in an off the cuff interview is the catalyst for weeks of speculation.
Cue then one Bayram Tutumlu, long term Laudrup friend, sports agent and money man. Maybe I should have mentioned him before, he is a clever man, and has many press contacts. Press people who attend press conferences and ask questions.
Lets look at his market stall in this big picture. He see’s Swansea City as a stepping stone for his best friend Michael Laudrup, he has already said as much when talking about Michael’s long term management future. His Swansea contract comes to an end come May 2014. Nicely packaged and signed up in March, but not with the release clauses everyone thinks. Unless there is another club involved this particular contract will say things like ‘ the club and or manager can walk away and there is no cash implication ‘ as an example. I like that thought, and as long as no other club becomes involved like they did with Rodgers Martinez and Sousa – both parties walk without concern.
Our Swansea future is rosy and bright – We know that, Bayram knows that and Michael knows that. Everyone is happy, Everyone knows the score.
Or do they ?
In a quieter moment you only have to look at Laudrup’s stock in the worldwide game to know it will never be any higher than it is now at Swansea. Yes, he may well go on to greater things football wise, but at Swansea he will hardly improve, if he does it will be above remarkable. So his agent has a quandary. He has a manager seemingly happy at his club, a family happy where they live, a club seemingly happy with their manager and a fan base more than happy with everything.
So he sets about a plan. Lets look at the main players here. Bayram is in the pot already.
Michael Laudrup has always been frustrated with the Swansea boards lack of pace when it comes to signing players. I know that many managers before him were the same. No surprise there. When the club thankfully moved on a disaffected and very troubled Danny Graham in January many breathed a sigh of relief. Laudrup, it goes without saying wanted a replacement, and it didn’t happen. Jamie Mackie was one player canvassed as was Kenwyne Jones at Stoke City, the latter a name that will certainly resurface before the month is out. Both failed to sign for Swansea and the first signs ( for me ) of a break in the relationship between the board and Laudrup started.
Maybe Laudrup felt let down, but then maybe the board felt that 6 million for Kenwyne Jones was too much to pay.
The Swansea City board are built on a solid foundation, like it or not they saved our club. Back in 2001 ( and during the previous 4 years ) I was one of those furious enough to punch holes in the disgusting face of our club. This board placed their immediate futures on the line and coughed up the cash, and saved Swansea City FC. Bayram Tutumlu, Michael Laudrup and any number of new Swansea City supporters do not know the heartache and torment it took to make Swansea well again.
So we have a successful manager, in fact the most successful manager in Swansea history, Michael Laudrup, a board made up of fans who take every single comment about the club to heart – and an agent reviewing what was best for his client, with absolutely no reason to be loyal to Swansea City. And he wasn’t.
Most news stories, especially in close season are put out there by agents looking for moves for clients, managers and players alike. Some are cute some are not, some don’t care and many are in it for the money. How do I know ? I know many of them, and sat the FA agents exam in 2009. I am not an agent, nor do I intend to be one, there are many reasons why, but I do speak with some qualification.
The mind of the agent is not complicated, its simple. I look after my client, and everything else falls by the wayside. Thats how they think. If my client is financially best served I have done my job. There is no loyalty to Swansea City in that mindset I can assure you. All you need to find are one or two journalists, maybe a local paper or two who feed the national news hounds and your in business. Spin is a wonderful and often used word – and that is the only ingredient required to make this happen.
An agent can carefully plan a strategy to unsettle clubs, and to an extent their own clients by carefully placing the truth in to the pens of any journalist. Yes, the truth. Calculated maybe, but the truth. A client with a degree of intelligence can also manufacture a specific ending with their agent too. A journalist will write the story, an editor will edit it, and then it gets recycled. Try this scenario in work this week – pass on a story to a mate, and watch it grow. You know what I mean, pass it on, and pass it on and before you know it the original story bears no resemblance to what you said.
The catalyst is the agent, the story that surfaces is jazzed up and a play on words game begins. Laudrup is unhappy with the board, I can assure you of that, that much is evident, but that will be because of transfer timeframes. Thats all, and that is easily remedied. But put that in the hands of a journalist and it can easily become transfer targets, not transfer timelines. In the minds of the tabloids that must mean transfer funds ( an agent can help by saying nothing when asked ) and you have a more than interesting story. Add in the key characters too, and the plot is almost complete. Having written about football for some 24 years now I have seen it happen so many times.
Todays modern communication methods make the whole thing even more interesting. Yes there has been dialogue between Bayram, Laudrup and the board of late, sadly due to the problems circulating in the press they have been a tad edgy. This is compounded as Swansea City have never been stronger as a club. Yes, the stories were well managed by a well thought out strategy, you form your own opinions how, and the gap between manager and club gets wider by the day.
The Swansea board are proud and wont be dictated to, Bayram Tutumlu knows nothing of the real struggle they went through to save our club. And doesn’t care. The board get grumpy, Bayram doesn’t care again, he is on a roll, and Michael goes on holiday. The brash way Tutumlu operates upsets a number of folk, he has a clear agenda, and as we know the Swansea board will not take too much dictating to. Especially when they too have their views and confidential sources who reveal the truth behind recent events. Which is why there is an issue now at the club that needs immediate resolution.
So everyone up’s the anti.
And so it goes, the Swansea board have said before to agents that they wont deal with them, and so I believe they have said it again. This time to Tutumlu. This leaves us with todays problem and a simple one after all that has been said. If they won’t deal with Tutumlu, they wont be able to deal with Laudrup. Michael will insist they do. And if they don’t deal with Laudrup the management / club relationship breaks down. This leaves Swansea City in a situation where they either back down now and allow Tutumlu back in to the club or the relationship ends. Don’t expect an apology from Tutumlu, he will say he has done nothing wrong.
Clever.
I cant say what will happen, i just know what has happened. And sadly, for us all it has been to the detriment of our club. And when you look at all the facts you have to applaud the instigators and main players, they have done a sterling job. The best Swansea love story of this season has been stabbed through the heart with the biggest heroin laden needle of recent times.
And as the main players dance merrily in to the sunset with bank accounts in tact the bit part players of the old Swansea North Bank are left scratching their heads.
It wasnt like this in the days of Martin Thomas and Steve Jones. Question is would you have it any other way ?
Keith Haynes is the author of a number of football biographies and books including his latest ‘Shine on Swansea City’ available here in paperback and on kindle http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shine-Swansea-City-Season-ebook/dp/B00B9BL7R4/ref=tmm_kin_title_0
He is currently working on Laudrup SA1 which is due for release in February 2014.
