The scouting reports are in; the physical tactical and technical data has been scrutinised; and hours of video have been pored over. It must be transfer season.
Europe’s top clubs are scrambling to secure the world’s best football talent before the transfer window closes at the beginning of September. The sports pages and online media are filled with rumours – so and so is undergoing a medical today before his move to that top six club; the reigning champions have rejected a £70 squillion offer for whatshisname by the world’s richest team.
Money doesn’t always buy success on the pitch. There is an entire deck of examples where the performance did not match the hype (or the fee): Eden Hazard’s £103 million move for Real Madrid from Chelsea, Fernando Torres’s £50 million sale by Liverpool to Chelsea and Kaka’s £59 million move from Milan to Real Madrid in 2009 are three of the biggest transfer fails.
In this frenzied period where clubs are competing against each other for the best talent, some teams, particularly the smaller ones, choose to ignore the off-pitch behaviour and personality of their targets.
But for many clubs, due diligence on transfers extends beyond an individual’s record as a player. InsightX’s football clients use our player transfer due diligence service to protect themselves from reputational damage associated with a player’s character, personality, social media activity, representation, corporate relationships and activism.
In this frenzied period where clubs are competing against each other for the best talent, some teams, particularly the smaller ones, choose to ignore the off-pitch behaviour and personality of their targets
We look at the individual’s online activities and posting. We investigate possible third-party rights issues including possible family involvement. We perform extensive investigations and analysis on a potential transfer target including full social media and sentiment analysis, third-party rights issues, agent and representation, family involvement and behaviour, visa status and non-sport commercial and corporate interests and political views. If necessary, we will perform on-the-ground manual inquiries using trusted local affiliates to firm up any information we uncover.
Most recently, we have alerted our clients about one transfer target’s involvement in a series of heavily indebted business ventures, concerns about another’s visa status amid questions about illegal immigration and that the father of another target was, unbeknown to our client, the owner of all of the player’s image rights.
While a scout’s report will recommend that a club either makes an offer or moves on, our place at InsightX is not to say “you must not buy this player”. Our role is to uncover any off-pitch issues which may come back to bite our clients and to recommend ways to avoid or mitigate them.
No other provider is able to match the level of detail or breadth of information we cover. Get in touch to discuss a package tailored specifically to your club’s needs.
