Source: Daily_Mail
Charles Sale: 'Envious' agents slam Lescott deal
Joleon Lescott's £22million transfer to Manchester City has provoked widespread sniping from football agents at the way leading American-owned agency Wasserman Media Group conducted the move.
At last! Joleon Lescott celebrates his move to Manchester City
Rivals are claiming WMG will now have two licensed agents, Paul Martin and Simon Bayliff, scrapping over the middlemen's commission as they were both involved in the negotiations on behalf of Lescott.
Yet Martin and Bayliff say they were fully aware of each other's dealings and worked together to pull off a complicated deal worth £50m when the terms of Lescott's five-year contract are included. Bayliff will continue to represent WMG client Lescott.
WMG claim there is industry envy at the number of recent deals they have done, including the Fabian Delph and Stewart Downing moves to Aston Villa, Darren Bent's transfer to Sunderland, Steven Gerrard's contract renewal and Michael Owen's free to Manchester United following his 34-page brochure publicity.
The WMG model is to employ 15 licensed agents, more than any other company, and then utilise them to help each other, with bonuses worked out annually across the whole business rather than on individual deals.
Among the more bizarre sights at Upton Park during the hooligan horror Carling Cup game on Tuesday was West Ham's Italian sporting director Gianluca Nani rising to his feet - to much bemusement around the directors' box - when the home fans sang: 'Stand up if you hate Millwall.'
Another unusual occurrence was one of the West Ham stewards stripping off his official jacket before joining in a pitch invasion.
Cricket Ireland, upset at how today's opponents England poached their best player Ed Joyce before discarding him after the 2007 World Cup, are exploring the possibility of selecting the Sussex batsman for the 2011 tournament. If Joyce isn't picked for England again, he will re-qualify for the Irish in April 2011 but the ICC are likely to grant him special dispensation for the World Cup, which starts two months earlier.
Arsenal shareholder Lady Bracewell-Smith, who lost her place on the board in a ruthless coup engineered by club ringmaster Danny Fiszman, is expected to return to the Emirates for the first time since her departure at the home game against Wigan next month.
Lady Bracewell-Smith, who still hasn't decided whether to sell her 16 per cent stake, credits chief executive Ivan Gazidis with returning her four directors' box seats that were removed after she was axed. Her encounters at the Wigan game with arch-enemies Fiszman and chairman Peter Hill-Wood could be lively.
Deano's escape foiled Disgraced former Harlequins coach Dean Richards was planning to take a job in New Zealand after his 'Bloodgate' resignation, before the International Rugby Board hit him with a three-year global ban.
Quins winger Tom Williams, who claims he was ordered to fake an injury, is sure to leave the club but is unlikely to receive a better offer than the package proposed to him by Harlequins chairman Charles Jillings in return for keeping quiet.
Meanwhile, it didn't please the Ospreys squad that their team-mate Gavin Henson was enjoying himself at the V Festival in Chelmsford with celebrity wife Charlotte Church while they were involved in a pre-season friendly against Leeds.
Disney-owned ESPN have made an excellent start to their coverage of the Premier League, but the ever-cautious network will not make public how many new sports channel subscribers they need to satisfy the Disney bean counters.
Insiders say the ESPN target is just 500,000 subscribers. Still to be revealed is whether ESPN will prove proper rivals to Sky Sports or just cosy partners. Certainly Sky are happy to advertise ESPN's matches, a perk they allowed Setanta.
