Michel Vorm's old club Utrecht have followed through with their threat in the wake of disagreement over 30% sell-on fee
Last Friday stories emerged claiming that Utrecht felt Swansea were trying to pull a fast one on the Michel Vorm deal, by claiming he moved as part of a straight swap for Sigurdsson and that no cash changed hands between ourselves and Tottenham. With a 30% sell-on fee in place, Utrecht are understandably peeved as all the way through the transfer talk in the media it was generally assumed there was a fee involved for the Dutchman - it varied but seems to have been between £1.5million and £4million.
Generally these sell-on fees are percentages of the profit as opposed to the total value of the transfer, but even if it is a percentage of the total fee you'd still be looking at an absolute maximum of £1.2million. And that's assuming it was a £4million transfer, which I'm pretty sure it wasn't. Realistically we're probably talking about a figure the cheap side of half a million, and it baffles me that for such a paltry figure (in Premier League terms) we've been willing to jeopardise our reputation - because let's be honest regardless of the outcome this isn't going to benefit us in terms of agreeing transfers with small-to-medium sized European clubs.
After the initial story broke, the Swans commented curtly:
"It was [Vorm's transfer] approved by the Premier League and also Fifa via their TMS system. While we have been in contact with Utrecht as a matter of courtesy, we will continue to conduct our business in the best interest of our football club and our supporters and not based on the views of other clubs.
"The club will not be commenting further on this matter."
I'm sure that, legally speaking, we're on a sound footing. Well, pretty sure - Ki's loan contract debacle and a couple of other things make me more worried than I should be, but I'm pretty positive if the club have adopted this stance it's because they know they can't be prosecuted for it. You'd hope so, anyway!
That doesn't stop this leaving a sour taste in the mouth though. Since promotion to the Premiership we've become lots of people's second teams - this is an admirable quality to have and while it isn't something a club should necessarily aim for, it's definitely a positive. Much more transfer shenanigans like this though, and we might see that start to change.
Prudence at a price?