Vegas Claret wrote:Because 99.99999% of the time these things sort themselves out like Marseille and WHU virtually agreeing a price now. Maybe the cost involved and timescales involved would be well beyond that of a transfer window ? I don't know. I can only give the opinion that I learned from someone who has far greater knowledge on the subject than I would imagine any of us on here have.
It's like the contracts that certain folk have that say "if you leave our company you can't work for a competitor or within a certain radius for 6 months" - not worth anything, it was in a contract I had when I was in the UK and it didn't make a scrap of difference to me, my new employer or my old one.
Hi Vegas, just to distract from this transfer window hiatus...
I worked in the London office of a US company some years back. I moved from them to a competitor. I negotiated shortening of my 3 months notice period with the first company so that I could join the second company earlier (they wanted me there earlier).
At the same time a colleague in the US moved from the same company I was with and joined the same new company. BUT, he didn't sort out his departure terms with the first company. The first company sued both the second company and the individual - it was settled by my colleague going on "garden leave" for the period of "non-compete." Yes, US employment law is different to English employment law. As you will know the US companies were both "lawyered up" and ready to meet in court. I learnt about it all because my new employer put me also through a thorough review of all my documentation and paper work. Everyone was happy that I'd done things correctly.
Early last year I left my then employer - again US company in their London office. My non-compete was 6 months. After leaving and setting up my own consulting business I was approached by a major competitor of the first company. In this case their lawyers reviewed my previous employment contract and said I couldn't do anything with them until the 6 months period was complete (which it is now).
I'm sure your UK legal "TOP lawyer" could get a footballer out of his contract - but at what price? Would the footballer be able to transfer his playing rights to a new club? How much would he need to pay his club to terminate his contract? Would he ever get a job in football again?