The unexpected signing of Joseph Mills this week took many by surprise, but the reason why is even more surprising, Dale Husband writes.
A season long loan from Reading last summer, the left back started on his debut as first choice for the Clarets, and retained his place up until the Leicester City game, where he was replaced by Ben Mee. Mills then went on to make only four more appearances for Burnley all season, playing against Cardiff City, Birmingham City, Nottingham Forest and Bristol City, which all for expect Bristol City, came from the bench or as replacements for the injured Danny Lafferty or Ben Mee.
So not many would expect him to be penning a two-year deal with the Clarets, but that’s exactly whats happened. This clearly highlights the topsy-turvy, confusing, baffling world of contracts. Clauses, agent fees, installments, bonuses (for everything excluding maybe turning up late), are just a few of the terms many of us in the dark get to hear. Gone are the days when just hard cash was transferred from hand to hand. Nothing’s quite that straight forward anymore.
A contractual agreement between Reading and Burnley has apparently stated that by Mills signing on a season-long loan and fulfilling that loan, he has triggered an automatic transfer to the Clarets. This has left Burnley with no choice but to sign on Mills and honour that contract. But this has left us with nothing more than squad member that clearly doesn’t feature in Dyche’s first team plans. It’s something Burnley could do without too, with Dyche summoned to trim the squad and its wage budget, players triggering contract clauses is the last thing he needs. It’s left us a bit red-faced and maybe next time, the Club think twice before signing off deals like this.
Hopefully Mills, who made an impressive start on his debut, can surprise us all and be one of the best decisions we ever made. But, it will certainly give us food for thought the next time we sign up loan deals.
Sound familiar?
I think the difference is that Mills was under contract at Reading until the end of the 2013/14 season. So the deal that took him to Burnley was structured as a season loan followed by a permanent transfer to get him off Readings books - i.e. it was a part of the contract between the two clubs.
That's no the case with Rooney. Birmingham don't have an interest in him once 1st July rolls around, when he'll be a free agent, so I doubt that the deal between the clubs will have contained any such transfer clause.
From what's been published the terms of the loan agreement with the player does apparently contain a clause that promises a permanent contract offer this summer, but I'm not sure how legally binding that will be.
