Thetownend.com

Can we clear this up.........

People keep saying the same agent is effectively running all our transfer activity, something that I just don't see at all.

OK it would seem he introduced us to Smith, Devera and Knight but what about the others?

Comazzi. Did these agents really have something to do with him? Comazzi says he's known Di Canio for 10 years
Goalie.... Again, same thing.
Brazilian chappie.... That he didn't sign is not the point. Are these agents superhuman in that they have players in every league?
De Vita.... I'm led to believe these agents had fuck all to do with him.
What about these other two trialists from obscure leagues?

Do we really think Di Canio and his assistant won't have their own contacts.
Do we really think we won't use other agents in other countries?
Do we really think we won't use other agents in this country?
Do we really think everybody at STFC is blind to all other players without an agent?
Is our scouting system completely defunct?
How do we know agent Darren hasn't recommended other players that we've refused?

I may be wrong, but it appears to me that some people are jumping to a false assumption/lie time and time again to feed their own quest for negativity.

It'd be nice if we could nip this one in the bud.

It's all a conspiracy! Ricky Hunt is actually still running the club and Andy King is using Di Canio as his puppet.

But seriously it's really disheartening to keep having to read the same things from people, Darren obviously has a bit of a mouth on him, he's an agent it's his job, I agree with literally everything you've put here, he has helped us bring in a couple players but I really doubt he's had a hand in any of the italian players or the 2 triallists he would have made more of a thing about it like he did with Knight.

He did recomend the 3 trialists though  :D

But i do see your point,every club has scouts and agents they work closer to we are no different.Like i said no one moaned when they obviously recomended Smith and devera as they are players fans like the sound of but now they have offered leon knight they are big meanies haha.

Wasn't sure about them.

But Commazzi himself says that he has known Di Canio for 10 years, yet people still seem to think all of our transfers are done through agents?

Does that make sense?

I see what your saying BR, I think most people are thinking what with Ken Ryder going and with perhaps the new coaching teams limited knowledge of the English lower league that only leaves that Agent, I did see on twitter that he picked the ghanian trialist up from the airport so I guess that confirms he is one of his.
Although for all we know Bodin and whatever scouting network we have left have made a few recommendations

Granted

What we need to remember aswell is that the likelyhood of us being able to actually make permanant signings through dicanio's contacts are very slim. Once the top teams are back traing they can assess who they are going to be loaning out etc.

I wouldn't rule out 1 or 2 season long loan deals which people seem to be forgetting either. If we take these 3 trialists on that will be 8 signings so i don't think that's being as slow as some are making out

The Italian pre-season doesn't start for nearly 2 weeks.

This Phil Spencer guy has a lot more influence here than an agent really should have - it has to be a concern.

Furthermore, with Kenneth Ryder gone I would have to assume that all opposition scouting and assessment will now be done by third parties, who will have no allegience to us, and therefore no real knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses.

Not ideal.

You mean asides from the manager and coaches who make the decision as to who we sign and who we don't sign. They make the decisions, not any third party.

Again, just a fallacious assumption that is negative for the sake of being negative.

That's not the point anyway.

The point is that people keep saying this agent Darren chappie is effectively in sole control of our recruitment policy, which just is not true.

but BR, dont you think, this agents names pops sufficent times to make our selection of players perhaps not as random as you suggest, statistically speaking?

It;s mainly because Darren doesn't shut up about it, he's a massive self publicist I'm sure there are plenty other agents we are working with as well.

or maybe Darrens just a very good agent and his players are the only ones we've found worth looking at?

not sure what you mean

What does that have to do with Commazzi, goalie, De Vita, Brazilian etc.

I wrote and deleted three replies in response to BR. All sounded like I was accusing Di Canio/Agent having a conflict of interest. I think the reply above summarises it better!

Does it matter either way?  So long as the manager has the say in who we purchase, then it's all good.  It's not like the BEST holidings idea where we would get sent players by them and the Manager had to select a team from them.

Spencer is Di Canio's agent/business manager anyway, it's up to Di Canio who he uses for the paperwrok of his role.

Ryder was pretty poor it would seem, living on the back of finding the guy at Wolves who hasn't really delivered as much as was expected either.

He means that when the same agent pops up in high % of our deals does it not make you wonder if there is more going on?

OK......

In what way does Phil Spencer have more influence than he should have?

No, it doesn't make me think there's more going on at all.

It makes me thing he is an agent who has recommended a few players, which is what agents are prone to do is it not?

If he was our only agent, I'd be concerned, but clearly he isn't.

Not a direct answer to your question, but it has struck me as odd that Spencer should be present at the top table during press conferences, almost like he is part of the decision making process.

I dont work at the club so dont have a fucking clue who is recommending who and what to who and what.

Neither do any of you.

In conclusion, we all know fuck all

The End.

Are agents not usually present?

I think Spencer is part of it due to his relationship with Di Canio, that doesn't worry me as such.  If Di Canio is too weak to have an opinion on players, that would.

He knows what we're after and what we're willing to pay, but acts on behalf of the player.

Too much power.

I find myself agreeing with DV

Because, this time at least, he's right

That's fine and its probably all that's happening. If it weren't for Knight's involvement I'd never have thought it was anything more in the first place!

Everything will settle down on here once we sign a few more players :)

Only if their own players are involved. Hence I have no problem with him being there for Di Canio's unveiling, but why was he there the day that Timlin re-signed?

That's exactly what all agents do.

Too much power how exactly, does he make any decisions?

He's right in as much as admitting that he doesn't have a clue...

Spencer works for Di Canio, does he not?

By all accounts there was supposed to be another signing that fell through.

Again, people just jumping to conclusions.

do you work at the club then?

How was that jumping to a conclusion? I couldn't give a shiny shit how we sign our players and who through.

If we had called a press conference to announce a signing that wasn't signed, sealed etc, then that is bloody amateur.

If Spencer is going to attend all press conferences just to hold PDC's hand, that would seem odd to me.

And neither do you

But still you, and others, have decided to put a negative spin on things that you really just don't know anything about.

Dont be such a fucking wise guy...clearly this is no time for sweeping statements, generalisations and overreactions, but there's nothing wrong with a little hypothetical debate.

For me its a case of once bitten twice as shy.

Now please somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but my recollection is that Todd used a similar model of agents player recruitment. And that didn't go well.  Hence my slightly raised eyebrow now.

But please understand BR that it could all be OK, nothing to worry about. If we get who we actually want then that's fantastic.

Again though, my objection is, that people keep saying they are responsible for all signings.

Which just isn't true.

Nothing wrong with people being concerned.

DV, are you the guy who isn't renewing your ST because we got relegated?

If so I can understand why you aren't that bothered.

There is a bit if they are concerned about something that is just factually incorrect, and then using it to spread their negativity elsewhere.

Well that's clearly incorrect. My concern was the % of signings, and was triggered because I personally couldn't believe we were considering Leon Knight, until his agents name came up. Though I appreciate not everybody shares the same view re:Knight.

So, you dont work at the club then?

I would like to know what Spencer's involvment is although it does seem that Agent Darren works for Agent Phil, it is strange for an agent to have as much involvment as he does but equally I would trust Fitton / Wray for this to not be a problem

The only difference here is 1 of the agents has a fucking twitter account and isnt very likable.

You know this discussion would never be happening if bloody twatter hadn't been invented?

Instead we would be discussing the merits of cauliflower or if Des Lynam's tache was the greatest piece of facial hair in the history of televised sports presenting.

But because of this stupid internet social networking phenomonen people are bickering amongst themselves that we are/aren't signing players from the same agent.

Is it?

Exactly.

 It was always going to be the case that in appointing a rookie manager like di Canio, we'd end up relying on an agent or two to recruit players.  Picarretta even says that we don't have to take the players they send our way, but with the Knight situation, it does suggest that all judgement has been thrown out of the window. Worrying times.

Again.......

Who was responsible for signing Commazzi Reg?

Worrying times. What a load of fucking bull.

Knight may be a cunt. But he's on TRIAL. T-R-I-A-L. To see whether he's still got it.

If Paolo wants him I'm sure the board aren't stupid enough to give him a 3 year deal.

It'll most likely be one year and if he plays up then he gets put out on his arse and he's gone by the end of the season.

Or. He scores a fucking bucket load.

He's supposed to be di Canio's mate, so presumably di Canio.

Which already blows the theory that we are reliant on agents out of the window.

And of course it's only one player, but how did some of the others come about? What about transfers that haven't happened yet?

Sure we are using an agent or two to help us get players, that's what they do. But to suggest we are reliant on them for everything is pure guesswork and needless scaremongering.

I'm not expecting too much from this season, and was probably one of the few excited by the prospect of Marvin Morgan,  The collective view seemed to be that we should be recruiting better than Morgan. I'd still be very happy with a signing of his calibre, here's hoping.

Really? Marvin Morgan?

It was at that point the words 'worrying times' entered my head. Fortunately he's gone elsewhere.

Nah, it's just stating the bleeding obvious.

I don't think its that bad Reg. I'm sure Di Canio and Bodin will have their own ideas on players. The agent guy comes across a bit of a chancer but Devera looks like a good signing and I don't think PDC will let an agent or an agency decide a player for him without his final say so especially as it's his first managerial position and the pressure is on him to succeed. He's no mug.

It just plain isn't true though, is it Reg?

At least not to the extent you and some others are making it out to be.

The way I see it is that people moan when we don't do enough deals with agents: why won't Fitton pay agents fees? or if we do a few the agents are running our club!.

I do hope we deal with more than just one or two agents/agencies though, otherwise there's a risk we'll get duds just to make their pay day easier.

So in some signings we have used an agent, but in another one we haven't.  It seems anything can spark an irrational debate on here.

We didn't get where we are today by having rational debates on here.

Ok so lets say knight doesn't even sign? will that prove that maybe dicanio maybe just maybe doesnt do everything these agents say?

As a youngster on Penhill's books i got myself an agent,his name was Bond....Jimmy Bond.
Anyway after being nutted in the teeth and my left leg broke by a vicious tackle by mad Norman Legbreaker he dropped me like a lead weight...........straight into deep water someware near Lechlade,Bond said that he was trying to toughen my leg up but seeing i was tied up in a sack at the time i started to suss that most agents are very dodgy indeed.

Class  :D

The club has moved from supposedly having no contact with agents in signings to only making signings recommended by one paticular agent,its an odd situation and it should be explained.I dont like it,DRS however wants to bum the bloke..so its horses for courses.

Oh and for the record BR ive always enjoyed your posts but just recently you've turned into a sort of reverse Bart and it makes we want to puke.

The only thing this thread clears up is that Bangkok Red is very arrogant and self important.

Or i see it how it is and that we have always used agents? Just happens that people want to think we havn't which is bollocks.Every club have something like this in place just 1 of ours is just very unproffesional

Next time u pm for a bum yeo get lost. have a wank

Oi! all I said was you want to bum that agent...I still want booty calls

I like him,he likes to provoke and antagonise,not in a nasty way and all good forums needs a bit of that in my humble opinion.

Since when have we never dealt with agents? Last season I doubt that we would've signed Prutton, Caddis, Ferry etc. without dealing with agents. Fitton has gone on record to say that he doesn't endorse the role of agents but has never said we wouldn't deal with any. Or have I missed something?

We come as a package. Accept it :-)

hmmm you could be right,still doesnt explain such a close tie in with one agent

So I have to bum him for 20 minutes out of every 100?

no deal!

Can we still spoon?

I wasn't really comfortable with it at the start but then you ask yourself, would PDC put his managerial career in the hands of an agency or an agent without the final say coming from him? I doubt it. At the start when he first came on Twitter he just came across very amateur, he's toned it down now but still shouldn't be discussing players on social networking sites. It doesn't come across as too professional.

Have we?

Fuck yeah

This is why I started the thread.

This same comment has been made yet again and when questioned, the question is just ignored.

No doubt it will occur again in another thread somewhere in spite of the fact it just isn't true. If it is a true statement and I am mistaken, then won't somebody correct me?

No it wasn't. We haven't made signings from one agent. The question is whether we have disproportionately made signings from one agent compared to the others.

I asked him what his his link to stfc was and he said he is the official agent to the club.What difference does it make if its true or not..I like hating agents 8)

I hate to labour this argument but...official agent to the club? Isnt there a slight conflict of interests there?

I'm not sure what "official agent to the club" even means. Conducting deals with other agents for their players  on our behalf, or pushing players on us (acting as our scout in effect).

Glad you said that.

Personally, I'm just very arrogant and self important.

And every single counter-argument you post is done so as 'fact'. You don't really know, just like the rest of us.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with most of what you said in your original post but it hardly cleared things up and put them to bed.

It is a fact, as far as I know, that some signings have nothing whatsoever to do with agent Darren.

If I am wrong, then correct me.

And that's just not true either, is it?

Most/many of my counter arguments have been a question.

*Edit*

And looking back through this thread, I have mostly just asked questions! <That's an exclamation mark

Forgive me, I thought they were rhetorical

Excuse me if I am being bolshy now, I am a tad pissed.

Forgiven. :)

They were/are genuine questions

Just give it a rest you annoying cunt.

Yeah Si

Give it a rest

Give it 45 minutes and ill be pissed,then ill join in again 8)

Hurry up innit.

It's fucking late here already ya cunt.

And here you have it take from PDC himself that the club aren't working with just one agent

One or two deals have fallen through in recent weeks and Di Canio revealed that the demands of agents has resulted in some transfers failing to materialise.
 
“Every time I have said we are close something happens that does not let things go the way we want,” added Di Canio. “It is not our fault because the club are doing everything to help this situation. The one or two players that were very close, it was not because they did not like Swindon as to why they did not come.
 
“When I am pursuing a player they are sometimes not thinking with their brain and sometimes they make a wrong decision by their agent. We had a problem with two agents, there were too many greedy people, which I do not like. We are not here to make other people rich.
 
“But we have a situation at the moment that is positive. I don't want to say more than this because you do not know what will happen.”