Norwich’s CEO David McNally has described Jed Steer as an ‘excellent young keeper with a bright future’ and even though he joined us as a free agent they are going to exercise their right to compensation because he is under 24 years of age.
Well he would be, being only 20 wouldn’t he.
Anyway, speaking to Canaries.co.uk McNally said:
‘Jed is an excellent young keeper with a bright future ahead of him and was very much part of our plans for next season and beyond. We offered him a good contract but he has opted to sign for Aston Villa instead. We’re obviously disappointed to be losing the services of a very promising young England international and will be seeking substantial compensation from Villa.’
Before anybody over reacts to this and thinks it’s in anyway linked with Paul Lambert leaving them for us, for players under the age of 24 that move, even if their contract has expired and they do so on a free, their original club is entitled to compensation to help offset the cost of training and developing them. The compensation will never be the full market value or what the transfer fee could’ve been had they been under contract, but a compensation fee nontheless is payable.
Recently for us, our signing of Torquay’s Liam Prynn where we paid a reported £50,000 despite the fact they hadn’t even yet signed scholarship forms with him – the payment was on the same basis.
With Derrick Williams moving to Bristol City, there will no doubt be some agreement reached between the clubs because of his age, just as there will be for Malcolm Melvin who has joined Notts County.
Sometimes these deals are announced, other times they are not.
The way to reach agreement isn’t always a fee for compensation, it can be friendlies, options on a talent in their Academy and so on, but ultimately it comes down to the two clubs deciding what they believe is fair between them and if agreement can’t be reached, then it goes to a tribunal who will set what they believe is a fair level of compensation based on the potential of the player and also the work that their former club invested in them.
The most recent similar example I can think of – namely because I held out a hope Villa would sign Nathaniel Clyne formerly of Crystal Palace – where he joined Southampton last summer when his contract expired. If memory serves Palace were looking for a fee in the region of £5million and either the clubs struck a deal or the tribunal set the fee at around £2.5million.
Vital Villa on:
Vital Villa on:
Join Vital Villa
It’s easy to REGISTER, simply click the link and enjoy getting involved!
