Alan Pardew said recently that he felt that only the two Manchester clubs were in a position to turn down transfer bids for their players in January. I’m not sure I agree with him, but then again, that depends upon the transfer bid. It’s fair to say that the Manchester clubs don’t have to suffer the same sort of transfer rumours surrounding their players that the other clubs do but that doesn’t mean they don’t necessarily have to sell. Manchester City desperately needs to offload some of their players to reduce their wage bill.

You could even go as far as to say that Manchester City are not in a position to negotiate over the offers that they receive for certain players because they need to trim the squad so badly, although that would be a little facetious. What it all boils down too are the three factors that determine whether or not a club has to sell its players to other teams: the club’s financial situation, reputation and ambition.

Financial Situation

Different clubs work on different models. The smaller clubs, and some of the larger ones, work on the basis that they must sell ‘x’ amount of players per year. Arsenal and Everton both seem to operate on this sort of basis. Once a year they seem to sell one or two of their bigger players and the challenge for the manager is to take that transfer fee and try and find two more players with it. It is something that Arsene Wenger has become quite good at and David Moyes does well from time to time. The key to the continued success of clubs like this however is to have a good youth system from which you can replenish your squad. The sad fact of the matter is though that there are very few clubs who are in a financial position strong enough to turn down bids for their players.

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You would have to say though that considering Liverpool’s new owners, Arsenal’s sale of Nasri and Fabregas in the summer and Tottenham’s ability to sell squad players they neither want nor need none of the top six clubs are in a position where they have to sell for financial reasons. How long that lasts is another matter altogether though.

Reputation

Even if you are financially stable the power of the players in the modern game is such that they can force a move away if they wish to. Which means clubs either have to rely on the loyalty of their players or on the fact that the club reputation is large enough to convince players to stay.

Manchester United is the perfect example of this, as is Liverpool. Liverpool’s success has been questionable over the past twenty years yet they are still considered one of the biggest clubs in the world. Subsequently they can buy, and keep hold of, relatively big players.

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