Speaking on a recent episode of The Price Of Football podcast, Kieran Maguire discussed Crystal Palace’s signing of West Bromwich Albion defender Nathan Ferguson in the summer transfer window.
Making his West Brom debut as an 18-year-old back in August 2019, Ferguson impressed for the Baggies in his debut season last term, making 21 Championship appearances, over which he scored one goal and provided one assist.
The £3.6 million-rated 20-year-old’s performances in the Championship appeared to catch the eye of Crystal Palace and Roy Hodgson, as the Eagles had agreed an £8 million fee for the transfer of the right-back in the January transfer window, only for a knee injury to scupper the move.
However, with his contract expiring in the summer of 2020, Ferguson turned down the offer of a new deal from West Brom, resulting in him becoming a free agent and, subsequently, joining Palace on a three-year deal, with a tribunal being required to determine the amount of compensation West Brom would receive for the defender.
This was one subject of conversation on a recent episode of The Price Of Football podcast, in which Maguire explained how this tribunal decided how much Palace would have to pay the Baggies for the signing of Ferguson.
He said: “What the tribunal looks at is, first of all, the age of the player, the length of his remaining contract, the number of games in which he has played over the last 12-24 months [and] if there have been any offers from other clubs.
“Then, in terms of structuring the deal, what they are normally quite keen on is to make sure that there is compensation for the selling club – because normally the selling club doesn’t want to let the player go, and that would be in the form of add-ons, should Crystal Palace sell Nathan Ferguson at a future date.
“So, all of that would have been included in the final ruling by the tribunal.”
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TIF Thoughts on Kieran Maguire’s comments regarding Nathan Ferguson’s transfer tribunal…
From Maguire’s comments, it would appear as if a number of different factors were taken into account when the tribunal determined how much exactly Palace had to pay West Brom, which includes add-ons in the event that the south London side was to sell Ferguson at some point in the future.
As such, while the final figure of the transfer remains undisclosed, it would appear as if Palace will have paid what was deemed by the tribunal to be a fair price for Ferguson.