LIBERO: The agents provocateurs

The transfer of Michele Padovano from Juventus to Middlesbrough fell through last week apparently because the player's agent wanted a "bung" of pounds 150,000. Perhaps so, perhaps not, perhaps just a communication problem but Crystal Palace seem now to have paid pounds 1.75m for him where Boro thought they had agreed pounds 1.6m.

Whatever, the case does highlight the need for more transparency and consistency in transfers, as the Premier League's bungs report recently noted. Why, for instance, did Southampton not get Petter Rudi from Norway when they offered more than pounds 1m but Sheffield Wednesday secured him at pounds 800,000?

The Premier League inquiry team found that old FA rules precluding agents from taking part in transfers were unworkable in the modern game and that all manner of curious practices had grown up. They asked, for example, one agent for whom he was working in a particular transaction. "Myself," he replied.

A big problem, as in the Padovano case, comes over exactly who pays the agent for his role in deals. Dennis Roach, who acts on behalf of the England coach Glenn Hoddle, even told the inquiry that it has been true that "you tended to get your commission where you could".

Thus conflicts of interest can arise with an agent trying to sell a player to whoever will pay him the most, rather than to the club which is best for the player, who should be settling the bill but may seek to get out of it. And more and more agents are, the report said, becoming "proactive" in setting up deals.

Most managers grow tired these days of the many phone calls from the growing number of agents. They do have their uses, though; it is interesting that Middlesbrough did not reveal the roles of, or any payments to, those who successfully concluded the Juninho and Fabrizio Ravanelli deals last season.

Young players also have a right to proper representation when in contract negotiations with more seasoned managers and chairmen and the best agents are those who also advise them on endorsement deals, investment and pension plans. There should be a choice beyond the PFA. It should be clear, though, who is paying whom in any transactions and we are still awaiting the FA's response to the bungs report. As well as dealing with wrong-doers, they should address the central issue of cleaning up transfers with a series of workable guidelines.

The requirement for agents to lodge financial bonds is a start and there will also need to be consideration given to the European market post-Bosman, with the various governing bodies liaising on standardisation of rules. Talking of which, the English game is at present out of step when it comes to its open season for transfers and Uefa have mooted the idea that it follows Italy and Spain in allowing only a window of a month for buying during the season.

It makes sense. There would be less scope for "proactive" transfers from agents and the bad ones might be edged out of the business. There would also be less disruptive gossip for managers, who would be free to concentrate on improving teams by coaching rather than buying. Perhaps all this money at the top of the English game might be spent more wisely with longer- term benefit, and/or filtered down through the divisions, rather than on stop-gap overseas players with no resale value.

DURING Aston Villa's win over Athletic Bilbao recently, the Channel 5 commentator Jonathan Pearce correctly pointed out that the Basques played in red and white stripes as the club was formed by Sunderland-supporting Englishmen. It brought to mind other English influences on the world game, such as Notts County's black and white stripes at Juventus and, believe it or not, an Oldham Athletic strip of 50 years ago now famous at Ajax as a result of one of their managers, Frank Womack, moving to Holland. Then there are some splendid names, such as The Mighty Blackpool, a club in Sierra Leone. One wonders what might be the legacy of the modern English game. A team out of Africa, perhaps, wearing red, yellow and green deckchair- stripes in the Carlisle style and called The Superb Eddie Stobart?

WATCHING Ron Atkinson bounce back into Hillsborough on Friday recalled a line about managers arriving at clubs the same way they depart - fired with enthusiasm.

THE England 2006 World Cup campaign has produced an impressively glossy brochure celebrating the country's assets and success of Euro 96. Among the attractions, it notes, is the proximity of cities. Why, the rail journey time from London to Liverpool is only two hours 40 minutes and "an extensive motorway network brings England's close-knit family of host cities even closer together".

This assumes that trains are running to Liverpool, as they were not one Saturday earlier this season because of engineering works, or that the line is not closed by some defect or another, as happened three weeks ago when thousands of fans were trying to get to matches in the North- west.

The M6 was more choked than usual with Liverpool and Manchester United traffic, bringing five and a half hour journey times. "Fly Virgin to LA," Crystal Palace's shirts used to exhort. If England does want the World Cup, it had better prevail on that nice Mr Branson to start getting his trains to our footballing cities.