Premiership Football Transfer Betting

The winter and summer football transfer windows sparks a flurry of online betting activity amongst its avid football fanatical community as household names are spoken about in the same breath as rival teams, with virtual bookmakers recording a boom time once every six months as Premier League clubs gear up to hold on to their best players whilst predators look to poach them with vivid tales of riches and (titles) beyond their wildest dreams. On the back of which Free Bets fans can pocket a little at the expense of the online bookies thanks to an array of latest prices on potential club-swappers that change by the hour.

The English premier league clubs fling open their doors for player transfer trading twice a year, just after New Year in what's been dubbed the January sales, and again in July when most of the big business is traditionally done. What some clubs might consider a blessing, affording them the perfect opportunity to shore up defences, pep up their strike-force or bolster their midfield as the Chairman has handed the manager a few quid to smooth out a few edges, others fear like the apocalypse, as it leaves them exposed to the mega-money, gold and diamond-encrusted carrots being dangled teasingly in front of them by the league's elite.

But then not a day goes by during the English Premier League season without a big name player being linked with a move to another club. Whether instigated by their own general disillusionment/lack of chances/not seeing eye to eye with the management/none belief in the skill set of the other players around them or as is more often the case, by their fickle employers keen to cash in on their newly discovered star asset's rapidly rising stock thanks to a string of great performances that have sought to catch the attention of the circling vultures (namely the so-called premiership 'big four').

Players Who Dedicate Their Football Career To The One Premiership Club

Whatever the underlying reason – and half the time that never materializes as clubs adopt a cloak and dagger approach – the bottom line is players will always be transferred or ask for a transfer as sure as eggs are eggs. Save the likes of one-club career players such as Manchester United's triumvirate of loyal servants, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes, for every club stalwart who can often play at the highest level alongside a few generations of teams there's a Nicolas Anelka. A player who makes it his and his brother/agent's business to dutifully and selflessly hawk himself from one European club currently competing for silverware to another to further his, sorry, their cause. Five English clubs and 3 European outfits have paid his wages as well as contributed to a cumulative transfer fee of some £90 million, placing him second only to Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo as the most expensive player overall.

So as not to run the risk of being accused of being Manchester United-bias (which we can assure you we're not!) other current Premier League players who have pledged the best days of their footballing careers to just the one club include Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher and his playing partner and Anfield midfielder, Steven Gerrard (despite the close interests of Chelsea for a couple of seasons running). Still, their unswerving commitment to the one club crusade seems trifling when compared to the unfaltering and staggering 24 year career that legendary Italian defender Paulo Maldini gave to AC Milan. Also Italian-bound for his entire time at the top of his game is Roma's talismatic striker, Francesco Totti and Spanish international and Real Madrid relic Raul Gonzalez. But by and large the law governing player/club transfers infers that subsequent negotiations and deals being hammered out and executed during these two now habitual windows midway through the season and during the summer shut-down.

Bosman Ruling Gives Premiership Players More Flexibilty

The 1995 Bosman Ruling changed the shape of the football transfer landscape in the one fell swoop, allowing players to effectively come and go as they please, despite the best interests of their football club employers to hang on to their futures investments. Essentially Jean-Marc Bosman was a Belgium league player who in 1990 found his contract had expired. Wanting to swap RFC Liege for French league outfit Dunkerque, he found himself in no man's land as Liege failed to accept Dunkerque's valuation of him, systematically meaning Bosman had to stay put. Ceasing to be considered for the first team, his wages were reduced accordingly, prompting him to take his case of what he termed 'restraint of trade' to the highest court of law, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, where he cited article 17 of FIFA's rules of football. In 1995 the court ruled in his favour and so the law was passed that gave players reaching the end of their contracts a free transfer, as well as freedom of movement between European footballing border controls.

Coincidence or not, since this previously unprecedented law came into effect, aside from the afore-mentioned high profile stars, the prospect and evidence of one club men has virtually disappeared as some players have taken advantage of the system in place to shorten contracts and wrangle a phalanx of 'options' and individual player 'clauses' into their initial negotiations; and ultimately collected more air miles than a transatlantic cabin crew on the say-so of their agents and advisers.

Cristiano Ronaldo World Record Transfer

And where clubs did actually dig their heels in so as to stop – or at least delay – an imminent exodus of players for whatever reasons, foul play was screamed from the stadium-tops. Most famously, or infamously dependent on your viewpoint and allegiances, was the case of the current most expensive footballer on the planet, Cristiano Ronaldo. The controversy-courting Portuguese winger revered by the Old Trafford faithful was involved in a lengthy and unashamedly publicly played out courtship ritual with would-be new employers, Real Madrid during the summer of 2008. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson (not one to suffer fools gladly or bow to pressure at the best of times) categorically put paid to any potential deal and transfer taking place when he was quoted as saying; “I wouldn't sell Real (Madrid) a virus!”. A comment that prompted the over-emotional Ronaldo to declare himself no more than a modern day 'slave' as his suitors looked to have reached checkmate in their bid to wrest the United No 7 away from Stretford. Of course 12 months later and the Portuguese made football transfer history by becoming the world's most expensive player as Real finally got their man. For the sum of £80 million quid no less.