[Dancingwilldoit]

Lets face it, your average player has only one brain cell when it comes to common sense and I think some of them would struggle to know which way up to hold the contract let alone know where sign it without somebody to show them. But give them a football and another part of the brain engages (well in some cases !)
That's why agents rule the roost and most players are so thick that whatever their agent says they will believe. Agents cant lose can they.

[spireitematt]

While some players have more input over what they want their agent to negotiate on their behalf I very much doubt there is a player in English football who is well enough versed with the law to be able to negotiate his own contract and make sure it is written correctly once the details have been agreed!!  Agents started as essentially lawyers to protect the  player's interest when a contract was written and then signed and I still think they are needed for this.  Problems arise when individual players think a mate can do the negotiations for them and thats when you see situations like Sterlings or Berahino's.  In reality you rarely hear anything from most of the professional agents, they don't need the publicity as they work off word of mouth to get new clients, but once clubs started going against handshake deals and started to involve lawyers on their side, the players needed to follow suit.

You make a good point but do footballers really need agents to look after them? Football is a simple game and I think agents complicate it what with clauses in contracts e.g. wage after scoring 25 goals or wage after making 25 appearances. Football agents run the game and when a club has offered a player a good contract, wage and incentives the agent will always try and push it one step too far and when they do push it one step too far the deal breaks down, the club lose a good player and the agent then has to try and find the player a new suitable club.

Sterling is a good player and he's spent 3 seasons at Liverpool and he thinks that a top European club will come in for him and he will walk into there starting eleven just like that. We've all seen players like it at any level they get told there good and then they become arrogant with it and let it get to there head and don't feel like they need to try because they think they've made it. Sterling is very lucky to be playing at Liverpool.

[St Charles Owl]

While some players have more input over what they want their agent to negotiate on their behalf I very much doubt there is a player in English football who is well enough versed with the law to be able to negotiate his own contract and make sure it is written correctly once the details have been agreed!!  Agents started as essentially lawyers to protect the  player's interest when a contract was written and then signed and I still think they are needed for this.  Problems arise when individual players think a mate can do the negotiations for them and thats when you see situations like Sterlings or Berahino's.  In reality you rarely hear anything from most of the professional agents, they don't need the publicity as they work off word of mouth to get new clients, but once clubs started going against handshake deals and started to involve lawyers on their side, the players needed to follow suit.

You make a good point but do footballers really need agents to look after them? Football is a simple game and I think agents complicate it what with clauses in contracts e.g. wage after scoring 25 goals or wage after making 25 appearances. Football agents run the game and when a club has offered a player a good contract, wage and incentives the agent will always try and push it one step too far and when they do push it one step too far the deal breaks down, the club lose a good player and the agent then has to try and find the player a new suitable club.

Sterling is a good player and he's spent 3 seasons at Liverpool and he thinks that a top European club will come in for him and he will walk into there starting eleven just like that. We've all seen players like it at any level they get told there good and then they become arrogant with it and let it get to there head and don't feel like they need to try because they think they've made it. Sterling is very lucky to be playing at Liverpool.

The whole landscape of football has altered though in the last 20 years.  I would bet the reason why footballers have agents is because the teams employed lawyers and they ended up negotiating with a lawyer rather than a manager like it used to be.  Plus now that teams are owned by rich businessmen I would guarantee that they would screw the players with regards to the fine print in their contracts without someone looking after the players interests!! If the players don't have agents, who is going to look after their interests?  The money flowing into football should in reality find its way into the pockets fo the main attraction, and thats the players.  If it was left to the owners to decide that then they would try to get the players on the cheap without bonuses, sell on clauses, signing on fees etc and clubs like Man Utd or Arsenal etc would simply get players because of who they are without the players having any say on their contracts.  

Players contracts never used to be full of clauses or bonuses etc, they were paid a wage plus expenses and that was it.  Now I don't know who was first to start adding things in, I imagine it was both sides anyway, but a contract for a footballer now is nothing like the ones we have for our jobs, its more of a legal document akin to our mortgage paperwork, for me that why they need agents.  The ones who really missed out on this was the PFA, if they had had the foresight to see what would happen then they should have set up themselves to act as the agents for all footballers but I am not sure they would have done as good a job for the players as the professional agents have done.

I am not saying any of it is right, but once football became a real going concern and money maker like it is, then all the participants wanted their piece of the growing pie.  Without agents the players would be left high and dry by the owners, guys who are almost 100% of the time better business people, therefore better more crafty negotiators than the player is himself.  The money that flows into football will always in the main either go to the owner or the players, agents make sure the players maximize their cut.