[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.