[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.