Anatomy of a Transfer: Your Questions Answered
The Athletic FC Podcast
The Athletic
4.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Exotic clauses, tapping up and how much agents really get paid. Your questions answered is the transfer special that you control.
Adam Leventhal heads to Malaga and beyond to pose your enquiries to those operating in the transfer market right now.
Contributions and insight comes from 15 representatives from multiple Premier League, European and global clubs — including takes from the U.S., Brazil, Morocco, Japan and Australia — and financial and legal experts with a deep knowledge of the transfer business.
Scouts, sporting directors, agents and former players telling you what it's really like working in the transfer business.
Writer & Presenter: Adam Leventhal
Producer: Jay Beale
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC. |
| 0:04.7 | Hi, it's Adam Leventhal, senior broadcaster and writer from The Athletic. |
| 0:09.8 | And I've always wanted to do something like this. |
| 0:13.0 | Previously, on anatomy of a transfer. |
| 0:17.2 | It's a rollercoast that there's so many ups and downs. |
| 0:20.1 | The transfer world is crazy. It's tumultuous. It's wild. |
| 0:23.9 | Things can really change on an hourly basis. |
| 0:26.6 | That's my job to create a situation where everybody feels like they're getting 70% of what they want. |
| 0:32.0 | It was literally one day you're at the football club. |
| 0:34.5 | The next day you're the other end of the country and you're signing elsewhere. |
| 0:41.5 | So, we covered a lot about the world of transfers in that first edition in 2025, but this |
| 0:48.0 | special episode of the Athletic FC podcast is something a little bit different. |
| 0:53.2 | You have been put in control. We ask subscribers of |
| 0:56.9 | the Athletic, what is the one thing that you've always wanted to know about how the transfer |
| 1:01.5 | business works? Do agents fees count against PSO? When a player goes on strike, do they still get paid? |
| 1:07.7 | What proportion of transfer fees is typically paid as a lump sum nowadays? |
| 1:11.0 | How much tapping up is tolerated by clubs? |
| 1:13.5 | What does it mean? |
| 1:13.6 | What the clubs actually make a bid? |
| 1:16.4 | As you can hear, there are a lot. |
| 1:18.8 | Hundreds of questions via comments and emails. |
| 1:21.8 | And it was my pledge to you to get you some answers from the people in the know. |
... |
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