· December 21 2024, 10:20
**Last night one of my esteemed colleagues posted a link in our Discord chat and when I saw that it was from The Athletic's David Ornstein I got that warm fuzzy tingle.**
Usually, when it's a David Ornstein thing you expect it to be about transfers and you can almost always rely on Ornstein to bring the truth.
Unfortunately, on this occasion, while it was Newcastle United-related, and technically transfer-related, it could certainly explain a few things.
The headline read: _"Newcastle United player agents waiting on overdue payments owed by the club"_ which set of instant red flags.
We wouldn't be surprised if Sandro Tonali's agent was one that was affected
Newcastle United haven't been paying players' agents ... shame
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David Ornstein had reported in [The Athletic](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6001208/2024/12/20/newcastle-agent-payments/) that payments to agents have been delayed as well as some payments for players' likeness rights which make up a part of their contracts.
The report says the likeness rights issue has been resolved but agent payments are still being worked on.
However, it has been made clear that the issue has nothing to do with cashflow or anything like that and is a processing issue at ownership level.
Could this have anything to do with recent transfer stories?
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We're sure it will all be sorted, but if we're putting things together here, could this be the reason our big players are suddenly being reported as being unsettled?
Agents could be feeding information to journalists to try and scare Newcastle into action.
That's all pure speculation on my part, but I wouldn't put it past them. Of course, it could all just be a massive coincidence and the two things have nothing to do with each other.
Apparently, late payment to agents is not unheard of in football, and well, we have no issue with that, they're absolute parasites for the most part, demanding their own huge fees on top of the transfer fee as if they're the ones turning out on the pitch every week.