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Did Town get the Delap deal wrong? Football finance expert on summer departures

The striker joined the Blues from Manchester City last summer. As part of the deal, the Cityzens had a buy-back clause, but there was also crucially a £30m release clause that a buying club could trigger in the event of Town being relegated.

Of course, they did finish in the bottom three and will be playing in the Championship next season, which allowed Delap to depart Portman Road for a fee well below his market value.

Asked about the deal, Maguire told the East Anglian Daily Times and Ipswich Star: “I think it’s the nature of modern football. In order to get Delap to come to Ipswich in the first place, you had to offer him some sort of insurance policy.

“If he did well and the club relatively didn’t do well, which I think is probably a fair summation, then he shouldn’t be prohibited from continuing his career in the Premier League.

“If that £30m relegation release clause wasn’t in the contract, there’s a chance that he might have looked for an alternative and you wouldn’t have seen him play for Ipswich last season.

Delap left Suffolk for less than his market valueDelap left Suffolk for less than his market value (Image: Ross Halls)

“There’s two types of profit. There’s the cash profit – bought for £20m, City probably had a 15-20% sell-on clause, and he’s sold for £30m. So that’s a cash profit of £8m.

“On a five-year contract, his book value decreases by 20% each year, so his book value would have been £15m, sold for £30m, City would have got £2m, so you’re looking at a £13m profit, which goes into your PSR calculations.

“I think Ipswich are in a very strong position this summer in terms of their ability to recruit, looking at the losses of the club.

“They were sizeable, no doubt about it, in the Championship. The club lost £40m, which isn’t great, but by Championship standards I’ve seen far higher, I can assure you.

“I think fans should be relatively relaxed in terms of Ipswich’s ability to generate profits from this deal and utilise that in the summer market.

“At the same time, I would be frustrated because there’s no doubt that his fair market value is far higher than £30m. That’s modern football, and agents and players in particular want to preserve their options.

“For every pound that Chelsea didn’t pay for Delap last week was an extra pound that can go to the player in terms of an enhanced contract.”

Reports suggest that Omari Hutchinson has a £35m relegation release clause in his contractReports suggest that Omari Hutchinson has a £35m relegation release clause in his contract (Image: Ross Halls)

This is the first time that Ipswich have been stung by a relegation release clause in this way. There have been reports that Omari Hutchinson has one worth £35m in his contract, and it’s certainly possible that other players have them too.

Does that mean that they have become a common part of football at the highest level?

“Yes,” Maguire stated. “Certainly agents have cottoned on to them. There are broader issues in terms of clubs that aren’t relegated.

“We’ve just seen [Matheus] Cunha go from Wolves to Manchester United for £62.5m, he’s arguably worth more than that.

“If you want to attract the player to come to you in the first place and you aren’t, should we say, a destination club – I support Brighton and I know they have players with similar clauses in contracts when they sign players.

“It’s modern football. Players want to play at the highest level, they want to play in the Champions League, they want the opportunity to be able to promote themselves in terms of getting into international football as well.

“You’re more likely to do that at the high-profile clubs than the middle-class ones. That’s embedded into contracts.

“Chief executives will sign it with a gnashing of teeth, because what the agent will say is, ‘If Ipswich aren’t prepared to do that, Liam has also had an offer from Wolves or Brentford, Crystal Palace’ - Clubs sort of in that similar ballpark who have decent but not unlimited opportunities to invest in players at the start of the season.”

Axel Tuanzebe will be able to leave Portman Road for free this summerAxel Tuanzebe will be able to leave Portman Road for free this summer (Image: Ross Halls)

Delap has gone. Massimo Luongo and Marcus Harness were both released. Cameron Burgess has left on a Bosman free, while Axel Tuanzebe will be able to do the same if he chooses to.

We’ve seen countless rumours. Dara O’Shea, Ben Johnson, Sammie Szmodics and George Hirst are among the players who have been linked with moves away from Suffolk.

Some chopping and changing, as manager McKenna has said, is natural, but how much should Town fans expect following relegation?

“If they are good players, there are Premier League clubs who are interested in signing them,” Maguire explained.

“Given that they will have relegation clauses in their contracts, if the player wants to maximise their remuneration – which is fair enough – and there are other clubs in the Premier League who think that the likes of [Omari] Hutchinson can perform at that level and proved themselves last season, you can understand it from a recruiting point of view and the player’s point of view.

“They get a higher wage, they get an opportunity to play at Old Trafford and Anfield and so on.

“Sometimes we tend to think of footballers as robots. I’m very, very fortunate that I teach for the Professional Footballers’ Association at their business school, so I get to know them as students, but also listening to them, they are football fans just as much as we are.

Kieran McKenna is expecting some change in his squad this summerKieran McKenna is expecting some change in his squad this summer (Image: Ross Halls)

“It’s with no disrespect, but the chance to go to Anfield rather than Middlesbrough on a Tuesday night, what would your choice be? Well the players’ reaction is exactly the same as ours.

“It’s a modern feature of football. We saw Leicester and Leeds, when they were relegated, their best players go, partly due to the fact that there’s a demand for them from the Premier League, but also for PSR reasons as well.

“It’s tough trading in the Championship. The net spend in the Championship, for the last few years, has been negative. If you take a look at the 24 clubs as a whole, we’re seeing more and more transactions between the Premier League and the Championship than we were five, 10 years ago.

“This is partly due to there being really good players in the Premier League, but it’s also harder to recruit players from Europe, because in the post-Brexit environment, we now have a different set of rules in terms of needing government body endorsements and so on.”

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