Bizarre transfer stories have been on the agenda with former Everton manager Sam Allardyce
Sylvain Distin celebrates scoring for Everton against Manchester City at Goodison Park on May 7, 2011
Sylvain Distin celebrates scoring for Everton against Manchester City at Goodison Park on May 7, 2011
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Former Everton manager Sam Allardyce has been lifting the lid on his craziest transfer dealings and claims he once “had a player kidnapped” as he attempted to do a deal.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of the 2-0 win over Fulham, current Blues boss David Moyes was asked about the upcoming January transfer window and declared: “I would think we’d be out there, trying to be busy,” but Allardyce, who steered Everton to an eighth place finish in 2017/18 after replacing Ronald Koeman has been painting a picture of a transfer market riddled with shady tactics and last-minute betrayals.
Speaking on the Footy Accumulators No Tippy Tappy Football podcast presented by BOYLE Sports, the 71-year-old revealed how he missed out on signing a Premier League stalwart who would later go on to make 210 appearances for Everton, scoring five goals, after being signed by Moyes. Allardyce said: “I’ve had a centre half Sylvain Distin… we’d done a deal for him to come and play for us and an agent called Willie McKay nicked him at the airport and drove him to Newcastle to sign him.
“And it took us about a day, a day and a half for us to find out he’d gone missing and gone to another club.
“So, you know these things happen. In fact, it happened quite a lot.”
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The most alarming situation came during Allardyce’s time at Blackburn Rovers, when a deal collapsed in truly bizarre circumstances, with a player vanishing and police getting involved.
“I had a player kidnapped in Portugal," Allardyce said matter-of-factly.
When asked if the player was alright, he laughed: “I don't know!”
Allardyce went on to explain the full story and said: “We flew out with the agent, done the deal. This was with Blackburn and I met the lad and asked: ‘are there any other agents involved?… Are you absolutely certain the club will let you go?’
“In the end the president of the club said: ‘yeah the deal’s alright, you can do the deal.’ So, we did the deal with the lad, we said we’ll see you tomorrow, bring your bags and we’ll fly back to sign on.
“Next thing we know, the lad is missing. The club doesn’t know where he is.
“Police are coming. And apparently another agency had kidnapped him and kept him out the way, not from us but also from the club, until the window was up.”
Allardyce admitted he can’t even remember the player’s name now, such was the chaos of the situation, but perhaps most brazenly, he outlined how some agents would take players out of the country entirely to force through transfers.
The Dudley-born gaffer said: “I’ve had an agent take a player out of the country and ring up and say to the chairman he’s not coming back and they go: ‘he’s out the country and if you ring his phone you can tell by the ring that he is actually out the country.’
“But it tends to force the sale then you know, which is what the player and the agent wants. So, you’ve got to have your wits about you, particularly in the January window.”
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