Coronavirus can’t stop ‘big’ clubs from making big-name signings – Agent Oliver Arthur

Oliver Arthur, Chief Executive Officer of player agency firm Arthur Legacy is predicting big-money moves in the upcoming transfer window.

The catastrophic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on football has led to speculations about the transfer window would experience a downturn and will be unexciting.

Predictions are that valuations of players will drop drastically and clubs will likely rely more on swap and loan deals than outright sales.

But Arthur thinks otherwise. Despite recognizing the financial challenges that the virus has brought onto clubs, he believes big monies will be spent on big-name players.

Citing Thomas Partey as an example, Oliver Arthur observed that clubs with strong financial power who regard the Ghanaian midfielder as priority will pay Atletico’s asking price for him.

“The big players and big spend, nobody can stop it. There are big clubs who will see a loss of $50m as nothing. There a lot of owners who see football as a side business so losing $50m is nothing so they will still want to spend as much money to win the league. For them, the trophy is the issue.

“For example Thomas Partey, I hear he is valued at $50m and Manchester wants Thomas Partey. No matter how this pandemic will go his price tag will not change. Trust me there are some clubs that have reserves and owners have monies that they will still get what they need.

Oliver Arthur also advised African players to position themselves strategically to seize the opportunity the virus could create in the window.

“A lot of clubs might be even filing for bankruptcy and those who don’t file and try to survive the market will look at players they can get as free agents, players they can at lower prices and coming from Africa”.

“If we position ourselves, it can be a breakthrough for us that we can sell a lot of players because our market value is low. Our price tags are low when we are doing the first move and the quality is there so clubs in this situation might look at Africa”, he said.