The secretive world of football agents is exposed today with more revelations from the Football Leaks website.
On the surface Swansea’s decision to sack Michael Laudrup in February 2014 seemed strange with the Dane delivering the League Cup and the club edging up the Premier League ladder.
Gary Monk was promoted from within with supporters puzzled by the change in direction.
Uncertainty has followed with Swansea now sitting bottom of the table, staring relegation in the face and under the management of Bob Bradley with his first English appointment.
Football Leaks is uncovering an incredible amount of information with mainstream publications loving the availability of documents that would normally be way out of bounds.
No details relating to Scottish football have emerged yet but for Swansea fans the insight into the Laudrup times is priceless.
Today The Sun reports: According to an article in Danish newspaper Politiken, based on the Football Leaks dossier, Jenkins (Huw, Swansea Chief Executive) told the LMA (League Managers Association) : “The club had suspected that Michael Laudrup did not want a given player to come to the club, unless Bayram Tutumlu was involved in that transfer.
“The club is still investigating player transfers in order to determine whether they were concluded at the club’s expense during Bayram Tutumlu’s association with the club, and the extent (if any) of Michael Laudrup’s involvement.
“There are a number of transactions and dealings with players about which the club has concerns, which led the club to conclude he was attempting to materially benefit from transactions at the expense of the club.”
The Sun added: “While his friend Laudrup was in charge at Swansea, Tutumlu is said to have received secret commissions in at least SEVEN deals, according to the documents.
“It allegedly all began with Laudrup’s first signing, Chico Flores, closely followed by £5.5m signing Pablo Hernandez in August 2012.
“Tutumlu allegedly also took a cut of loan deals involving Roland Lamah and Alvaro Vazquez, plus more than £1m out of each of the free transfer arrivals, Jose Canas and Alejandro Pozuelo, from Real Betis in the summer of 2013.”
The football authorities have been trying for decades to licence and regulate agents but with commissions measured in their millions it seems impossible to prevent clubs and managers dealing through favoured agents with fans and television subscribers ultimately paying the price.