Max Kilman's £40m move from Wolverhampton Wanderers to West Ham United was one of the biggest Premier League moves of the summer transfer window. However, it wasn't just Hammers fans who were celebrating the move; non-league side Maidenhead United will also have toasted what the transfer meant to them.
With a little planning, clubs further down the football pyramid can get a slice of the action in big-ticket deals, and the profits can be life-changing. On top of that, Kilman has also offered hope to young footballers in the non-professional game, and the Hammers defender has shown that biding his time and working his way up the pyramid at a less frenetic pace can pay off in every way.
Kilman left Maidenhead for Wolves for an estimated £40,000 in 2018, with the Magpies including a clause in his contract that would guarantee them a percentage of any future transfer fee. It was a gamble that might never have paid off, but it turns out Maidenhead were right.
Football clubs rarely make the details of their financial deals public, so there has been much speculation about how substantial their share of West Ham’s £40m outlay was – a figure of 10%, or £4m, has been widely reported – but whatever the amount, it will change the way Maidenhead operate for years to come. Chairman Peter Griffin has revealed that the money from the deal could even lead to the club becoming fully professional for the first time.
“From our point of view, we got to a point where we were offered an amount of money that may not have been the full amount we were entitled to, but the amount of money we would have gotten would have been zero if he hadn't moved,” he told the Maidenhead Advertiser earlier this summer.
“[That’s] “What a difference this money can make. This money that's coming to us will help secure Maidenhead United's first team, the women's team, all the community activities we do and our infrastructure plans. This has given us a huge boost for the future and if we didn't have that, I have to say the finances of the National League are terrible. They're getting worse year on year.”
A powerful example
“It sends a very positive message,” football finance expert Rob Wilson told ESPN. “You can say to the next National League player that you can move him to a League One or Championship team and then he can get promoted to the Premier League. There is a pathway. You can say to those young players coming through 'you can work hard here, you can develop here and you can progress'. This encourages all clubs, however small, to work on developing their youngsters.
“Then, when that player secures a multi-million-pound transfer, a future transfer clause can double a club's income. For some, it can mean the difference between making a profit or a loss. In Maidenhead's case, it's a fantastic reward for all the work they've done with that young player. And for football in general, it's very good news in terms of player development.”
Maidenhead may have struck gold, but they are not the first club to have reaped the rewards of a well-thought-out transfer deal.
Ollie Watkins, England's hero in the Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands, remains the centre of attention at Exeter City. The striker earned the club around £3.5m (15%) for his £30m move from Brentford to Aston Villa in September 2020, having left Exeter for the Bees in 2017.
In 2010, Maidstone had a similarly big hit when Chris Smalling, who at 20 was still playing in the Ryman League for the club, moved from Fulham to Manchester United, triggering a significant payday for a club that could not afford to pay its own squad at the time.
Barnsley received more than £7m when former academy player John Stones left Everton to join Manchester City for £47.5m in 2016, and Queens Park Rangers received £12.25m when winger Raheem Sterling moved to the Etihad from Liverpool for £49m the previous year. Meanwhile, money generated by Jordon Ibe’s £15m move from Anfield to Bournemouth in 2015 helped Wycombe Wanderers pay off a £1m debt to their former owner.
But if you think all that money comes in at once, think again. Scott Twine’s £4m move to Burnley via MK Dons in the summer of 2022 netted Swindon Town a windfall of around £1m. The club’s then manager Sandro Di Michele shed light on the reality of receiving the funds in such a deal, telling the Swindon Advertiser: “If you look at the way most transfers are structured these days… clubs are shrewd, so the idea of clubs paying a lump sum up front just doesn’t happen like that, or very rarely.”
A game of poker
Former Premier League manager Phil Brown, who hopes his Kidderminster Harriers side can win promotion to the National League's fifth tier at the first attempt this season, has seen a lot during his managerial career. He told ESPN that future transfer clauses can sometimes make or break any deal.
“It's like a card game, like a big game of poker,” he said. “Can it be an obstacle to a transfer? Absolutely. If you're a third club, like Maidenhead, and you're waiting for a transfer to happen, then the other clubs involved are fully aware that a high clause is going to increase the price.
“If a club knows that it has to give up £4m on any transfer, then that naturally drives up the price. But at the end of the day, it’s market forces. If a club really wants a player, then they’ll pay the fee. And if a club wants to make money, then they’ll accept an offer. But if you’re transferring a player with a substantial clause for a future transfer, then you may choose to keep it secret in the early stages of the negotiation. Obviously, you have to disclose it, but you want to make sure that the club is 100% interested in doing business before you put all the cards on the table.”
Hedging their bets
The clause is just one more tool in any small club's toolbox to generate revenue but, as Portsmouth sporting director Rich Hughes explains, some take a more flexible approach than others.
“Some clubs have standard base clauses that they don't deviate from, and that can often cause some friction in the negotiation process,” he told ESPN. “But most successful clubs will have a flexible approach as it provides certainty and can change the initial outlay. Some clubs, for example, will allow the clause to change on a sliding scale, depending on what that outlay is. If the initial fee is £0, then a 40% clause could be inserted, if it's £100,000 then it could be 20%, and if it's a £200,000 fee then it could go down to 10%.”
When it comes to an 18-year-old player moving up from the National League to the third tier, League One, these percentages can result in relatively small financial gains. But, as Kilman has shown, when a player suddenly reaches the top, a small percentage can result in a huge salary.
“For a club like ours and clubs in the lower divisions, the money that these sell-on clauses can generate makes a huge difference,” Brown said. “It means clubs can continue to invest in developing their youngsters, it can mean they can hire new coaches or build new facilities. We have 14 pitches at our training ground. I came up through the ranks with Big Sam [Allardyce] “at Bolton Wanderers with two and a half!”
Clauses guaranteeing a share of future transfers can generate money before a player has even left, with those at the top of the club prepared to take a small hit on any potential future profits if they cash in early. Brown said his former chairman at Southend United sometimes used this approach to ensure players' wages could be paid on time.
“If a clause is going to have a final value of £100,000, then as a chairman you might be willing to negotiate with the club to get £50,000 or £25,000 once the player has broken into the first team,” he said. “The clubs that would ultimately pay the clause know how much that player will be worth because they see him play every day. Paying a clause early may cost clubs a one-off payment, but it could eventually save them millions. When you're working in the lower leagues, money is everything.”
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An insurance policy for the big fish
While smaller clubs further down the pyramid stand to benefit most from future clauses, the Premier League's biggest clubs will also be looking to take advantage of the way contracts are currently drawn up, trying to future-proof their decisions.
“Manchester United have inserted a clause with defender Willy Kambwala [who signed for Villarreal in a deal that could reportedly reach £9.7m with add-ons]”It could be as high as 50%,” Wilson says.
“They have to release players for their own development and their own interests, but those players are still very valuable to the club. Manchester City have practically created a whole industry out of that.” [Jadon Sancho, Pedro Porro and Romeo Lavia are just three examples of players who have left the club and generated funds for them through subsequent moves.] Basically, it's an insurance policy. Clubs are afraid of losing a highly regarded player and want some kind of protection in case he becomes a big star.
“You can end up looking like a fool, and that's no good for anyone. A future clause basically means you're hedging your bets and saying 'look, we can't guarantee this player enough first-team minutes, so we're going to let him go to a club that, in most cases, is lower down the pyramid'.
“They are letting them go but keeping this big clause. The opposite is true for relatively small clubs who have found that gem. While 20% of £500,000 as a transfer fee is not a huge amount of money for a club to give up, when it comes to multi-million pound transfer deals, the sum can add up very quickly.”
Maidenhead know better than anyone how quickly those zeros can pile up. Kilman only made 34 appearances for the Magpies, but his seemingly harmless move to Wolves could prove to be one of the most important moments in the club's 154-year history.
If clubs were not convinced of the benefits of the future transfer clause before, they almost certainly are now.
