Bargain loan deals ending

JOE ROYLE

JOE Royle has warned that the days of cheap loans from top clubs are all-but over for Athletic.

The legendary former Athletic boss now works at his former club Everton as the club's professional development co-ordinator, and speaking at last week's former players association launch at SportsDirect.com Park, Royle described how costly such deals can be.

Citing the examples of Brendan Galloway, who is out at West Brom, and Luke Garbutt, who spent last season with Fulham, the 67-year-old told the assembled guests how very different the climate is now compared to when Royle was able to snap up the likes of Andy Ritchie, Earl Barrett and Denis Irwin for a relatively low outlay.

"Back then, we could take players out of the reserves sides then and give them a rise - albeit, not a big rise - and first-team football, plus maybe a signing-on fee to go with it," said Royle.

'AGENTS'

"The money that the modern player is on, along with the advent of agents who are getting stronger and stronger, means there are players in reserves sides you have never heard of who are earning £20,000 a week.

"This year, we got a £1 million loan fee for a player to go to another Premier League club. And they are taking his wages.

"We had last year a £1 million loan fee for a player who went to Fulham and they were paying his wages.

"It's outlandish. Realistically, the big clubs should be more sensible and see if you are playing first-team football somewhere, as opposed to not playing at all, it's doing them a favour.

"Equally, when Bill Kenwright (Everton's chairman), a friend of a long time and the chairman, reminds me gently that we are not running a charity, you get the idea that if I am trying to do a smaller club a favour to get someone cheap, it's just not done now."

The solution for a club of Athletic's means, Royle says, is to continue producing young talent.

"It comes back to people like Tony Philliskirk producing players to play in the first team," he added.

"That's where we started - Nick Henry, Mike Milligan, Andy Goram, Andy Barlow and Andy Gorton to an extent - were all first-team players in the big days.

"It's where it will have to start again to get Oldham back moving."