Well Tommy Wright, the assistant manager at Barnsley, is the first casualty in the Championship. I wonder how much influence this corrupt specimen had in the Bradshaw deal which saw Barnsley pinch him from under our noses? No wonder TS was so wary and scathing about the part played by agents in the transfer window. Perhaps this could be our passage to survival - teams who have indulged in illegal transfer deals being punished by the FA in terms of massive points deductions!!

I suspect it is and has been pretty widespread. Lots of people will be looking over their shoulders. We've all seen transfer dealings at lots of clubs that make us wonder. Players brought in, hardly play, shipped out again, same agents used repeatedly, family of managers involved in dealings somewhere in the chain, managers signing the same players again and again. I'm not of course suggesting that any of that of itself points to corruption in any particular instance because I simply don't know. Of course managers can say perhaps with justification that they like to sign players they've worked with before, or that a particular player didn't work out, or that they like working with people they know and trust. That is why it is hard to spot the dodgy in amongst the genuine and it would be wrong to tar everyone with the same brush because I'm sure (or would at least like to think) that most are genuine. In the crazy world of football though it is too easy to set up ways of 'getting around the rules' as some might put it and explain things away. What is needed is greater transparency, accountability and scrutiny and a clearer understanding of what a conflict of interest looks like. Otherwise there will always be rumour, conjecture and no doubt a few who are prepared to take the risk for the quick reward.

you hit it on the head smiler.

The systems in place and the way football recruits are wide open. Theres simply no process one could put in place that would stop the kind of unfair and greed based practices that obviously occur.

How widespread? its got to be endemic.

It happens in the average work place. Its going to happen in football.

Id be very surprised if we haven't had some deals on wheels at NYS too