Media interest in Poaching Players - Will it Make a Difference?

Following this recent trend of clubs being found guilty of “tapping up players”, it seems to me that the problem is here to stay – and a few show cases, with penalties that are almost certain to be removed on appeal – doesn’t convince me, or frankly most football fans, otherwise.
People may think that this has gone on for only a year or two – John Bostock was a very high profile case back in January 2008. This however has clearly not been the case. Take John Terry, who joined Chelsea from West Ham at the age of just 14, or Gareth Barry who was “poached” by Villa from Brighton for a measly 2.5M fee, set by a tribunal, back in 1997. Two players that were signed for very low fees at a very young age, that have gone on to become England internationals.
This is clearly a problem that isn’t going to go away, and while it might make a few clubs do it by the book more often, is that really going to make a difference? Liverpool have been praised for being “first class from the word go”, in the recent transfer of 16 year old Michael NGoo from Southend United. By all accounts, the fee will reach a maximum of £250,000, with the original price for the player much lower than that. Ok, so he could turn out to be a complete flop – but if a team like Liverpool buys ten players a season for similar prices, then the chances are at least one of them will reach their potential in time – in other words, the risk for them is very low.
Indeed, this policy of basically buying up all young talent just in case they turn out to be good, was used in a big way by Chelsea back in 2005, bringing in the likes of Tom Taiwo and Michael Woods for what were very low fees. At the moment, none of those bought are in the first team – but there is still time for these players, and anyway it’s not as though the club would be under huge financial strain if they didn’t make it, given the very low wages and the very small transfer fees that has been paid for them.
What can be done about it? Well, banning transfers between under 18’s is an idea, but it still doesn’t cover the problem of academy players moving. Take Bostock – he never signed a contract with us, and thus was always essentially a free agent. Yes, we got “a packet of crisps”, from the tribunal, but I can’t see legally how we could have stopped the move, as he never put pen to paper on a senior contract with us.
Other than that, scrapping the loan system might be an idea – as players at the moment know that even if they don’t make the first team straight away at a bigger club, they can just go out on loan again. For example, Scott Sinclair who joined Chelsea from Bristol Rovers has already been out on loan to Charlton, Palace, Birmingham and Wigan at the moment. Maybe he would have been tempted to stay at Bristol Rovers for a while longer if he knew it was either playing in Chelsea’s first team, or reserve team football. It would dramatically increase the risk for these players if they couldn’t go out on loan.
Obviously, money is a huge factor – and to a team like Southend, even £250,000 has proved too good an offer to turn down, especially with the player wanting to leave. Furthermore, these big clubs have far better resources/can offer better wages/have better coaching than lower league teams – meaning the vast majority of youngsters do want these big moves early in their careers. As I’ve said, this is not a recent problem, and although it’s good people are taking note now, I fear it’s far too late. I hope something can be done about this in order to protect the smaller clubs, with Palace firmly in that category, but I fear the constant “poaching” – legal or otherwise, of the big premiership teams from the smaller lower division teams, has been set in stone so much, that change will be virtually impossible.