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Manchester City’s signing of Feyenoord defender Karim Rekik will be investigated by the Dutch Football Association.

Rekik is understood to have agreed a four-year deal at City, shunning interest from Juventus and Inter Milan, and will move in the summer.

The Eredivisie side are angered over the move because they believe the deal was done before Rekik turned 16.

Under the present law, players in Holland are not allowed to sign professional deals or have agents until they reach that age.

Feyenoord want the Dutch FA to investigate whether this was the case in this deal and to look at the role agent Soren Lerby played in the transfer.

The Rotterdam club have lost a host of players in recent years to foreign teams, such as Kyle Ebicilio to Arsenal, Nathan Ake and Jeffrey Bruma to Chelsea and Luc Castaignos to Inter Milan.

Feyenoord are now becoming exasperated by their lack of ability to hang onto their top talent.

“This is unfortunate for Feyenoord and the supporters,” said general manager Eric Gudde.

“But in most cases these moves do not work out, especially for the boy himself.

“When they go abroad they are just 16 and it all seems great but if you look at the statistics the majority end in huge disappointment for the player.

“He can get a big foreign club, but he never gets in the first-team and is then released and returns, several years later to the Netherlands.

“Even players who leave Holland when they’ve built a career here and even played for Oranje [national side] sometimes have it difficult abroad.

“It’s hard and it’s not just about being a good player. These lads are so young, though and the stats are clear: most of these adventures fail.

“The fact that Holland develops better than England should be a reason for the English Clubs to leave them here too.

“I can imagine deals between Dutch and English clubs on a development level, but signing 15 year olds is a simply stupid. For all involved.”

But Lerby, a former Danish international, insists he has done nothing wrong and is more than happy with how things have progressed.

“I am an experienced professional, I have been a player and a coach for many years and I well aquatinted with Fifa rules,” he told De Telegraaf.

“I respect those rules and nothing has been broken.

“If a player who does not have a contract with them wants to go abroad, I cannot stop him. You cannot blame Manchester City or the young player for a contract he gets.”

Lerby explains that Dutch clubs do not complain when they raid his own country Denmark for talent, as Ajax did with Christian Eriksen.

“At his Danish club they wanted to keep him, but Eriksen wanted to go Ajax,” he said.

“I am going to be having discussions with Feyenoord and the Dutch FA.”

everytime we sign someone young someone whinges and tries to get extra money out of us

agent seems like he knows his shit, I dont think it will be a problem.

Who was that last lad we got and a complaint went in, from a French club I think (Lens?) was there ever any outcome?

Beefymcfc wrote:Who was that last lad we got and a complaint went in, from a French club I think (Lens?) was there ever any outcome?

Jeremy Helan.

We won :D

Blue Blood wrote:

Beefymcfc wrote:Who was that last lad we got and a complaint went in, from a French club I think (Lens?) was there ever any outcome?

Jeremy Helan.

We won :D

That's him, cheers mate. Amazing that there's such a big commotion when someone complains but fuck all when it's all cleared.

Hit us with a transfer embargo for a couple of windows. That might actually hep us to get our finances in line with the fair play rules!

I honestly think the squad is almost there anyway.

Hart, Richards, Kompany, De Jong, Silva, Johnson, Dzeko, Balotelli, Boyata and many others are all still at an age where they can get even better.

I don't think we will have anything to worry about. Am more than confident every signing / deal / sponsorship transaction we make will be scrutinised and made so transparent by the Sheik's legal eagles. As someone else mentioned just another club trying to screw us out of a little more money!!

With regards the wonder kid, anyone know much about him??

ruralblue wrote:I don't think we will have anything to worry about. Am more than confident every signing / deal / sponsorship transaction we make will be scrutinised and made so transparent by the Sheik's legal eagles. As someone else mentioned just another club trying to screw us out of a little more money!!

With regards the wonder kid, anyone know much about him??

I agree, honestly can't see us having done anything not in line with the rules. Thaksin is no longer our owner

ruralblue wrote:I don't think we will have anything to worry about. Am more than confident every signing / deal / sponsorship transaction we make will be scrutinised and made so transparent by the Sheik's legal eagles. As someone else mentioned just another club trying to screw us out of a little more money!!

With regards the wonder kid, anyone know much about him??

he was awesome in Premier Manager :-)

Duckman wrote:

ruralblue wrote:I don't think we will have anything to worry about. Am more than confident every signing / deal / sponsorship transaction we make will be scrutinised and made so transparent by the Sheik's legal eagles. As someone else mentioned just another club trying to screw us out of a little more money!!

With regards the wonder kid, anyone know much about him??

he was awesome in Premier Manager :-)

Rushing out to the tattooists now :-) If he's good on Youtube, sign him up we may have an unpolished diamond on our hands!

Feyenoord have every right to be pissed off, they have developed him upto 16 and before they get to see the rewards he is tempted abroad by a bigger club.

Also why is he a wonderkid?

the_georgian_genius wrote:Feyenoord have every right to be pissed off, they have developed him upto 16 and before they get to see the rewards he is tempted abroad by a bigger club.

Also why is he a wonderkid?

Mancini labeled him a wunderkind. Care to rephrase your thoughts above in light of that?

Also, licker.

cheers

DoomMerchant wrote:

the_georgian_genius wrote:Feyenoord have every right to be pissed off, they have developed him upto 16 and before they get to see the rewards he is tempted abroad by a bigger club.

Also why is he a wonderkid?

Mancini labeled him a wunderkind. Care to rephrase your thoughts above in light of that?

Also, licker.

cheers

You're a fucktard. Care to rephrase your thoughts above in light of that?

Also, you're bald.

cheers

i do actually agree with some of the feyenoord guys comments. he doesn't appear to be grasping for cash at all - just pointing out that the majority of these cases end with the players making a couple of carling cup appearances and then being released.... whereas if the kid stayed in holland he could be playing first team at 18/19.

i think this is what the whole maximum squad size thing was meant to address but they carefully left huge gaps in the rules -particularly relating to youth players. i'd like to see a tightening of the rules so that rich clubs can't just go round hoovering up potentially good players on the off-chance that 1 or 2 come good. and i'm not picking on city here - there are far worse offenders both in the PL and abroad.

As if things were not confusing enough, we now get another Rek(z)ek in the squad !

Arjan Van Schotte wrote:i do actually agree with some of the feyenoord guys comments. he doesn't appear to be grasping for cash at all - just pointing out that the majority of these cases end with the players making a couple of carling cup appearances and then being released.... whereas if the kid stayed in holland he could be playing first team at 18/19.

i think this is what the whole maximum squad size thing was meant to address but they carefully left huge gaps in the rules -particularly relating to youth players. i'd like to see a tightening of the rules so that rich clubs can't just go round hoovering up potentially good players on the off-chance that 1 or 2 come good. and i'm not picking on city here - there are far worse offenders both in the PL and abroad.

Like I said when the new rules were implemented..... it will get more and more ruthless from now on. Whereas before you could let him gain some experience in his own club and follow his progress, now you will just buy tons of players under 18 to Academy and see which ones will make it. The rest will be released and will have no proper education or anything to fall on.

Anyway, you learn lot more playing competitive games against grown men, even if in "lesser leagues", than you ever do in any Academy.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

Arjan Van Schotte wrote:i do actually agree with some of the feyenoord guys comments. he doesn't appear to be grasping for cash at all - just pointing out that the majority of these cases end with the players making a couple of carling cup appearances and then being released.... whereas if the kid stayed in holland he could be playing first team at 18/19.

i think this is what the whole maximum squad size thing was meant to address but they carefully left huge gaps in the rules -particularly relating to youth players. i'd like to see a tightening of the rules so that rich clubs can't just go round hoovering up potentially good players on the off-chance that 1 or 2 come good. and i'm not picking on city here - there are far worse offenders both in the PL and abroad.

Like I said when the new rules were implemented..... it will get more and more ruthless from now on. Whereas before you could let him gain some experience in his own club and follow his progress, now you will just buy tons of players under 18 to Academy and see which ones will make it. The rest will be released and will have no proper education or anything to fall on.

Anyway, you learn lot more playing competitive games against grown men, even if in "lesser leagues", than you ever do in any Academy.

You must stop quoting me and claiming it as your own.

FFP's big contribution will lead to a lot of discarded youth. Lots of players called Ricardo, Luiz and something something "dinho" playing for Chesterfield in a few years.

Feyenoord has every reason to be pissed off. I did some investigation. They lost Nathan Ake to Chelsea last month, some kid named Ebicilio to Arsenal earlier this season, Bruma to Chelsea some time ago. One kid went to Caen in France. Next season their top scorer 18 year old kid, Castaignos, goes to Inter, we're supposedly signing this kid. Seriously, that is like 6 players being ripped from them. If that were us, we'd be furious.

On top of that, I don't agree with taking kids from clubs. Sure, he might be regarded as a great talent, but, as others pointed out, he'll be much more use to Feyenoord, than he is to us. Does he really think he'll play for us any time soon? He won't.
He has a much better chance playing for Feyenoord in the Eredivisie.

A: The league is easier to roll into.
B: He gets more first team experience.
C: He learns more at Feyenoord.
D: The Dutch youth system makes the English look like a joke. Clubs like Ajax and Feyenoord have renowned youth development setups. Players like Bergkamp, van Basten, Gullit, etc proof this. I know we have a good setup, but let's face it; the Dutch always produce talent. Their biggest names always played a big part in the Dutch league before moving on.

I say we let him stay at Feyenoord. Maybe give them a development deal where they will keep the player for another 3-4 years and we'll then take him to Eastlands, if we're still interested for a fee.

I also looked into this and apperantly the Dutch clubs cannot offer contracts to players before their 16th. So, if we were sniffing around the club before he turned 16, realising we're interested in him, he can easily get his head turned by a move to a big club, before Feyenoord can even react, let alone do anything about it.

I say Feyenoord have a fair point here and have a case. If the Dutch government prevents Dutch clubs giving contracts before their 16th birthday and they get nose about a big club looking into signing him, he can easily say he won't be signing for his club, but moves abroad. I believe Trafford Utd did this with Gyliano van Velzen. A talent from the Ajax academy. They wanted him to come, Ajax persuaded him to stay. Three months later, suddenly his parents want to move to England and conveniently they got a house near Manchester. Gee... what are the odds?

I do think the UEFA, or maybe even FIFA should look into this in a large scale. We all want talent, but I think it is unfair for the bigger clubs to bully the smaller clubs. Of course the player wants to play for the biggest club, however, at 16 years old, how much do they really know? Let clubs like Feyenoord have players until they're 18th and classified as adults and then if they want to sign a talent, let them pay a few million (4-5-6m) as a development fee. It is only fair to those clubs.

I have yet to see a player, other than van Persie maybe, who made it to the big stage after leaving his Dutch parent club behind at such a young age with so little experience. Players just get loaned out until we find out they weren't so good after all, didn't get the development they required, or were simply that, a talent. Potential is just that; potential. It doesn't guarantee quality. The more first team experience they get, the better their development is. They simply get a lot more first team experience in the Dutch leagues. On top of that, it is well established the English youth development lacks and it is pretty well documented that the Spanish and Dutch setup for youngsters are pretty amazing, considering the constant talent they're producing.

It might be time to look into joint ownership for players below a certain age - there's a lot to be said for it as it would keep them at the club (and league) responsible for developing them while that club also receives a lump sum which will probably make a big difference to them, plus the other (larger?) club gets to gamble on him turning into a potential star of the future and have the option to buy out the original club if he lives up to the hype.