It’s a great shame when things like this happen as yesterday morning certain sources were beginning to let it be known that Gautier Ott who plays in Ligue 2 in Portugal for Académico de Viseu was on the brink of collapse.
Maybe it was premature for most Swansea related accounts and websites to believe that the deal would go through easily. Especially when he is at a level in Portugal which is below League one standard. We covered Ott last week when news broke of a possible transfer. At the time things seemed to be going smoothly, but of course we, as many would do - cited caution.
That’s here —> ⚽️ The man behind Gautier Ott
At the time our research took us beyond the news headline and into the Rogon Agency who handle Ott and the likes of Joelinton, Lukas Nmecha, Julian Draxler and Roberto Firmino. Rogon are headed up by Roger Whitmann, now sixty four years of age, he is a pretty ruthless but talented football agent. He has seen many players on his books move on to much better things under his guidance and his team of extremely experienced staff and agents. He is a well known in the agency arena and is the main man and founder of the agency. Rogon are a huge sports agency, they have ridiculously high assessments of their talent pool, some say closing in on a billion euros. And they have the muscle and know how to squeeze every cent out of any transfer.
When we compiled our research into Whitmann and Rogon we were told that he is one of the most respected agents in Europe, a master at his job and very astute. On this occasion we don’t believe that Swansea City have in anyway caused a problem with this signing. It may come out that the tactics of the club and Rogon just were not suited - with the Swans pretty much inexperienced when dealing with people like Whitmann. Or it just could be the deal couldn’t be completed ? There were plans for Ott to be in west Wales this week but that was halted last Tuesday. We also know that personal terms and all the associated finance with a players transfer were hardly talked about last week.
The transfer just stuck at discussion levels after the semblance of an agreement was informally agreed. Those discussions halted on Friday and it seems the Swans were not in favour at the numerous exigencies and unknowns presented to them to complete the transfer. For that, if true we have to breath a sigh of relief at least and congratulate the club on their stance. Dealing with agents, especially a company with the pedigree of Rogon International is very difficult. Their staff and we include ex Aberdeen player John Inglis, another well regarded agent consider themselves to be working at the high end of Sports management, and possibly the Swans have just found out how high ?
The deal isn’t totally out of sight, but we are now talking of the Swans taking a time out on the deal and looking elsewhere.