It seems a little harsh that, after months of investigation, suspicion, rumours and questioning, only one player’s transfers appear to have caught the attention of the authorities - Amdy Faye.
Faye will not be remembered fondly as a Newcastle player, in fact, given some of his anonymous performances in a black and white shirt, there are some of you might struggle to remember him at all! He cost £2m from Portsmouth, was about six foot tall, African and he played in Newcastle’s midfield 45 times. Jog any memories?
Signed by Graeme Souness during the January transfer window in 2005, Faye was, apparently, a defensive midfielder who, because he also came from Senegal, was likened by some - who would have been better suited to writing fantasy novels - to a young Patrick Vieira.
He was possibly the worst in a long list of bad signings by the tough-talking, but strangely vain Scot and was, to the relief of most people associated with the club, packed off to Charlton soon after Souness left.
There have been worse players to have played for Newcastle, lots worse in fact - John Cornwall anyone? - but in the modern, Premier League era, I have struggled to find a more ineffective and technically limited player than Faye. He was so bad that even his teammates used to laugh at how bad he was!
Nevertheless, Faye could still end up being one of the best-known players in the game if it is proven his moves from Auxerre to Portsmouth, and from Pompey to Newcastle, were corrupt.
That is certainly the implication following his arrest this week, on the basis of “helping the police with their enquiries.� Faye was joined in the interview rooms at other, presumably dingy, police stations up and down the country by former Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric, chief executive Peter Storrie, agent Willie McKay and, wheeler dealer manager Harry Redknapp.
Undoubtedly, given the fact the club is rumoured to have been involved in all sorts of dodgy transfer dealings in the past, most of you are just relieved to see, for the time being at least, that Newcastle United do not appear to have done anything wrong other than sign Faye in the first place.
As things stand, there has been no suggestion that Newcastle or any of its former employees have done anything wrong in the transfer market other than sign a series of under-performing and overpaid “stars� who have provided about as much value for money as a condom with a hole in it.
However, I’m sure there are others who are actually a little disappointed certain names from the club’s not-so-distant past are not in the frame.
My main problem with the Quest Investigation into alleged corruption in football was that it was too slow moving, publicising the fact it was going to be investigating transfers before actually moving to do so. If you think about it, this is like telling the media the police are going to raid the house of an alleged drug dealer, giving those who have something to hide ample time to destroy the evidence.
I mean, are you relieved that only one player’s dealings appear to be corrupt or do you still suspect there is more widespread wrongdoing which has been covered up? Are Faye and McKay just the unlucky ones who got caught? I should point out at this stage that nobody has actually been charged with anything either so it is far from certain that anything will come from these arrests.
Have the rest just disappeared in a rapid flurry of deleted emails, offshore bank accounts and forensic cleansing of computer hard drives?
The days of wads of cash being handed over in brown paper bags by men in sheepskin coats at motorway service station car parks appear to have gone, but electronic transactions can be hidden can’t they? The criminal underworld has been “laundering� money for years, making sure its illegal transactions are turned into legal tender, so why not corrupt football transfers?
The bottom line is, we will never know for certain. While the Quest investigation was supposed to put our minds at rest by assuring us that, if there was any corruption in football, it would be discovered, I fear it has failed to do that.
Maybe we’re all just too cynical, maybe the game is clean after all and every transfer deal is transparent and above board, but that would just be a little too convenient for me.
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