How much is a football manager actually worth?

“A football manager’s contract is worth the paper it’s printed on.”

In an industry where managers are regularly binned off on whim, and in a season where Watford sacked both Javi Gracia and Quique Sanchez Flores within 86 days, that statement jars. But for lawyers like Ray Wann, their job is to make sure this is absolutely the case.

Wann specialises in senior executive deals in football for sports law group Sheridans, their job is to make sure this is the case. Over the years, he has worked both for clubs and managers in negotiations over deals, both at the start and the end of the process.

Naturally, it is the culmination of these deals that grab the headlines, often with their abruptness and sizeable payouts. But the real work gets done at the beginning. When optimism is at its highest and the relationship between the club and the soon-to-be-coach new and exciting.

“For the most part, it’s all as per usual,” Wann tells The Independent. “Just like any contract, there are terms to be agreed upon between employee and employer. The framework is basically the same.” There are, of course, some differences.

In standard employment, statutory rights are your minimum guarantees under UK law that provide legal protection to both parties. Among the basics are a written statement of employment, leave and other familiar bits. But in football, those rights are almost superseded by various provisions established during the formation of any deal because of the scale of them.

“Statutory rights, by and large, are to deal with your regular employee who would earn upto, say, £80,000-a-year. Football managers, though, tend to earn significantly more than that. Those rights, while not irrelevant, are minute compared to what is written into the contract.”

Early on, a club will have worked out what sum of money they would need to pay to get a manager out of his contract at various stages of their term, almost exclusively relating to performance factors. Only in a situation of “gross misconduct” would no compensation be forthcoming.

“A lot of people are of the opinion that clubs are brazen when it comes to compensation. But it’s quite the opposite actually. There’s also a misconception that, say, if a contract ends a year into a three year deal that the manger receives money for the remaining two. But that’s not the case.

“What they’ll probably have put in there is some sort of parachute payment. That’s intended to deal with this situation where the full term doesn’t run. It’s pre-read and managers will get a certain amount of that. A contract that ends 18-months early might only result in a pay-off of 12 or nine months and the scale slides from there.

For instance, when Jose Mourinho was let go from Manchester United two-and-a-half years into his three-year deal, the £15-million pay-off for him and his five-man coaching team would have been less had the club waited until February 2019 instead of pulling the pin on 18 December, 2018.

“If you take Jose’s situation, he served most of his contract,” says Wann. “In those circumstances, the pay-off for him would be relatively small. That’s where it becomes quite intriguing because it doesn’t necessarily match the personality. It just depends what has been agreed in the outset.”

Beyond the big numbers of compensation come the incidentals also agreed at the start of the process. These include relocation fees, ensuring a manager’s family are catered for in terms of preferred living conditions and schools and anything else that can help sweeten the deal.

“Remember,” adds Wann, “the club want this manager so they want them onboard, whatever it takes. These perks, helping them adjust and making any transition as easy as possible, goes a long way.”

Ultimately, any provisions made before a manager puts pen to paper are to ensure that, in the worst case scenario, a break is as simple as possible, regardless of what fallout there may be around the decision. Often, as Wann states, the lawyer involved in the original negotiation is usually back in the room when the deal is being terminated.

“Everything is pre-prescribed and, really, you’re ticking off all the ancillary bits. Hopefully, for your sake and the manager’s you’ve done your job and sorted it all out at the start!”