Football: Bosman United FC The team you could sign for nothing this summer

IMAGINE THAT Liverpool had qualified for this season's European Cup and fate had transpired to pit them, and not Dynamo Kiev, in the quarter- finals against Real Madrid. Imagine that Gerard Houllier's side had drawn 1-1 last week in the first leg in Madrid and were in the 90th minute of next week's second leg with the score standing at 1-1 on the night and 2-2 on aggregate.

Imagine a long ball floating to Steve McManaman, who picks it up on the edge of the box and sees the Real goalkeeper out of position. Imagine McManaman thinking "If I put this in, there ends any hope of Champions' League football for me next season".

Far-fetched though the scenario seems, the chances of it happening in the future are increasing. In January this year it became permissible for the first time for players to enter into pre-contract agreements such as McManaman's when their contracts are due to expire in the coming summer. The number of players, like McManaman, who know six months ahead of a move that they are contracted to join a new team, is also increasing. Welcome to one of the long-term effects of the Bosman ruling.

"That's the sort of nightmare scenario that can happen," Brendan Batson, the deputy chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, said. "I could see that the logical solution [in a case like the one above] would be for the affected player to be pulled out of the game," Batson added. "But there's no reason he would have to."

A conflict of interests is not the only area where problems may arise. Another, directly related to the Bosman ruling, is the already-present wage spiral among top players. "I think in many respects it [the Bosman ruling] has been a disaster for football," Dennis Roach, a prominent players' agent, said. "Paying a lot of money to players who are out of contract and then paying the same to those in contract is ridiculous."

Roach is no stranger to the effects of Bosman. One player he acts for, Derby County's Paulo Wanchope, is negotiating with his club about a new contract. Wanchope's current deal does not expire until the summer of next year but if a renewal is not agreed he will be a free agent and in a position to sign a pre-contract agreement with a new club in eight months' time.

"Paulo's been offered a new contract and we've been negotiating for nine months already," Roach said. "Derby took a long time to get to the figure that Paulo thinks he's worth. And the love has gone out of it." Derby have now made Wanchope "a very good offer" said Roach, but the player has yet to decide whether to accept.

Is this not a situation of a player holding a club to ransom? "I don't think there's ransom in it," Roach said. "The situation is unfortunately a disaster, but you can't blame the players for that, or their agents for trying to get the best deals for them."

If nothing else, the Bosman ruling has led to a situation where players appear to have great power to influence how much they earn. Several high-profile players who could command transfer fees of pounds 5m or more on the open market and whose contracts expire this summer have stalled on new deals with their current clubs, knowing that if they move to a new club for nothing, that club might be willing to pay more in wages because no fee has been paid.

Aston Villa's goalkeeper, Mark Bosnich, is probably the most high profile of these players in Britain, while Celtic's Simon Donnelly is another. Everton's Don Hutchison, Southampton's Ken Monkou, Liverpool's Karlheinz Reidle and Norwich's Keith O'Neill, among others, are in the same position.

"What the Bosman ruling has done is to encourage clubs to put players on long contracts and renegotiate contracts earlier than before and well ahead of their expiry," Dan Jones, an accountant with Deloitte & Touche, said. "Wages are always an emotive subject but players don't hold clubs to ransom any more than any other employee holds their employer to ransom."

Jones, a co-author of his firm's annual report into football finance, added: "It's part of a trend that as more money comes into the game, the players, the "stars" of the industry, take more out. It's inevitable also with clubs all over Europe competing in one market for the services of players."

David Davies, another agent, said his main concern was not for those at the very top end of the game, but for those less able to dictate their own terms. He represents, among others, a Third Division player earning pounds 150 per week, and Coventry's Sam Shilton, out of contract in the summer and with higher priorities than his bank balance.

"Sam's been on the bench a couple of times this season and wants to go out and play football. A lot of these youngsters just want to go and play football," Davies said. "I think Bosman was very good for the lesser- known players at the bigger clubs, the journeyman and older faces especially, because that guy can now do what he wants when his contract expires."

Davies has no truck with clubs that complain about high wages. "The clubs are their own worst enemies because they pay so much in the first place. When a manager says `No, I'm not paying that. Play abroad if you want to, but I'll replace you', then so much the better. The sooner the managers and chairmen do that, the sooner we'll see some reality in the wages. In the future I can see players being valued not per week but by performance."

Davies' solution - clubs turning round and telling players they will not pay on demand - may be drawing closer already. One Premiership club secretary, who did not want to be named, said an average top-flight player, ("and I mean people who can walk down the street without being recognised") now earns upwards of pounds 300,000 per year. He also said there was a player on his club's books who is out of contract this summer and is asking for a large salary increase. "He's looking for a pot of gold," the secretary said. "But he's definitely leaving us - even if he doesn't know it yet."

Steve McManaman has already found his pot of gold, even if it will not involve playing in the Champions' League with Liverpool which, in itself, would take some imagining.

PREMIERSHIP PLAYERS AVAILABLE ON FREE TRANSFER IN JUNE

Arsenal John Lukic

Aston Villa Mark Bosnich

Blackburn Withheld information

Charlton Mark Bright

John Barnes

Chelsea Dmitri Kharine

(club would not confirm any others)

Coventry Willie Boland*

Roland Nilsson

Sam Shilton

Andrew Ducros*

Steve Ogrizovic

Derby Robert Kozluk

Everton Don Hutchison

Craig Short

Dave Watson

Leeds None

Leicester Kasey Keller

Pontus Kaamark

Pegguy Arphexad

Robert Ullathorne

Liverpool Karlheinz Riedle

Rob Jones

Manchester Utd None

Middlesbrough Vladimir Kinder*

Clayton Blackmore* (on loan at Barnsley)

Newcastle Stuart Pearce

Nottingham Forest Geoff Thomas

Thierry Bonalair

Scot Gemmill

Sheffield Wed Earl Barrett

Matt Clarke

Guy Whittingham (on loan at Portsmouth)

Dejan Stefanovic

Southampton Steve Basham

(on loan at Preston)

Ken Monkou

Tottenham None

West Ham None

Wimbledon Andy Pearce

Andy Clarke

Peter Fear

* Already on transfer list