Gil....Christ that was close

23 March 2001

Today's Birmingham Post tells more about the last-gasp signing of Phil Gilchrist. It seems that Albion are paying him a higher wage than he was on at Leicester; apparently he wasn't on typical Premiership-level wages following his move from Oxford to Leicester, and the Post reports that Albion have upped his wages to something believed to be in the region of £5,000 a week. There was a point during the negotiations where Gilchrist turned down Albion's offer (no great surprise in that really), but an agreement was finally reached which saw Albion fax through the transfer details (initially as a loan as they'd run out of time to complete a permanent deal) just 4 minutes before the 5.00pm deadline. Albion Secretary, Dr John Evans, is quoted saying:

"When the clubs finally agreed [a fee], we had less than 2 hours to negotiate personal terms with the player. We came to an agreement at about 4.45pm, but once the papers had been signed and the details faxed to the Football League, we had something like 4 minutes to spare (what would have happened if the line was engaged, or the Football League's fax had broken down?! :-) ). It only remains for the player to complete a medical and for the Premier League to confirm that they're satisfied with the transfer, but that shouldn't be a problem"

It can be difficult for fans to appreciate the intensity which transfer negotiations can reach on occasions, but a flavour of that can be gleaned from what's being reported about yesterday's events. All credit to Paul Thompson, John Wile and everyone else who was involved for bringing things to a successful conclusion yesterday.

Previous Stories:

  22 March 2001:  Gilchrist joins!

  21 March 2001:  Albion target Cummings for loan

  20 March 2001:  More televised Baggies games

Back to the News Index