Wasserman and LUFC

[Cjay]

A name that may be unfamiliar to some (all be it some of our American fans and NFL fans may have heard of them)

They are a Los Angeles based Sports Marketing and talent agency.

Forbes ranked them as the 2nd most valuable Sports Management company in the World in 2022.

They have clients from the NFL, NBA, NHL and more, including football.

There big name clients include Conor McDavid, Clay Thompson and Amari Cooper.

Plus football stars Aymeric Laporte and Federico Valverde.

How is this relevant to us?

Well there football clients also include Luis Sinisterra, Brenden Aaronson, Crysencio Summerville, Sam Greenwood, Adam Forshaw and Weston McKennie.

They also represent previous reported potential targets Kai Wagner, Raphael Guerriero and Teun Kooepmeiners.

Purely a coincidence?

They have no actual link to Leeds United?

I present to you Alex Chang

He is the Chief Marketing Officer for the San Francisco 49ers

He was also a Vice President for Wasserman previously.

Again no link to us really? It's been made clear our ownership isn't the same as the 49ers . . Very true.

But

https://insidefutbol.com/2022/09/09/we- ... on/578692/

Here is Mr Chang talking about us in September.

What's more the person on twitter who clearly has a link to Weston McKennie has said that the 49ers stepped in when the deal started to go wrong and used there relationship with the agent of McKennie to get the deal back on track.

Is this relationship something we can look to exploit perhaps in the future?

Money is important but connections are to.

Will be interesting to see how this develops as time goes by.

[mentalcase]

As long as it does more good than harm .

[Cjay]

As long as it does more good than harm .

Indeed

More optimistic than I was

But still deeply suspicious.

This link is interesting I thought though.

[BlackHillsPaul]

Interesting info Cjay!! I was familiar with Wasserman but did not know that they represented so many of our players. But Top Agents have always had an influence in the movement of players they represent. Mino Raiola and Leigh Steinberg come to mind. So having a good working relationship with a top talent agency can help a club. There is no doubt about that. I see this as a good thing.

With regard to Alex Chang. I have no doubt that American marketing types would hype up the idea of marketing Leeds United to Americans. I just don't think it will have the impact that they think it will. UNLESS Leeds United qualify for the Champion's League. As I and others have noted. Americans are notorious glory hunters. Most American fans of the Primmer League glom onto the traditional big six clubs. It didn't work for Fulham FC even with Clint Dempsey leading them to a European Final.

At best the American connections will drive up the Premier League rights fees as casual viewership increases. (NBC paid about $2.7 Billion on a six year deal). The impact on individual clubs will be minimal.

[Mountain]

Is this relationship something we can look to exploit perhaps in the future?

My expectations with agents, sports management etc is that they use connections to exploit clubs, not vice versa. If they stepped in to save the McKennie deal, it wasn't out of concern for LUFC.

[Cjay]

My expectations with agents, sports management etc is that they use connections to exploit clubs, not vice versa. If they stepped in to save the McKennie deal, it wasn't out of concern for LUFC.

That's true

But same can be said of owners unless you get a QSI or a Sheikh Mansour or a Roman Abramovich.

Radz, 49ers, all of them are looking to make money from clubs.

Explot the fanbase and there loyalty to get money in etc.

Ultimately they just want to make as much from us as possible.

Us being successful is of secondary importance, all be it necessary generally to make profit.

Same for sports agencies.

They need players to perform and the club to perform to make money

[Cjay]

Steven Gerrard is one of there clients . . . .

[Leeds1000]

Steven Gerrard is one of there clients . . . .

Its got all the makings of the Gary Neville Valencia/Salford owners give him a chance written all over it if it was the case. I would rather have Rooney.

[mentalcase]

Its got all the makings of the Gary Neville Valencia/Salford owners give him a chance written all over it if it was the case. I would rather have Rooney.

Mickey !!

[Leeds1000]

Mickey !!

Mouse.

[mentalcase]

Mouse.

That'd be at least entertaining.