New Year's Day was the "official start point for Premiership clubs to be permitted to approach rival teams' players who are out of contract this summer," according to Hugh Godwin of the London INDEPENDENT. A "vibrant, well-regulated transfer market has the potential to increase interest in the game." But "there are worries that this will damage rugby's ethos of loyalty and teamship," while Conor O'Shea of Harlequins is "among the directors of rugby who see two specific threats to keep a watchful eye on." According to O'Shea, the first "is the possibility of rugby's increasing broadcast and commercial revenues encouraging agents to sow seeds of unrest among players." The second "is the fear of a gap developing in the Premiership, with clubs unable or unwilling to spend up to the rapidly rising salary cap falling behind." O'Shea: "In any walk of life, if you move you will get paid more. I have agents pushing players across my desk all the time. Agents are a necessary evil -- I get along fine with most of them. But a player might move for an extra £20,000 or £30,000, and it's when you are pushed in that regard and you know it is pushing for pushing's sake, that's when you get slightly irritated." Tim Lopez, an experienced agent at the Essentially company, said, "Generally players aren't going to [want to] move unless they have fallen out of love with the club, the coach, their teammates. They are unlikely to earn a huge amount more elsewhere, particularly if the [buying] club has splashed out on a transfer fee." The cap "has shot up" from £4M in '10, so that in the '17-18 season "it will be roughly" £9M ($13.3M) for a club laden with int'l players. This hike "has been driven by clubs with wealthy owners and healthy off-field operations, and is justified, its proponents say, by two factors." One "is the money the clubs are paid for releasing their England players by the RFU." The second "is the Premiership’s broadcast deal with BT" that was renewed last March up to '21. London Irish Head of Operations Glenn Delaney said, "It's a hell of a challenge, and it's going to get a bit silly if we carry on this way" (INDEPENDENT, 1/2).
