Matt Maher: Buy-backs make sense in the crazy world of football
Typical, isn’t it? You wait countless transfer windows for a buy-back clause, then three come along at once.
That previously little used contractual mechanism is suddenly in fashion, particularly here in the West Midlands.
Wolves started it by getting one into the deal which saw Ryan Giles move to Luton and Villa have continued it with the sales of Aaron Ramsey and Cameron Archer.
The primary motivation in both cases is to maintain some control over the future of young players who maybe aren’t part of the first-team plans now but could be in the future.
Yet dig a little deeper and you find there’s a lot more to it.
Indeed, the benefits of buy-back clauses to the selling club are such you can’t help but wonder why they are so rarely utilised?
They’ve always been popular in Spain and it is no coincidence Villa, with their Spanish head coach having been joined by a Spanish director of football, suddenly appear at the forefront of a new trend.
