Mum and Dad said I should go where I'd be happy. Robson should be virtually unshockable after years at the top of the management game. It's a worry, a headache, a nightmare that kids of 13 have agents. But it is clear that, as long as there are clubs willing to pay and parents willing to ask, there will be the potential for bending the rules. Some might see it as a fair trade in a sport which is predominantly working class.
Poor families get a leg up, their sons get top quality training from an early age.
Yet there remains something distasteful about a child's future being dictated not by which club offer the best prospects, or the best off-field education, but by the money they are willing to slip under the table. Until, that is, they do not make the grade. Football's Dream Factory - BBC1 10.35pm. Click here for Terms of Use and Privacy Policy applicable to this site.