PREPARE FOR A COVID FIRESALE

RECENTLY, I spoke to a man who works in recruitment at one of the Championship’s thriftiest clubs.

- Chris Dunlavy

PRICE DROP: In the new market, Reeco HackettFairchild is probably worth just a third of the price Portsmouth paid to lure him from Bromley in January.

In a division poisoned by parachute payments, it isn’t an easy gig. Not for him the pursuit of proven £15m strikers, nor a cosy relationship with superagents who can cherry-pick the cream of the continent.

Freebies, loans, flat-out punts and a regular trawl through European backwaters are his stock-in-trade.

Or were, at least. Coronavirus and its attendant shutdown have kicked the legs from under every football club in Europe.

Even the mighty Barcelona – who in June posted world-record revenues of 990m Euros – are feeling the pinch.

Closer to home, former FA chief executive Mark Palios has warned that a “double figure” number of EFL clubs could be forced into insolvency, echoing the concerns of Luton chairman Gary Sweet.

“I think several clubs, on the basis that they can’t pay contractual wages, will move down the path to a formal insolvency,” he said.

Even if the majority survive, as Palios predicts, they won’t be in any position to go on a shopping spree. The transfer market will become a buyer’s paradise, with supply outstripping demand and fees and wages taking a tumble.