To Tap Up Or Not To Tap Up-Klopp Is The Question?

There are many annoying aspects to modern life, including those generated by the 'policing' of sports clubs, particular the governance of elite football teams. Much like the ever changing off side rules, the definition of 'tapping up' is open to various interpretations and is NOT fit for purpose.

Explaining the tapping up process to someone who is not a football fan but a devotee of another discipline is extremely difficult because they ask the pertinent question of "why is it allowed then?" They cannot understand how a football club, usually one with aspirations of becoming top of their league and usually bankrolled by a national pariah state or with dubious funding, can possibly get away with 'public' approaches for another club's prized players while they are still under contract.

What is the definition of tapping up and how is it interpreted? Firstly it should be noted that rules regarding tapping up were drawn up BEFORE the advent of social media or smart phones, furthermore the analysis of what constitutes tapping up is made complicated because a person's opinion is not necessarily that of the corporation or organisation that employs them, comments made can be dismissed as private conversations that have been overheard or recorded without the consent or knowledge of said 'tapper up'.

The tapping up process is therefore currently incredibly easy to perpetrate, first get your media team to get one of their social media 'yute' to generate interest in a player via instagram or twitter or any other of a myriad of platforms, secondly upload 'rumoured' quotes from club's manager 'admiring' a player and third sit back and wait for the red tops to reprint...simples, tap up in place!

Sunday's visitors to the London Bowl Liverpool and their manager Jurgen Klopp, are no strangers to the dark art of tapping up but are by no means the only transgressors, far from it. The Kops pursuit of Virgil Van Dyke from Southampton was a case in point, the media involvement in the move was invasive and ultimately successful for the Mersey side club. Everyone and anyone know that the player was tapped up, it was all played out in public but Liverpool were never sanctioned.

Hammers fans of a certain age will remember only too well what happened to Yossi Benayoun, having committed himself to signing a new contract with the Irons, Yossi became 'convinced' by all the nice things that had been said about him by Liverpool and promptly rejected his new deal and signed for Liverpool instead, DESPITE having a '*Levy agreement' in place.

Jarrod Bowen is Liverpool's most recent 'target' from West Ham to tap up, their attempts at seducing Declan Rice having fallen on deaf ears ages ago they now feel the need for some 'Bowen speed'. It is to be hoped Liverpool are given short shrift and that ANY attempts to sign Bowen, by fair means or foul, are firmly rebuffed by placing an insanely high release clause value of £80 Million plus, EVEN if there isn't actually a clause, after all, as we have always said, "everyone in football knows, there ain't no sanity clause".

The time has finally come for Hammers NOT to sell it's precocious talent to the opposition,especially NOT Liverpool, Man U or Tottingham! - Ed

* Definition of a levy agreement: To make an arrangement, shake on it, call it a 'gentlemen's agreement' and then entirely renege on the promise by citing there is no 'written' contract.