Player’s don’t want a yes man.

There's a mistake I see agents make more than almost any other, particularly early in their careers.

Wanting to be the player's best friend rather than their advisor. And look, there's some overlap in those roles. But they are fundamentally different relationships.

A lot of agents enjoy the lifestyle, the proximity to the big star.

You can have a strong relationship. You can care deeply about the person. But they are not the same role.

A friend prioritises harmony, shared experiences, and having a good time. They often avoid hard conversations.

An agent has a different responsibility. Your job is to help the player have the strongest possible career. And that often means uncomfortable conversations, or a bit of tough love.

It's a little similar to parenting in some ways. You don't raise children by trying to be their best mate all the time. You can be close, you can be warm, but you still need to guide them in the right direction as the priority.

And when agents blur the friendship line too far, it's the player that actually pays for it later.

Keeping a career partnership strong requires telling players the truth, even when it hurts. Sometimes that means warning a teenage prodigy that their attitude, their lateness to training, their off-field distractions, are costing them opportunities. Or advising a player to take a step down and move to a smaller club or league where they'll play every week, because minutes on the pitch at this stage matter more than money or status.

These moments test the relationship. And a lot of agents aren't willing to have them.

In the age of glorification of players, there are thousands of fans telling them they're great, an entourage peddling the narrative that it's always the club's fault, and agents who will agree with everything a player says.

Being the person who says "actually no, you need to take responsibility and change your behaviour" is difficult.

But your player, at least the ones who want to work with you, will respect you for it.

I remember one of my players asking me about a social media video they had prepared when leaving a club. The caption said:

"I'd like to thank the fans for a great 5 years, even though the management didn't give me the chances I deserved, I still gave my all every time I took the field."

Don't get me wrong, what he said was absolutely true. But I told him pretty bluntly that it came across as petulant, and was likely to be misinterpreted as entitled by others.

He stared at me for a second, and said to me with a big smile: "that's why you're my agent."

On the flip side to that, if you're not willing to have those conversations, the player will notice it and will start to lose respect for you over time. They need to know that you have the authority and standing to go into a boardroom and fight for what they're worth, and if you don't even have the courage to tell them no, how are you going to do that in front of a powerful and experienced club CEO?

There's a 60-year-old study by Edward E. Jones that quotes:

​ "opinion conformity is always safer, but one runs the risk of proving oneself pathetically deficient in leadership capacity"​

and that is what is happening when you're a player's yes man. You take the easier path in the short term and lose their respect over the longer one.

If you build a strong relationship, respect and trust, you're giving the player and yourself the best chance of success.