'He who does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it'

Jason McGill, that is. You'd think by now that he would greet the reappearance of the Curse of the Contractual Loophole, which strikes the club every summer, like a visit from an old friend. Or at worst like the annual visit of an unwelcome relative; mildly irritating, but expected. Yet he seems to have been genuinely caught off-guard by the news that Onome Sodje's move to Barnsley looks set to go through without any cash arriving in exchange. The official statement shows the club still clinging on to the idea of a tribunal, but given that it has now become apparent that Sodje was playing for City on a non-contract basis only for the past two seasons, frankly they seem to be pissing in the wind.

Let's take a look at the previous casualties.
2006: Top-scorer Andy Bishop leaves on a free transfer to Bury. Despite Bishop being 23 and therefore ineligible to leave for free under the Bosman ruling, a clause written into the contract offered to him by then manager Chris Brass (and presumably ratified by McGill) extends this privilege to him on the condition that City are not promoted, and a Football League club offer him a deal.
2007: Top-scorer Clayton Donaldson leaves on a free transfer to Hibernian. Despite Donaldson being 23 and therefore ineligible to leave for free to another English club under the Bosman ruling, Hibernian are not required to pay a fee as it is classed as an international transfer, for which the age limit is a year lower. The club vows to take the matter to appeal, but nothing ever comes of it.
2008: In fact, this looks to be an anomaly - although our star player again departed, on this occasion Scunthorpe were honourable enough to actually pay for Martyn Woolford (and a six-figure sum, no less). However, given that exact details of the deal were never released, and the general consensus that a fair amount of the fee was tied down in clauses, would it be all that surprising to learn that Woolford putting in a man-of-the-match performance in the playoff final triggered a clause which meant that York had to hand back every penny they had received?

Of course, the Woolford deal did in fact represent a decent bit of business, and if anything Scunthorpe's promotion could have been good news for City financially. But this week's events show that we're back to being screwed over. Or do they? The case is complex enough to have seemingly confused both the club and the Press, so let's examine the details more closely. This much is clear: that Sodje was unable to sign a contract with any English club as a result of being a Nigerian national, and that the only way to overcome this was for the player to gain either a work permit, or Indefinite Leave to remain in the UK. The former is a red herring, because not only can work permits only be granted to Football League players, they are also dependent on the player having turned out for 75% of his national team's matches. It is Indefinite Leave, then, which Sodje has been awarded, apparently with the help of £5,000 of McGill's own money, plus letters of recommendation from our Most Reverend and Right Honourable season-ticket holder John Sentamu, and Hugh Bayley MP. Indefinite Leave, unlike a work permit, is never dependent on any contract of work, which means that the club's statement that Sodje finally received it this April 'on the basis he would sign a contract with York City Football Club' seems to rest either on a misunderstanding, or more likely a deliberate conflation, of the two concepts.

Certainly, there are 'exceptional circumstances' surrounding the player, but are there any real grounds for claiming that some form of compensation is due? The fact that the club did offer the player a permanent contract as soon as they were able seems irrelevant, as the contract was never signed. The campaigning which the club did on Sodje's behalf to remain in the country also has little relevance to his move to Barnsley, and I would suggest that the impact of these efforts upon the decision to grant him Indefinite Leave may well have been overplayed. All that remains, then, is the £5,000 which McGill provided to cover legal costs. Regardless of whether this is seen as an act of generosity or a hopeful investment which would bear fruit later with a big-money move, it seems that no strings were attached and so Sodje was perfectly entitled to take up the offer and then move on. The club can try to paint the young striker as a pantomime villain all they like, and of course some fans will be only too happy to play along, but we should have learnt that loyalty from players is the exception rather than the rule in the modern game. What we, and more importantly Jason McGill, should also have learnt is that all possible loopholes should be explored when dealing with player's contracts, but this affair has brought to light that our chairman is still demonstrating considerable naivety. Of course, this is infinitely preferable to owners who openly try to asset-strip the club, but repeatedly missing out on financial reward for players which the club has developed is hugely regrettable given the continually perilous state of the club's finances. The only saving grace is that on this occasion, the playing squad won't be adversely effected by the loss.

Sod off to Barnsley

The prevailing reaction amongst fans of both York City and Barnsley, upon hearing that young striker Onome Sodje has been catapulted four divisions from being an unwanted fringe player at the former to a hot prospect at the latter, has been one of mutual bemusement. Surely, they cry, it can only be sheer idiocy which has led the Championship side to sign a player who was only grudgingly offered a one-year extension to his City contract as a result of a 'gentlemen's agreement' which Martin Foyle went out of his way to distance himself from. Surely, they yell, a striker who has failed to shine in a mediocre non-league side will find himself hopelessly out of his depth at a much higher level.

In all likelihood, of course, they are right. Sodje has, if anything, appeared to go backwards during his time at Bootham Crescent, the only thing saving him from the ire of supporters being his occasional propensity to produce something exceptional (see: his stunning late equaliser at Torquay early last season). The periods inbetween these moments have consisted of ridiculous hairdos, repeated failure to pick out better-placed team-mates when through on goal, and a general lack of effort.

And yet, and yet. History has taught us many a time that a player's performance at City does not always presage his future career trajectory. The exit of Jon Parkin during our relegation season under Brass might not have been met with the same apparent glee as today's announcement, but few could have envisaged his rise to solid Championship-level striker. Likewise Iwelumo, Cresswell, more recently Stockdale and innumerable others whose post-York exploits caused a few raised eyebrows at the least. And it is precisely those rare moments of brilliance, alluded to earlier, which hint that Sodje just might be capable of joining that list; indeed, it is the very fact that the young Nigerian showed such promise in his first few months at the club which probably explains the vehemence of City fans' ill-feeling toward him upon his departure. The bar was set high, and Sodje's performances over the last season and a half - increasingly restricted to cameo roles - never came close to reaching it. The very opposite path, in fact, to that mapped by Richard Brodie, whose rapid improvement came as a pleasant surprise to those who had written him off as an unfit, ruddy-cheeked no-hoper.

So, where will Sodje find himself in another year? On the scrap-heap or angling for a big-money move to a Premiership side? Let's stop giggling at the silly South Yorkshire fools for a second and reflect on what qualities they might have seen in the player. Pace? Certainly. Power? Not bad for a little'un. Skill? Has shown it in flashes. Goals? 17 the season before last, in a poor team. The only attributes he can really be said to lack are commitment and an overall understanding of the game. Major drawbacks, no doubt, but perhaps Barnsley consider themselves in a better position to develop these areas of his game than a struggling Conference team susceptible to regular staffing changes. My own feeling is that they are wrong in this; Sodje simply seems to lack the required self-awareness and perseverance to succeed as a professional footballer. I don't, therefore, expect to see footage of him cartwheeling across the Wembley pitch and jiggling his afro in front of the cameras after firing the Tykes to playoff glory. But stranger things have happened.