We paid an actress to dress up as Elsa from Frozen

Inside a football transfer deal: a group of experts anonymously provide the lowdown on how players are spotted, bought and sold and the market's peculiar quirks

- David Hytner Ed Aarons Nick Ames

The ownerThe whole system is lubricated by agents: how they work and how they make things work. At my club, we have closed the door to that now. We used to say we were open to what agents sent our way but in our experience only around one in 100 suggestions were useful, let alone successful.

When we are recruiting, I'll be involved in selecting the top targets and will send a list to the sporting director. He will look at the balance of the squad; factors like age, leadership and nationality, and see what makes sense to him. Then I'll set a budget including the fee, salary, the expected terms from the agent and selling club, and we'll take it from there.

Sometimes you're miles out and the other owner simply won't sell. So you move on. When we're selling a player we don't want to lose, we negotiate depending on the interested club. There's no point setting a fixed fee and then seeing one of the wealthiest clubs come in. You try to find a deal if the player wants to go, because you don't want to cause unhappiness in the squad.

For me, the worst period of a transfer deal is the time between everything being agreed and the medical. Our club will never change the terms once a deal has been agreed, but the other party could do. I always try to ensure the shortest possible time between the agreement and the medical, so that nobody else can come in. Similarities with buying a property haven't disappeared yet.

The scoutThese days, the scout is usually the second port of call in regards to transfers. Increasingly, the identification stage is being carried out by the data team at a lot of clubs, which is a big development in recent years.