In his fortnightly exclusive column for CaughtOffside, Jon Smith, one of football’s first-ever agents and a man who was an integral figure in the forming of the Premier League, discusses why Man United are living in the past, why Phil Foden is a decent Ballon d’Or shout, why Arsenal can come back against Porto – and more! 

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Everything at Man United is out of date and INEOS have to get to work quickly

I think the whole system at Man United is antiquated, probably 20 years out of date.

They’ve not really changed anything with the last regime and the regime before that, with personnel either stood down, resigned or left. Nothing’s changed, really.

If you look at Tottenham Hotspur, they are a really well run club in all departments.

The manager, I believe, should report into a sporting director or a technical director who reports to the board. Those nice, cosy, what used to be called ‘fireside chats’ between the manager and the owner is just not how it should be done anymore.

I absolutely think the heartbeat of a football club is the football people that work there.

It’s going to be a long haul. Changing Old Trafford, which needs huge attention, and so much more besides.

Their actual PR is pretty good. I think their social media is pretty good, but I just think that the way the club reports within and the way it’s structured is where Sir Jim Ratcliffe should be focussing his initial efforts.

I love Phil Foden and I hope he wins the Ballon d’Or

Thomas Frank made a lovely statement recently about Phil Foden being the closest English player to winning a Ballon d’Or and I hope it’s true because I love Phil Foden.

I think he’s a great English footballer with a brain that’s a lot more ‘international.’

The only thing I’d caution about such comments is when I think of players like Juan Mata, Alexis Sanchez and perhaps a more pertinent one, Dele Alli – who all missed out on the individual prize despite being deserving.

Foden’s 24, he’s maturing, he’s high energy and with a lot of trickery – and he had a good World Cup.

I think you should ask me that in three years time, and I hope my answer is yes because he is the complete package.

He just needs to keep his head in the right place.

FFP isn’t quite the level playing field we expected

Real Madrid are kind of a law unto themselves.

Apparently PSG didn’t quite get punished for their FFP issues and Man City still seem to be in the long grass – for a wee bit longer anyway.

Bear in mind Real Madrid was the club of General Franco, and Franco was a bit like Putin is in Russia, he kind of owned the country.

So I think the problem for everyone else is that Real Madrid are probably still living off of Franco’s bank account in some shape or form.

I mean, there’s been there’s been a lot of discussion about how they still own their training ground when apparently they might allegedly have sold it a few times. Not quite sure how that’s played out.

Real Madrid can do stuff like this because they can and because they’ve enough money around them and enough assets to put into FFP.

FFP was designed so that each club doesn’t overspend against their turnover, and then there’s a levelling out between those that have high turnover and those that have lower turnovers. So you supposedly get a level playing field.

As I’ve just said, there’s three or four examples which indicate that the level playing field isn’t quite always as level for everyone as it should be.

I can’t argue against Kylian Mbappe becoming the ‘most expensive free transfer of all time’ because I was the guy who led the charge into the Premier League and said players have to be paid much better.

Remember when Trevor Francis was the first million pound player and we all went, ‘Oh my God.’ Now £120m for a player doesn’t seem to scare the horses, so we’re only talking about advancing what there already is.

Certainly nothing goes up forever, but I have been saying this in football for 20 years and it’s kept going up. Potentially, it’s got further to go but there will be a moment in time, a sort of pause or a levelling out because living in the stratosphere can be can be very dangerous.

We’re living in a world where nations are struggling to find support in some of the activities that are going on around them and taking place in their own backyard politically, so they’re using sport as their vehicle to promote their well being – and we still have a big journey to go yet.

Corporate entities will help clubs to buy players in future

Adidas and Apple helped MLS and Inter Miami to sign Lionel Messi, and I think we’ve just got to have a look at the music business as an example of whether the same can happen in Europe.

The major corporations now cross pollinate all the major acts. Sponsorships are very often IT led so that there is a visual download activity around not just ticketing, but the actual sponsorship in the event itself.

Football is going to go the same way because football is the biggest practised exercise and followed sport in the world.

The players are now nations, which means that the major corporations will join in that support. It’s bound to happen.

As long as the rights owners, which are the clubs and the leagues, have the ability to dictate the circumstances, rather than the brands and the countries telling people how to play their game and how to influence what happens on the pitch, there isn’t going to be a problem.

The big fear for I guess all of us who don’t like domination in our life, is that the people with the big money, which are the huge hedge funds, the countries and the major brands, will be able to effectively run the planet in 20 years because they’ll have the IT behind them.

They’ll have the data that they’re absorbing and they’ll have the ability to dictate what you think and what you should do. All of that is a society problem but football, as we’ve said before in this column, reflects society.

Arsenal will come back and Man City can win back to back UCL titles

I’m still expecting Arsenal to come back in their Champions League match against Porto.

I read the reports, that they weren’t going to qualify now, that they’ve blown it again but I’m sticking with them.

I think Man City, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG and Bayern will go through, which leaves me pondering Atletico Madrid and Inter with Borussia Dortmund in the background, because I just don’t think they’re quite strong enough.

Teams other than City can win it, of course they can.

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It’s a bit like walking out at Anfield under that tunnel sign that says ‘This is Anfield.’

It’s a momentary mind gap that you have to overcome, and I think when you come up against Real Madrid in the Champions League, you just have to forget they’ve won it so many times and just get on with it.

My favourites at this point would be Real Madrid and City but not necessarily in that order.