Kelly Francis, Football Operations Manager
Following the club’s hectic summer transfer window, we spoke to Kelly Francis, whose role as Football Operations Manager meant she had a very busy close season!
Hi, Kelly – it’s great to talk to one of the key figures behind the scenes who helps to make it all happen at the club. Could you start by telling us something about yourself, and what your role involves please?
I’m Football Operations Manager, which means I take care of a whole range of administrative and practical duties, from all the paperwork that goes into player contracts and transfer deals to match day operations throughout the season.
I came to Luton in August 2023, when we’d moved up to the Premier League, as the club were looking for someone with experience in the way the top-flight operates – their systems and processes – which are different to the EFL.
I’d worked at Tottenham most recently so had relationships with the people at the Premier League, and an understanding of their requirements, and worked alongside Chris Clark, who then had been club secretary for some years. When he moved to Liverpool my role expanded and evolved into what it is now. I’d previously been club secretary at Wycombe for 10 years, so understand EFL operations too.
Do you come from a football background? I’ve grown up loving football and became a qualified referee when I was 14. I’ve always been in and around the game, and have worked in it full-time for around 15 years. My undergraduate degree was actually in Economics and Accounting at the University of Essex, but, after uni and starting training as an accountant, I had a sort of epiphany. I decided I didn’t want to work in accountancy for the next 40 or 50 years, but would quite like to go to work every day enjoying what I do – something different and in the sport I love. So I ended up going back to do a Master’s in Sport Management at the Business of Football at Birkbeck, University of London, followed by an internship at The FA in the Financial Regulation department. This became a full-time job involving agents, transfers and so on, and after three years I moved on to Wycombe, and then on to Spurs. I’d actually taken a career break after the pandemic to travel and spend time with family, but then got a call from Luton and here I am!
My first transfer window at Luton was January 2024. In the Premier League the market opens up more for international players and we started signing players from overseas, which involved applying for visas and governing body endorsements, which I had experience of from my Tottenham days. And helping them through relocation, settling into a new country, a different culture and language – a different way of living really. That’s quite a challenge for many.
Tell us about this summer’s transfer window. 14 players in and 21 out, including loans – that’s some turnover, isn’t it!
The busiest window in Luton’s history, I’m told! The window starts before it’s technically open really as there’s a lot of planning which goes into it. Player contracts tend to end on 30th June, but there are EFL deadlines as to when you need to offer players new contracts. That has to be decided by the third week in May, so pretty much straight after the season ends. That’s when we would confirm to players whether their contracts are being extended, or not. Likewise at all other clubs. So that’s when players know if they’re going to be free agents. If they’re out of contract and joining or leaving us, that can happen from 1st July. You tend to have a few players joining right at the beginning of any new windows – generally speaking, they are free agents, and out of contract.
How does the transfer process go?
It starts with the recruitment team. They and the manager identify which players they want. If they’re in contract with another club, we contact that club and establish what fee might be involved. That’s agreed between the two clubs. Then we get permission to talk to the player, and initiate that contact, usually through their agent. From then on, if it’s all positive, we negotiate on personal terms, and once they’re agreed we get them in for a medical. Meanwhile, I’m drafting the player contract and the transfer agreement, which goes back and forth with the clubs – and the player contract will go to his agent and his lawyer as well. If the player passes their medical, the transfer gets the green light and then it’s a case of completing the signing.
What is the process like compared to your other clubs?
It’s probably a bit more complicated here, as we add a lot of extra clauses to most deals to ensure that it’s best it can be for the club in terms of sell-ons, extra payment triggers and so on.
It’s fair to say some of the additional clauses get quite complicated, but Gary provides us with the framework of the deal and it’s up to us – myself and our legal team – to translate that into precise contract form. We have to be able to pick the contracts up in three or four years and see exactly what's going on in terms of promotion, relegation and wages.
So, give us a bird’s eye view of transfer deadline day...
The busy time wasn’t just deadline day, it was the days leading up to it too – trying to foresee what might happen on the Monday and prepare for it. So it wasn't a case of everything all in one go. I spent all of the weekend drafting contracts and agreements. Not all of which happen of course – I was saying this summer that I'd love to know how much time I've spent over the years on drafting players contracts, transfer agreements, loan agreements with transfers and so on that never actually materialised! You try and do as much as you can in advance so it's not all last minute. But then sometimes things just fall through, both ins and outs. It's part and parcel of the job.
Many transfer announcements are after the 7pm deadline. What’s the story there?
Well, if you look at the day, there’s a lot going on with arranging contracts and transfer agreements, and that workload is shared between the two clubs dependent on what capacity they have. We have to get all the figures, clauses and dates correct, and also with loan players there’s what permissions they have for playing, whether that includes cup games and so on. It’s all going back and forth all day. And not all deals are lined up before the day: many might depend on who is coming and going at a club and what cover they have. There are a lot of ‘moving parts’ to coordinate! Joe Gbodé was a late one, for instance: we had to get him here and all the paperwork done on deadline day itself. While 7pm is the ultimate cut off time, realistically if you’ve not finalised negotiations by 5, there’s little chance of completion as all the documents and information still need to be uploaded onto the online system for registration. At 6.45, that system goes into last minute mode – whereby you can upload basic details with what the EFL call a ‘quick application’, the Premier League a ‘deal sheet’ and if you get that in by 7 you have a 15-minute grace period to upload all the documents. But you have to prove that the deal was completed by 7.
So, there aren’t ‘last-minute deals’ going on after 7, and clubs can’t pull out or change their minds after that registration point either. What happens with all those late announcements is that the clubs are agreeing on how, when, where the transfer will be made public, and that might depend on what other transfers they’ve done and so on, and how their media team want to handle announcements, so they are co-ordinated with a joint release. No one likes it when one club ‘goes early’. So that’s why some deals go public late.
Another question frequently asked: why are transfer fees and lengths of contract so often undisclosed?
That’s pretty much standard practice in the EFL. It's a commercial agreement so confidential. To me, it’s like going to any business down the street based in Luton and saying can you tell us the value of a commercial contract? It’s not going to happen. And actually, how could you define a transfer fee anyhow – what is it made up of? Is it guaranteed? What are the contingencies and so on? It’s a matter of agreement between the clubs, and as you’ll see, most if not all want to keep that out of the public domain. It’s similar with lengths of contract. These are all commercially sensitive details which can affect the way you do business.
You’re also involved in match day arrangements. Could you tell us more about that?
We – me and my team – run arrangements for our own players and staff, and also co-ordinate with the opposition on match days. I’m responsible for the ‘red zone’, the tunnel and changing rooms area, for making sure that it’s secure, and for guiding the visiting team, officials and directors to their allocated spaces.
Logistics for away games are our responsibility, too. This includes travel – all by coach this season, due to the locations, but in the past where convenient we’ve opted for trains – and hotels and so on. We start planning that as soon as the fixture list is announced: which hotels can accommodate all our needs, not just bedrooms but meetings and conference rooms. And we always look for a gym and a pool too, to enable recovery after travelling. We have a hotel partner who helps with that. We get accommodation and travel in place well in advance but sign the contracts nearer the day as things can change with match dates, times and so on. The club train at The Brache before travelling, we prefer that to trying to find external resources.
We did all the arrangements for the training camp in Slovenia, too: that was quite complex as it was within the transfer window, and we didn’t know exactly who would be going. Airlines like to have names confirmed two weeks in advance, so it was a challenge to get them changed at the last minute!
Looking forward, how do you see your role developing? What are the challenges, and what about Power Court?
I’m very interested in what effect the new Football Regulator might have, as that could affect the way transfers and other aspects of the whole football pyramid in England work. At the moment that’s a wait and see.
One thing we’re doing right now at the club though is further integration of the main squad and academy operational systems. That’s taking a lot of collaborative planning. We’re also looking at how we can build on our relationships with the main footballing bodies to prepare for potential hosting of international teams at the Brache, and in the future at Power Court. We hosted an England Under-21 game at Kenilworth Road last season, and after their recent England fixture at Villa Park, Andorra used our training facilities at The Brache for a Sunday training session and were very complimentary about them. The quality of The Brache, the airport and the proximity of Wembley gives us great potential to develop this side of our operations – and to position Luton, and Power Court, as a key venue for the international scene.
We’re also deeply involved in planning logistics for Power Court. What does match day look like? Arrangements for visiting teams and so on. We’re planning right down to the smallest detail – and learning from errors made at other new grounds, which I and our Safety and Security manager have experienced. We are committed to making the Power Court experience as good as it can possibly be for all.
Finally, what’s your message to the fans? Given the amount of squad changes we made in the summer this is still a sort of transitional period. Everything we’ve done is to create results now and in the future – things are happening and changing, so please get behind the team and give them all the support you can as that can make a real positive difference.
Absolutely spot on Kelly, and thanks for all that fascinating background information and insight. Here’s to roaring the Town on today and every game!
