A Horse called Juan Face wrote:Sheik, the point was about having an escape clause in the first place. Like Peenkles said, why sign someone and put an escape clause in the contract, its an invitation to be disloyal.
That's part and parcel of the sweetner to get people to come and play in Scotland. I'm sure Cuellar didn't grow up dreaming of playing in Glasgow, ditto Venegoor of Hesselink. It's a bit like Middlesborough, McLaren used to moan that they had to pay someone £40K/week to come to Middlesborough, when the same player would have accepted £30K to live in London and play for Chelsea/West Ham/Charlton/Fulham, etc. So to get playters to come to our footballing backwater they have all the power. Escape clauses aren't that unusual in contracts, you'll probably find that there are many in place, you just never hear about them until they are activated. If Cuellar had a sh1t season, no-one would ever have known it was there.
Moving to a slightly different, but related, matter. Crossas to Celtic? Barca have the right to buy him back in 2 years for €2m? So if he sets the world on fire (aye - right!) do Barca just pay the money and get him back no questions asked, even if he doesn't want to go? I assume this is Barca trying to cover their backs incase he does turn out to be a world-beater (highly unlikely) however suppose he could be another Gatusso, and learn some of his trade over here before going onto greater things.