Every so often, the mercenary world of football throws up a charming story, and one such example is the windfall Maidenhead will receive as part of the Max Kilman transfer.
Maidenhead sold Max Kilman to Wolves for £40,000 in 2018 and have a significant sell-on clause, as confirmed by their chairman, Peter Griffin, back in April. It is reported to be 10 percent.
The non league club were believed to have originally negotiated a 20% sell-on clause but it’s understood that Wolves renegotiated to 10% as the Kilman deal become more likely.
That would give former Hammer turned Maidenhead manager Alan Devonshire £3,990,000 to invest, a huge amount for a club in the fifth tier of football.
To say that this is an incredible amount of money for a semi-professional football club would be a massive understatement. Almost four million pounds would keep the club running for years, and the fact that a former Hammer is in charge makes the story even better.
The structure of the deal also goes some way to explaining why Wolves were holding out for so much money from West Ham, with the knowledge that so much would have to be forwarded to Maidenhead.