By Sue Hewett, Club Secretary

January is a very busy time for the football administration department, as we are an integral part in the process of player transfers. Football transfers can happen in a number of different ways, sometimes meaning they are a long process. But at other times, the whole thing can happen very quickly.

Once our Director Of Football Nick Hammond and the Manager have identified a player we want to try to recruit, a conversation would take place between Nick and the Board to sanction the move. I would become involved at a stage when Nick wants to make the first written contact with the player's current club. Negotiations would then begin to see if the player is available. If Nick requires a formal bid submitting, we'd prepare the outline offer and send it to the relevant club.

If permission comes through with an acceptance of an offer we'd then need to meet with the player and his representatives, if he has any, to discuss personal terms. Nick puts in a tremendous amount of work in this area, as he handles all the negotiations, but if anything needs to be formalised, I'd work closely with him to make sure it was all done. We both spend a huge amount of time and effort working behind the scenes to try to bring deals to fruition and a conclusion.

If the green light is issued on all fronts and we have a deal with the club and the player, it's a case of formally drawing up the contracts. We would have a transfer fee agreement between the two clubs, and they can sometimes go backwards and forwards between the clubs a few times if the wording of certain clauses needs to be clarified and agreed. Then we draw up the player's formal professional contract, making sure he is happy with everything.

If there is a very tight deadline to meet, like there is at the end of a transfer window, this period can be quite intense and pressured, especially as there can be a number of parties to a transfer. This means we could be dealing with one or more agents, the player himself and the selling club, which if they happen to be foreign can make negotiations and the completion of transfer documents more complicated. We may even need to be liaising with the former clubs of the player since the age of 12 as well, if there is further compensation due or if part of the transfer fee that we have agreed to pay becomes due to any of his former clubs. It's important for me to have a thorough knowledge of the transfer rules and regulations to ensure that all player signings are correct and proper.

Throughout the transfer process I am in close contact with the Premier League offices and the Registrations Department at the FA, including the Finance Department at the FA as well. This is because all transfer payments made by our club, have to be sent via the bank account of the English Football Association. Every transfer document and contract has to be submitted to both the Premier League and the FA and the FA then forwards on all transfer sums on our behalf to the intended recipients. This ensures complete transparency in all transfer activities.

Like I said earlier, sometimes transfers can take quite a while. For example, when we signed Greg Halford last year, we actually put our first official bid in to Colchester United within the first few days of December 2006, but he didn't sign for us until the last day but one of January. So that transfer was quite drawn out, whereas for Michael Duberry, who signed the following day, actually on deadline day itself, the whole thing happened within 24 to 36 hours.

In terms of identifying someone who we wish to recruit, a lot of that work would start with Brian McDermott and his team of scouts. My department would have been involved as an administration support to the football and coaching side. One of the members of my department Debra Thomas is responsible for the scouting operation from an administration point of view. So we'd book match tickets for games we want to send our scouts to cover, and organise flights or travel for scouting trips within the UK, Europe or further afield. We're sending a scout to Ghana for the African Cup of Nations for instance. And for trips like that we need to organise visas to get the scout into Ghana and official papers to state he is working for Reading Football Club. We assist in all the administration elements of scouting trips, as well as with the arrangements for bringing in any prospective players on trial for a short period, when they may need their travel and accommodation looking after and sorting for them.

For an outgoing transfer, that process can be sparked in a number of different ways. A bid could come in by virtue of an initial call to Nick, who is involved at all stages of any of our transfers. At other times a formal bid will come in via the fax or an email to our office. In those cases, the first thing we'd do is alert Nick to that interest.

Nick would decide, in conjunction with the Manager and the Board, whether it is a player or a bid that is acceptable and is sensible and right for us to transfer. He'd then issue an instruction to me about how we are going to reply to that bid, whether we reject it or are open to negotiation if the financial offer isn't what we're looking for.

I've been Club Secretary here for six years now, and in that time we've changed dramatically as a club. For our department, that change is evident in quite a few ways. For instance, we are now signing a higher percentage of overseas players, and that brings different kinds of work that we need to be involved in. A few seasons ago we might have had just one or two foreign players, and now almost half the senior squad is from abroad. For international transfers there is more detail than for a player from the UK, for example if visas or work permits are required. We are also needed to book flights, arrange airport pick-ups, help with estate agents, finding local schools, opening a bank account, assist with utilities, rentals for mobile phones, cars, and that kind of thing. Everything that will help a player and his family to settle into their new life in Reading as quickly and as smoothly as possible. My department works closely with Brian McDermott in this area, whose role does not end when the player signs because he continues to assist with the player's integration into the club.

A recent example of an international transfer would be Marek Matejovsky. He flew to England on the Wednesday, stayed for a day while we agreed his personal terms and contract, which I spent much of that day working on. During the middle part of the day the player was also taken by Brian and my assistant, Sandra Phillips, to view a property in the Reading area, before returning to undergo his medical examination later that same afternoon. Marek said yes to this apartment straight away, and when he flew back into England the following Monday, he moved in with his wife and child. So in his first week at the club there was already some semblance of him beginning to get settled.

An example of a more tricky transfer would be the one between us and Fulham when we signed Liam Rosenior on deadline day with Seol Ki-Hyeon going the other way.

For us it was quite straightforward because Liam is an English player coming from an English club. Seol had another two years on his contract with us and had a work permit covering those two years, but he was going to need to re-apply for a work permit to run during a new employment.

Fulham were aware that if they wanted to pursue their interest in Seol, they would need to re-apply for his work permit. He had slipped down the criteria over his year with us as he'd missed Korean squads due to injury.

The day before deadline day was very quiet and we weren't sure if the two deals were going to happen. But the next morning I came into work and was told that both deals were back on. The key element was that Fulham needed to get the work permit for Seol. Fulham had to attend a work permit panel hearing in London that morning, a panel that was made up of representatives from the home office as well as the Premier League, the FA and the PFA. They were tasked with determining whether Seol met the criteria for a new work permit.

At that stage we were proceeding with everything from our end but weren't sure whether Fulham would secure the work permit for Seol. As soon as they were given the green light, we had the last half of the day to get both deals done and both players visited their new clubs for medicals. We were ready and could have signed Liam at around 7pm, but Fulham were still finishing the medical with Seol until quite late on.

Strictly speaking, Liam and Seol wasn't actually a swap deal, both transfers were separate and independent of each other. But the key thing was that neither club was going to sell the other player without the other going in the opposite direction. So that was why it was actually signed with Liam and our Chairman at 10.30pm on deadline day. Our papers were faxed over to the FA and the Premier League at 11pm, but I know that Fulham weren't able to submit their documents for Seol until 11.45pm, and of course I had to wait by the fax machine and the phone to ensure that we received our confirmations back from the League and FA that all was in order on Liam's signing, as well as learning that Fulham had also received the OK on Seol. So that was a very late night for me!

As well as permanent transfers, there are quite a few other areas which are very important in terms of football administration, like pre-season, loans and disciplinary, and I'll run through some of them in the second part of this blog next week.