Delort sell-on clause comes in Andy for Sharpe

Latics shelled out big money two years ago to land Delort from French side Tours FC, the fee reportedly being in the region of three million euros.

The move did not pay off, with first Uwe Rosler and then successor Malky Mackay not being impressed enough to give him a run in the side.

Having failed to hit the net in 11 games for Latics, Delort spent the second half of the 2014-15 season on loan back at Tours, before moving to Caen for a cut-price fee 12 months ago.

After rediscovering his shooting boots back in France, Delort caught the eye of Mexican outfit Tigres, who last week shelled out a fee reportedly in the region of eight million euros (£6.7million).

However, the frustrating story does have a happy ending, with chairman Sharpe admitting the inserting of a sell-on clause into Delort’s sale last summer means a welcome chunk of cash will be winging its way to Wigan.

“We will never sell a player without a sell-on,” Sharpe told the Evening Post.

“I think we have done previously, but I just really believe in the idea of sell-ons.

“Even if a player fails here, you just never know what they may go on to do in the future.”

With a huge smile on his face, he added: “Yes there was a sell-on with Andy, and yes he did get sold on for a lot of money. We’ll just leave it at that.”

Sell-on clauses are increasingly common practice these days, and can be worth their weight in gold - in cases such as Delort, or Barnsley’s inspired decision to cover the future movement of academy product John Stones.

“The way it’s going, you can actually potentially get more money from a sell-on, whatever figure it is you agree, than the guaranteed money you get in terms of a transfer fee,” Sharpe acknowledged.

“And that’s exactly the way it’s worked out at Barnsley, and John Stones’ move from Everton to Manchester City.

“They sold him to Everton for something like £2-2.5million – and we were so, so close to getting him here first – and now they’ve got another £9million from the sell-on.

“I actually think, if you have a player who you think will go on to bigger and better things, I would take less money guaranteed with a bigger sell-on.

“Of course you might only get the bulk of your money in five years’ time.

“But when it does come, it could end up being a lot of money.”