Attached to the form is an "Addendum", with however many sheets of paper needed to list the clauses, add-ons and bonuses negotiated by agents, or the player himself if he did not use an intermediary.
What is the most important part of the contract?
Before any clauses are negotiated, the most important part of the deal is the length of the contract and how much the player is paid per week. "You want as much of the contract guaranteed as possible," said one leading agent. Once the terms have been agreed, the rest of the negotiating fits around that basic wage.
Pay can be set for different periods of the contract. For instance, a player could be on more money later in his deal to reward loyalty. Or he may see the advantage of being paid more at the front end of the contract.
What do clubs want?
Clubs, like other employers, provide benefits to players and they are increasingly deducting an allowance for food from the players' canteen, where the lunch is no longer beans on toast with a cup of tea after training.
Players must give the club six hours per week for community or PR work, maintain a high level of fitness and refrain from playing "any activity sport or practice which might endanger such fitness or inhibit his mental or physical ability to play practise or train."
Players will also be given the option of a company car, which some take if they are happy with the sponsor's brand rather than the latest supercar. Another benefit on the addendum is the agents' fees, which are normally five per cent of the player's total annual salary but can be negotiated.
Clubs can usually terminate a contract if the players is convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to three months or more in prison (not suspended).
Where do things get complicated?
Intermediaries try to keep clauses as simple as possible but the club's "option" to extend a final year of a deal is often complicated. Players want to have that final year guaranteed if they have played a percentage of games, or if they have been in the Premier League for two consecutive seasons.
Clubs normally need to tell the player in writing — using good old fashioned Royal Mail — by the final Saturday in May that they are taking up the option.
Bonuses and clauses
The juicy part of the contract is in the addendum where players agree a goal bonus or international bonus when they receive their first cap. The reality is that their agent is trying to get them as much as possible in basic salary rather than add-ons. Still, there is an appearance fee per Premier League game in most deals, yet strangely not for cups. Goal bonuses, clean sheet bonuses and assist bonuses would be small compared to the overall salary.
Buy-out clauses can be negotiated and added to the addendum, which would set a fee that would trigger a club being allowed to talk to the player. Erling Haaland has this in his contract at Borussia Dortmund but it is only active in the 2022 summer window.
Backpay, signing-on fees and loyalty fees
Clubs can show good will by giving back pay. If an agent spent two months negotiating a £10,000-a-week rise, they would have missed out on £80,000 during the time spent thrashing out those terms. That can be given back as a loyalty bonus.
There are still signing-on fees but clubs do not like including them now. They are paid in installments during the course of the contract but have to be paid in full if the player is sold. The loyalty payments can be paid at any time during the contract and are often when a season has been completed.
What else do players get?
Clubs are now adding bonuses into the contracts of players should they win a trophy, rather than paying out of a bonus pool of money which is negotiated by the squad representative and agreed at the start of the season.
Image rights are also in the addendum of the contract. The players with big commercial value will ask for an extra 10 per cent to 20 per cent for their image rights. The rest of the players will have this as part of their basic salary.
They will also be offered relocation fees, usually limited to £8000, or the club will pay for their hotel accommodation while they settle into the area.
The small print: 9 common clauses
Telegraph Sport spoke to intermediaries involved in Premier League deals to put together this list of clauses usually negotiated for the addendum to the standard contract
1. The club can exercise an option to extend the player's contract by one year on completion of appearances in 60 per cent of games of the final season of the contract.
1. The club will pay £8,000 for relocation to the area near the Club.
3. The club will pay £5,000 for every Premier League appearance made in the starting line-up or as a substitute in addition to the basic wage. The club will pay an additional • £50,000 on the completion of 50 appearances.
4. The club will pay £10,000 for every goal scored in the first team.
5. The club will pay £100,000 as an "international bonus" when the player plays his first international match.
6. The player will be allowed to discuss and complete a transfer to another club from any division when a £40million offer is received in writing during a transfer window. This clause is valid throughout the length of the player's contract.
7. The club will pay an additional £250,000 following qualification to the Champions League if the player has played in 60% of their games in the Premier League in the season of qualifying.
8. The club will pay a signing on fee of £100,000, which will be spread across the length of the contract in five equal payments.
9. The player will be paid an extra 20 per cent of his annual salary for his image rights used by the club for marketing.
