Everton’s Agard moves in football’s first ‘twansfer’

Terry Skiverton, manager of the League One team Yeovil Town, claims to have engineered football's first 'twansfer' after signing striker Kieran Agard (above) from the Premier League side Everton. It followed his call last week for Yeovil supporters to help him scout for the club by using Twitter to pass on suggestions for players he should pursue .

"The help from the supporters has been magnificent," he told BBC Somerset. "What I didn't realise was other supporters from other clubs had jumped on the bandwagon. I've had supporters from Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Championship clubs like Cardiff, all telling me about their best youngsters and players who are available on loan."

Given that the usual interface between football and Twitter involves a drunken Premier League starlet hitting out at his boss for having the audacity to drop him from the squad, or else threatening fellow tweeters with physical violence pace Wayne Rooney, Skiverton's call to arms is a novel and welcome development.

The 36-year-old, who took over the management of Yeovil after turning out for the Glovers 328 times between 1999 and 2010, was tapping into the phenomenon unleashed by the Championship Manager series of computer games which first appeared in 1993 and which have since sold by the millions as generations of wannabe Alex Fergusons and Kenny Dalglishes have sought to prove their managerial nous.

A previous example of tapping into the collective wisdom of football supporters through the internet proved less than successful when the club Ebbsfleet United was bought by MyFootballClub in November 2007.

The website's 27,000 members paid £35 each to own a share in the club and to have a say in the signing and selection of players for the non-league football club. By 2010 only 3,500 members remained, and the club was in conflict with its notional owners over whether the members would have the final decision on signings.

Where Skiverton appears to have succeeded is by appealing to increasingly disenfranchised fans' football knowledge. As he told the BBC, "Supporters sometimes feel left behind but in this case they've been asked for their opinion. I'm trying to do it a different way by giving them a bit of interest and it's been excellent." ·