Football in the modern age is built on monstrous player fees and eye-watering wage bills. Love it or loathe it, there is little that can be done about it even by the powers that be. Every big move has a number of parties involved, one of which is the agent. One would assume that these are people in the background we know very little about. However, the likes of Mino Raiola, Jonathan Barnett and Jorge Mendes are names that are often in the headlines.
Agent Fees Make Up Huge Chunk of Premier League Spending
The Usual Suspects
As is to be expected, the biggest spending teams when it comes to agent fees are the big boys. Manchester City and Chelsea have both been known for their extortionate expenditure since the turn of the century and that is reflected in this department too.
Manchester United are in the picture also. As well as of course being a giant of English football, their ties with the lucrative Raiola has played a large part in the astounding figure that is next to their name.
https://twitter.com/SamueIPain/status/1507094160582524930
A whopping £322.1m was spent in agent fees between Feb 1 2021 and Jan 31 2022 across all levels of English football, from the Premier League down to non-league. This broke the previous record of £318m that was set in 2019/20 with records going back as far as 2015/16.
Man City’s spending on agents in this given period is the third highest on record. Only Chelsea in 2020/21 with £35.3 million and Liverpool in 2018/19 with £43.8 million have hit higher heights as such. On the flipside of Man City leading the way, Bath City (National League South) spent a mere £580 on agent fees.
In this period, some of the major transfers include Romelu Lukaku’s return to Chelsea, a very busy summer on the whole for Arsenal plus Jack Grealish’s record-breaking move to the blue half of Manchester.
These are the 20 top teams who spent the most on agent fees….
Manchester City: £35,046,646
Manchester United: £29,
036,141
Chelsea: £28,227,858
Liverpool: £22,136,224
Arsenal: £18,652,818
Tottenham Hotspur: £13,938,231
Watford: £12,593,435
Leicester City: £12,046,495
Wolverhampton Wanderers: £11,958,945
Everton: £11,494,820
Leeds United: £11,396,947
West Ham United: £10,532,927
Fulham: £10,160,399
Aston Villa: £9,557,054
Crystal Palace: £8,865,484
Norwich City: £8,667,246
Newcastle United: £7,717,687
Brighton & Hove Albion: £6,244,039
Burnley: £6,005,185
Southampton: £4,941,761
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