English clubs pay £257m in agent fees

FOOTBALL agents have taken more than a quarter of a billion pounds out of english football in the past 12 months.

The previous year saw payments to the game’s middle men leap from £160million to £220m, with Premier League clubs responsible for £174m of that vast sum to sign new players.

But over the last two transfer windows — summer 2017 and January 2018 — that figure has increased significantly yet again, with more than £257m going to the deal makers.

This year Liverpool were the biggest spenders, parting with more than £26m to bring in players like Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah. They were closely followed by Chelsea on £25m and Manchester City on £23m.

huddersfield paid out the lowest amount to agents from english football’s top flight — just £2.4m — but at the opposite end of the english football spectrum there was nobody quite like Aldershot.

Out there somewhere is an agent paid just £112 by the National League side for their part in a transfer, not exactly thrusting them into the company of Jorge Mendes or Mino raiola. Asked last night to reveal to whom the 112 quid was given, a spokesman from Aldershot refused to comment.

Premier League clubs spent more than £211m in agents fees in the past year but the Championship also proved a happy hunting ground, with payments in excess of £42m.

Sunderland were the second only to Aston Villa with £4.3m in fees, although the fact that their figure was higher than the amount spent on actual players might explain why they are in serious danger of being relegated for the second successive season.