AGENTS KOP A FORTUNE FROM LIVERPOOL DEALS

PREMIER LEAGUE clubs have spent a staggering £130million in agents’ fees in the last year. Liverpool head the list after committing £14m to the game’s middle men in the past two transfer windows alone. The incredible fees being paid to agents have been highlighted in a report sanctioned and agreed by all 20 clubs playing at the highest level. The figures, which account for money spent between September 2014 and October 2015, show that every side in the top flight has spent at least £1.5m on agents, with Watford the only club to shell out less than £2m. Manchester clubs United and City are in the top three, just behind Liverpool, with £13.9m and £12.4m respectively, with Chelsea completing the top four. Despite a couple of relatively quiet transfer windows, Arsenal have paid agents almost £12m, while West Ham’s Europa League spending spree saw them rack up more than £7m. The two windows saw 172 incoming transfers in the Premier League, while 573 plays left or were loaned out. Added to the 542 new and renewed contract deals, there were almost 1,300 deals which could have seen payments made to agents over the year. The total of £130m is up almost £15m on the previous year, although Liverpool’s total is almost identical to their 2013-14 figure, and Chelsea, who spent almost £17m that year, were the top spenders. The increase in clubs’ TV payments means that the upward trend is likely to continue, with the January transfer window promising more spending. However, it’s a different case in the Football League. Despite nine Championship clubs spending more than £1m on agents, the total was only £26m, around a fifth of the amount spent in the Premier League. League One side Bury are the highest-ranked side who did not give a penny to agents, while all the League Two clubs put together spent just over £1m.