Premier League clubs spend a RECORD £318m in agent fees with Man City leading the way
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Premier League clubs spend a RECORD £318MILLION in agent fees with Man City leading the way after splashing £51.5m in the last year – ‘£35m of which went on Erling Haaland alone’ as the top-flight sees a £46m increase on the previous 12 months
- The Championship, League One and League Two combined spent just £44m
- The deal to sign Erling Haaland reportedly saw a stunning £35m paid to agents
- Pep Guardiola says it’ll be a last minute call on Haaland’s selection at the Etihad
The Premier League paid more than £318million in agent fees between February 2022 and January 2023, a record spend for a 12-month period.
The 20 clubs in the English top-flight forked out a combined £318,219,426, according to the FA, with reigning champions Manchester City leading the way with a spend of £51.6m.
The staggering sum was an increase of £46m on the previous 12-month period, perhaps a result of the high-profile spending sprees of the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United.
The figures – released by English football’s governing body on Friday – pertain to payments and transactions including agents and intermediaries registered in England for any permanent or loan deal, updated contracts or registrations.
City’s acquisition of Erling Haaland unsurprisingly saw the highest amount of money paid to agents, with the prolific Norwegian’s transfer deal reportedly including around £35m in agent fees.
The deal to sign Erling Haaland at Manchester City saw around £35million spent in agent fees
Man City spent £8.4m more than the second-highest spenders on agent fees between February 2022 and January 31 2023
The Premier League’s top six sides – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Man United and Tottenham – unsurprisingly took the top six spots for agent fees paid.
Nottingham Forest, however, came in last place in spite of their mass influx of new faces at the City Ground, having signed a stunning 30 players but only spent £4.4m.
Fellow big-spenders Chelsea signed 21 players on permanent deals and two loan deals, since the arrival of new owner Todd Boehly, and with a total spend of £43.2m), averaged around £1.9m-per-signing.
There is a clear disparity as expected in the figures paid by the top four on the list and the rest of the standings.
Between Arsenal in fifth (£16.7m) and Forest in 20th (£4.4m) there was a difference of only £12.3m, however the gap between Arsenal and City amounts to £34.9m – almost as much as the entire amount given to agents to sign Haaland.
Brentford, who are pushing for a European qualification spot this season, spent the third-least (£5.6m), while relegation-threatened Leeds (£15.3m), Everton (£13.5m) and West Ham (£12.03m) came eighth, ninth and 10th respectively.
Todd Boehly’s Chelsea spent over £300m on players in the January transfer window alone
Enzo Fernandez joined Chelsea from Benfica on deadline day for a British record £107m fee
National League leaders Wrexham are owned by Ryan Reynolds (L) and Rob McElhenney (R)
Naturally, the expenditure from the top-tier of English football dwarfed sums from the lower leagues, with an expected correlation between agents fees and tiers of the football league.
The entire Championship totalled £36.8m – around the same as West Ham, Leeds and Crystal Palace combined – as the 24 clubs spent less on agent fees in the period than the previous 12 months.
League One (£5.7m) and League Two (£1.7m) combined for a fee less than that of the lowest spending top-flight side.
National League leaders Wrexham also led the way in agent fees, with a spend of £163,737 – perhaps unsurprising given they are owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
