Hughes defends the £13m City splashed out on agents

• zocoss

  1 Dec 09, 12:23

  Manchester City top spending charts as Premier League clubs pay £70m to agents

  The hidden cost of buying and retaining players has been revealed for the first time after the Premier League disclosed that its clubs spent more than £70 million on fees to agents in the past year.

   

   

  

  Big spenders: Manchester City shelled out almost £13m on agents' fees during dates covering last winter and the summer transfer window.

   

   

   

   

   

   

  The figures, published for the first time after the League struck a deal with the Football Association over the regulation of agents, reveal that Manchester City were the biggest spenders, paying out almost £13 million to middlemen during their £173 million transfer spree in 2009.

  Chelsea were ranked second, spending £9.6 million despite relatively modest spending in 2009. The bulk of the fees are understood to relate to fees payable on contract renegotiations and Liverpool, who, despite their financial problems, spent £6,657,305.

  Of greater surprise is that Manchester United spent a relatively modest £1,517,393. Burnley, the Barclays Premier League new boys, are bottom of the table with agents’ fees of £468,398.

  Liverpool were third, spending £6.6 million, with Tottenham fourth, spending just over £6 million. Burnley spent the least of any Premier League club, paying slightly more than £468,000 to agents. However, the figures for them, Birmingham and Wolves include fees paid before they were promoted from the Championship.

  The £70,692,513 overall spend covers the period from Oct 1, 2008, to Sept 30, 2009, and includes the 2009 January and summer transfer windows.

  The figures include all money paid to agents during that period, and cover payments paid to clubs for the acquisition and sale of players, the renegotiation of contracts, fees paid to agents to arrange the disposal of players, as well payments made by clubs to agents on behalf of players. It also includes instalment payments made during the year on previous transactions, but future fees committed to in the last year are not included.

  The scale of the spending, which covers 803 transactions and represents around 3.5 per cent of total Premier League turnover of around £2 billion, is likely to reawaken debate over the role and cost of agents in the game.

  The Premier League has previously resisted publishing any details of its club’s spending on agents, but agreed to reveal the figures as a result of negotiations with the Football Association over the regulation of agents.

  The £70,692,513 total represents slightly more than 10 per cent of the clubs’ total spending on player purchases of £682.3 million in the January and summer windows, and around six per cent of total transfer turnover during the period of nearly £1.3 billion.

  The identity of the biggest spenders comes as no surprise. Manchester City’s fees to agents, which cover 35 transactions at an average of £360,000.

   

   

   

  The full list is:

   

  Manchester City £12,874,283

  
  Chelsea £9,562,223

  
  Liverpool £6,657,305

  
  Tottenham Hotspur £6,066,935

  
  West Ham United £5,527,548

  
  Arsenal £4,760,241

  
  Wigan Athletic £3,576,972

  
  Portsmouth £3,184,725

  Bolton Wanderers £3,166,611

  
  Everton £2,008,407

  
  Sunderland £2,007,040

  
  Aston Villa £1,708,374

  
  Blackburn Rovers £1,610,885

  
  Hull City £1,599,188

  
  Manchester United £1,517,393

  
  Fulham£1,469,258

  
  Wolverhampton Wanderers £1,235,703

  
  Birmingham City £974,982

  
  Stoke City £716,042

  
  Burnley £468,398

   

  Total (803 transactions) £70,692,513

• zocoss

  2 Dec 09, 12:04

  Mark Hughes defends the £13m Manchester City splashed out on agents in spending frenzy
  

   

   

   

  

  Big-money movers: Joleon Lescott and Emmanuel Adebayor arrived at Eastlands
  

   

  Mark Hughes has defended the vast sums of money Manchester City have spent on agents over the past 12 months.  

  Figures released by the Premier League placed City top of the table for payments to the much-derided middle men.  

  Their spree of almost £13million made up a substantial portion of the overall outlay of over £70m by England's top flight.  

  The position was expected given the number of players who have both arrived at, and left, Eastlands in the past year.  And Hughes admitted the outcome was predictable. 

  'If you do a lot of deals - and overall something like 35 were included - given the expenditure and the turnover of players involved, you would expect a figure like that,' said the Welshman.  

  'There is a role that has to be met and, at the moment, agents fill it. Do they provide value for money? You have to base every deal on its merits. 

  'Sometimes you feel the agent has really done his job, on others you feel he is getting money for nothing.  

  'At times they can muddy the waters. Some deals can seem quite straightforward and then they become complicated at the end. 'On other occasions the deal goes through very quickly.'

  Agents have tended to be viewed as a necessary evil, especially in situations like Carlos Tevez, whose third party ownership by Kia Joorabchian caused so much controversy following his arrival in England.  

  It is still not exactly clear how much City paid Joorabchian to gain the player's registration but there is no doubt the deal would not have been possible without Joorabchian's involvement.  

  Hughes is taking action to ensure City do not rely on the use of agents quite as much. 

  Part of his root-and-branch reform of the Blues included a complete revamp of the scouting department which, eventually, he expects to pay significant dividends. 

  'Agents want to work with us - I wonder why,' he pondered. 'We do a lot of the work that in the past agents have been able to bring to a club in terms of recommending players.  

  'Some agents will tell you they have the best player in the world. Now we can make that judgment ourselves because we have seen him 10 times. That has not always been the case.  

  'Without doubt I would say we are in a better place than we were 12 months ago.'

   

• Googooboyy

  2 Dec 09, 13:12

  Tsk, Liverpool's 6.6M could buy them another Jean Arne Risse... back then..