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Saints Payout's To Football Agent's Revealed.
Thursday, 1st Apr 2021 07:41

Jut how much football clubs have to pay out to agent's has been revealed and it makes shocking reading and shows that you cannot just judge how much a club has spent in the transfer market by the actual transfer fee itself.

In the period February 1st 2020 & February 1st this year Saints spent almost £7 million on agents fees, despite the fact that transfer's were down in terms of both fee's and numbers due to the current Covid 19 issues.

The figure of £6,804,154 is down just more than £96,000 on the amount of £6,900,365 spent in the previous 12 months between February 1, 2019 and January 31, 2020.

Saints brought in Kyle Walker-Peters, Mohammed Salisu and Ibrahima Diallo on permanent deals over the summer, as well as the loan acquisition of Theo Walcott and then in January Takumi Minamino.

But agents fees are not just for transfers and the club also renewed contracts for number of the playing squad and some of those involved agents fees.

This perhaps shows how agents rule the game nowadays and just how much they earn and take out of it and why it is in their interest to move their clients on from club to club to generate income for the agent.

In terms of the Premier League Only West Bromwich Albion (£4.2m), Burnley (£4.5m) and Crystal Palace (£6.7m) spent less than Saints on agents’ fees over the 12-month period in the top-flight.

At the top end of the scale Chelsea were the biggest Premier League spenders. They invested heavily last summer and brought in Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Ben Chilwell among others and spent £35,247,822 on agents’ fees.

Manchester City were the next highest spenders with £30,174,615, while their neighbours Manchester United spent slightly less — £29,801,555.

This shows just what Saints are up against, the top clubs can spend more than Saints or most Premier League clubs on agents fees alone let alone the transfer fee itself.

In total, Premier League clubs spent £272,220,223 on such fees, despite clubs suffering major losses due to the coronavirus pandemic.

That shows the problem in football, agents are costing clubs £272 million in the Premier League alone, that is more than most of the Premier league clubs actually turnover individually.

The gap between the Premier League and the other three divisions below is emphasised by the fact that Championship clubs spent only £40 million, an average of only £166k per club compared to £2 million per club in the Premier League.

In League 1 the gap was widened with a total of £3.08 million spent, our friends from the East End of the M27 were 7th highest spenders with just £157k forked out.

In the lower leagues spending on agents fees was actually down on the previous 12 month period, but in the Premier League it has increased, showing that despite a reduction in transfers and a global pandemic, the agents are not suffering a drop in business.

The obscene amounts being spent by the so called Big Six clubs shows the gap between them and the rest of the clubs and how they are getting richer as the rest struggle and have the misapprehension that spending £100 million on transfers would automatically propel us into the top six, the reality is it would barely touch the sides.

For me the sooner that the Big Six break away from the Premier League and form a European Super League the better, when they do the rest of us have to stand firm and turn the Premier League into a competitive competition, not being able to watch the big stars come to down would be a small price to pay for the chance to actually have a chance of winning something and to bring some sanity back to the game.

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underweststand added 08:19 - Apr 1
Thankfully our expenditure is a lot less than many other Prem. clubs, but the reality is that If we want "Player X " we have to deal with his agent first and agree terms and there are costs involved in the agents (and his associates) for salary, travel and diverse other costs just to get around the table to begin negotiations.
The most annoying thing is most likely that at the end of the day ..(or however long it takes) we may not sign the player at all , and have to move on to the next one on the list.

I don't mean to suggest that the club is wasting money on these activities, but it becomes fairly obvious that it is just part of the long preparation before we get to the point of putting a pen in the player's hand to sign a contract.
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highfield49 added 10:13 - Apr 1
Nick, you've been pretty clear for a long time that you favour the European Super League and the Big Six leaving English football. I maintain the view that such a move would a retrograde step. If the Super League was formed by representatives of all the major European leagues then the tv money is going to follow. Why would any of them not suck up as much income as possible to compete against all the other leeches? Subsequently, if the Super League gained the support you envisage, a second tier league would follow taking the next wealthiest clubs into the fold. Before long you would end up with a hollow domestic league akin to winning the JPT because the opposition would be lower league quality players taking the game back seventy years or so. The funding for our academy would disappear, Staplewood turned into a housing estate, and the club struggling to fill the stadium for the majority of matches. You as many of us must remember watching progress back to the top flight with 15,000 or so supporters in the ground when the opposition was poor quality. For me it's not all about winning it's just as much about the challenge of beating the big money clubs even on a decidedly non level playing field.
At present Saints feed off other clubs who have developed players, Celtic spring to mind, just as Liverpool and Spurs have fed off us. I'm left wondering how your attitude might change if your mythical American tycoon materialised and pumped money into the club? We could rapidly join the wealthy elite and would you then want to join the Super League or sit back claiming domestic titles on a regular basis?
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WestSussexSaint added 14:09 - Apr 1
With these numbers I'm clearly in the wrong job!

I have two issues with the whole football agent business. Firstly, the agent is the players representative and appointed by the player to get the best deal for them. Why isnt the player paying the agent fee. This happens all the time in other industries e.g. acting where the agent take a cut of the actors fee. I do recognise that clubs employ some free lance agents to act as a go between and in that situation they are employed by the club so the club should pay. For the clubs to pay the players' agent is a bit like Turkey's voting for Christmas.

Secondly, I have no issue with the genuine agent representing the players interest. The problem is all the non offcial go betweens who want their cut. These coud be friends or family members who act as "fixers" and it is doubtful they have the players interests as their only interest. The are leaching money out of the game.

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underweststand added 15:30 - Apr 1
I agree with " highfield " and " west sussex "... for players who have reached a certain level in the game and are making " the big move " it's a minefield of laws, contract clauses and assorted agreements. Many players in the game didn't get their success through GCSE's or University degrees (apologies to those who did achieve them) but a good agent can help them find the best deals in an certain career that might come to an end with the next major injury.
In that respect, a good agent can help them in attaining a life style to support the luxury house, the Porsche they like to drive, or their attraction to the partner of their choice.

The real problem is the " bad eggs" who exploit players through underhand methods that work against the interests of both player and the club, and may often "create " a deal that gives them a bigger %, at the expense of their client's career.
In that respect the outcome is the same as every successful person in any profession.
Are they happy to ..work to live , or live to work.
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SanMarco added 19:32 - Apr 1
" it's a minefield of laws, contract clauses and assorted agreements". Doesn't have to be though underweststand. A central body looking after players could look over contracts (PFA obviously needs to do a better job.)

The biggest problem with agents is they undermine clubs/the game by wanting/plotting for constant movement. They don't just get you your dream job (and take a large slice), they want to then get your or even better dream job next year (another slice) then your next one the year after that (another slice). They basically exist to move players and create rumours. No need for them and we would all be better off without them.
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