A brief statement on the club website shows that Newcastle have spent a staggering £6.3m on agent fees in the year running from October 1st, 2010 to September 31st 2011. In total Premier League clubs spent a total of £71m on agent fees during that same period.
As you can imagine, Manchester City are out in front in terms of fees paid to agents and have handed over £9.6m to the unscrupulous bastar so-and-so’s. Next up are Tottenham with £7.5m followed in third by Liverpool who managed to waste a cool £7m. Chelsea are in 4th place with £6.4m just ahead of us in 5th place with our £6.3m, or £6,380,488 to be precise.
To be honest, for a club that once said that they’ll not bow to agents demands anymore it’s a rather large amount, especially when you look at our transfer spend over that period, which was minimal. However transfer spend is largely irrelevant as we signed eight players in that time, all of whom will have required an agent fee to be paid.
Because the reference period covers Oct 10 – Sep 11 it includes the transfer window of last January and the one over the summer. In that period we signed Hatem Ben Arfa permanently, Sylvain Marveaux, Yohan Cabaye, Gabriel Obertan, Demba Ba, Davide Santon, Mehdi Abeid and Rob Elliot. On top of the you have to consider the new contracts for players like Cheik Tiote and Jonas Gutierrez plus any new deals for any of the youngsters who have been signed during that period.
When you put it like that it’s not too bad really is it? I mean we have done a lot of contract negotiations, especially at youth level, and we have signed a number of players. The fact that they have been to replace others is largely irrelevant in this particular case. Even if we’d not sold anyone we’d have still had to pay out these fees.
Unfortunately it’s part of the game I’m afraid and until it’s clamped down from the top it will stay a part of the game. Personally I think £6.3m on agents fees could have been spent better elsewhere. It would have been enough for an Erik Pieters for example, I think. Either way, it’s £6.3m out of the club and out of the game. Even more frightening is the wider picture of £71m just disappearing out of the game.
Boom. Gone. Never to be spent on football again.
Twats.
Kinda interesting that the top 7 in the agents fees ‘table’ are also the top 7 in the current league table…..
M(Quote)
Manchester City £9.7m;
Tottenham Hotspur £7.6m;
Liverpool £7m;
Chelsea £6.5m;
Newcastle United £6.3m;
Arsenal £4.6m;
Manchester United £4.5m
M(Quote)
We’ll that’s £6.4m of the Carroll money gone 😆
toonsy(Quote)
said it many times,these people, are the cancer of football.Holding clubs to ransom, turning players heads towards other clubs,all for self interest.The worst thing about it is, as you say toonsy,all that money is lost from football,seems such a shame when smaller clubs,are close to going out of business.
mg man(Quote)
just goes to show free transfers do cost money 🙄 🙄
mg man(Quote)
Like you say it’s part of the game and nowt can be done about it…. at the moment. A clearer picture maybe would be how much agents are paid per player signed on average? if we’ve signed 8 and other clubs have signed 4,5,6,7 then we’d expect to have paid more out than them, obviously other factors would come into play too but in general I’d think that would be the case.
Would our alledged” wage cap come into it? if you’re offering less wages than some other clubs and use more of a “bonus” related pay then maybe we have to grease the agents palms more in order for them to “nudge” their clients in our general direction, after all what’s an extra £500k to an agent against saving £5-10k or so per week in salary over a 5 yr contract? 😉
richietoon(Quote)
@5 Never doubted that they did, but I think DL would have had us believe that it had accounted for almost all of the £35m!?!
£6.3m sounds about what I would have expected to be honest
David Cresswell(Quote)
Toonsy@3
Thats exactly what I thought
NorthernPaul(Quote)
Daft question maybe but ate there agent associated with outgoing transfer?
I also seem to remember an article about how Llambias was schmoozing French agents, bring them over in private jets, hotels etc. Would these expenses be classed as agent fees?
Sorry that was two daft questions!
witters(Quote)
Two daft questions not very well written…sorry just woke up!
witters(Quote)
Hopefully FIFA and the FA can step in at some point and come up with some sort of cap for agents. I understand why players need them – to help market themselves and sort out decent contracts etc but, as a fan, i don’t give a flying fart about any of that ****.
Looking forward to the Chelsea game. I hope Gary Speed’s memorial isn’t marred by some of the cretins spreading horrible rumours about him that I won’t repeat. 👿
If we beat chelsea, get some depth to the squad in january and keep key players fit (and hold onto them)- whats the chances of a top 6 finish?
nobby(Quote)
Christ, just woke up at 815 or so….. there’s people out there done half a shift already!
🙄 😉
Short answers to your questions…. yes and probably. But those fees’ll come out of the revenue budget rather that capital spend and thus are not depreciated over a period of years in the accounts. ❓
lesh(Quote)
@12 coment pitched at Witters 🙄 🙄 😳
lesh(Quote)
Witters – Im going to disagree with lesh and say that you only pay agent fees for incoming or retained (new contract) players. The buying club pays the fees. Well thats how I’ve always understood it anyway lol
toonsy(Quote)
Just wondered…but I’ve nee idea what Lesh is talking about here despite it sounding good 😉
But those fees’ll come out of the revenue budget rather that capital spend and thus are not depreciated over a period of years in the accounts.
witters(Quote)
Oh & Lesh…have you done half a shift yet? 😉
witters(Quote)
my chelsea lineup:
krul
simpson taylor colo raylor
barfa tiote perch cabaye obertan
ba
vv44(Quote)
Now we know the agents fees.
Will we ever be told the signing on fees over the same period??
sidekick(Quote)
didn’t the scum sign 11 players,in the summer,?yet they payed less to agents than us.
mg man(Quote)
MG MAN – It depends on the quality of the players .
sidekick(Quote)
I agree, that £6,4m seems to be a very high figure, but the fact is, that is how the transfer system works nowadays. Saying, that we could have spent the same figure on Pieters, makes very little sense to me. That would mean, that we couldn’t have signed any of the free transfers. We can’t ignore the agent fees, as they are as much a part of the transfer as the figure actually payed for the player in question.
Of course that’s where some of the Carroll money went – which means the money was actually spent on transfers and not on undersoil heating or whatever people like to point their fingers at when rambling on about the club not spending enough on strengthening the squad ..
Sunderland spent less money on agents eventhough signing 11 players, because they (apart from the fabulous Wes Brown & John O’Shea) went for players on low salaries from relegated teams or from the Championship. That’s my guess anyway ..
funkness(Quote)
any noooooz on Tiote?
fit? unfit? staying? going? ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓ 😕
nobby(Quote)
We got alot of free and cheap players tho. Agents always charge more. Might be why.
Sorry to change the point but The attendance at Old Trafford last night was around 52,000 i think so Old Trafford had 24,000 empty seats last night. So much for all them man united fans who “Can never get a ticket to a game” Fake plastic fans. Hate them more than sunderland.
The 59 Sound(Quote)
It would be interesting to see if the use of agents diminished and if the numbers of transfers fell if the players themselves had to pay the agents’ fees. If it is the player/agent who is instigating the transfer, then why not? Plus, there’s no doubt that a lot of transfer activity is generated by the agents, often when players are settled and happy.
OldVin(Quote)
Don’t understand what the big deal is to be honest.
I know agents are slimey tw@ts, but that’s their job I.E. to represent a player and get as much money in for them as possible, obviously a percentage goes to the agent.
I currently pay markup on stuff I buy from the shops, often massive, depending on the product – the outlet buys the product from their supplier and adds X amount.
Agents acquire footballers, and effectively markup their cost price, just like a car dealer would. I see very little difference, and have no problem with it.
Rodzilla(Quote)
Witters, Have I done a half shift yet? Me? No chance, still in kip psyching meesel up to the possibility…… or not!
😀 😆
lesh(Quote)
Oh and Toonsy, thanks for your observation about the buying club pick up agent’s tab when buying. That sounds fair to me and I stand corrected 😳 😉
lesh(Quote)
Lesh… 😆
witters(Quote)
Haha Vv44 is the funniest troll out their. Either that or its actually Perch himself.
Brendan(Quote)
Agent are ruining the game because they are turning players into greedy bastards with the ‘I want more’ attitude.
Get rid of the agents and get the players nanas and grandads down to negotiate for them. 😀
wolfie(Quote)