At a point of the season when supporters are left to consider their team’s progress — good, bad or indifferent — a financial snapshot to help with any judgement has been presented.
The English Football Association (FA) released its annual figures for payments made by clubs to agents and intermediaries on Monday afternoon and, as is now customary, the sums were enormous.
The 20 Premier League clubs saw fit to spend a combined £409million ($539.6m) on agent fees in this current season, with clubs in the EFL, National League and Women’s game stumping up almost £77m more.
That represented a very minor fall (just under £500,000) from last season’s total for the top flight but the outlay continues to underline what clubs are prepared to pay the transfer brokers in pursuit of squad improvements.
The Athletic picks out the key points from the FA’s latest annual report.
The usual suspects lead the way
There is an established order taking root at the top of the agents’ payments chart in English football and Chelsea continue to lead the way.
No club in the Premier League handed over more to agents this season, with £60.4m the latest extraordinary sum signed off at Stamford Bridge.
That is down on their own record-breaking outlay of £75m last season but Chelsea still committed £8m more to agents than their closest rival, Manchester City.
The sum of just over £60m would also amount to roughly 13 per cent of Chelsea’s annual revenue, if a bottom-line figure from their recently published 2023-24 accounts was mirrored into this season.
Chelsea can point towards relative restraint in the past two transfer windows, where spending was very nearly offset by player sales, but their previous excess continues to have an impact.
Payments made to agents are typically spread over the length of a player’s contract, meaning that previous big-money signings, including Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, are in all likelihood still showing up in the latest figures published.
Player sales, with an agent facilitating an exit, can also have a significant role in shaping numbers. Chelsea, nevertheless, have now paid £179m to agents since the summer takeover of Todd Boehly and Clearlake in the summer of 2022.
Manchester City, who last topped the agent spending charts in 2022-23, were next in line after their January spree when signing Nico Gonzalez, Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis for a combined sum of £178m.
The bumper new contract signed by Erling Haaland in mid-January will also have contributed towards City’s spend of £52.1m, which is also down from their previous year of £60.2m.
Manchester United, albeit a fair way back, were next with a spend of £33m that struggles desperately for vindication in their worst Premier League season, while Aston Villa (£25.1m) and Newcastle United (£24.3m) can at least see returns on their outlays with either a deep European run or long-awaited silverware.
Champions-elect Liverpool, meanwhile, spent £20.8m on agents in what will soon be confirmed as a gilded Premier League season, putting them seventh on the overall list between Arsenal and West Ham United.
Bottom of the pile? That honour went to Ipswich Town, who spent only £6m on their return to the Premier League. That was still three times the amount paid out by Luton Town this time last season.
Man Utd’s spending on agents this season hasn’t worked (Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images)
How do the numbers look across the EFL?
Significantly smaller. All except one club, that is. Leeds United’s total spend on agents was a jaw-dropping £18.8m this season, a figure which is more than Tottenham Hotspur, Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth.
It also represented almost a third of the Championship’s combined outlay, with Burnley closest to them on £5.3m. That might end up being validated with returns to the Premier League for both clubs in the coming weeks but, as with Chelsea, will be shaded by business done in the preceding years.
The biggest spender outside of the clubs still in receipt of parachute payments from the Premier League was Hull City, who spent £3.1m in a season where they remain in danger of being relegated to League One.
Wrexham’s spending on agents, meanwhile, more than doubled to just under £800,000 this season as they bid to reach the Championship with a third consecutive promotion, but that was some way short of Huddersfield Town (£1.2m), whose League One season has collapsed.
Most frugal in all of the EFL were Bromley in League Two, who spent just £27,520 on agents this season. Not that they can compete with Aldershot Town of the National League, who parted with just £286.
Bromley in League Two kept their spending on agents low (James Fearn/Getty Images)
Is this a slowdown or too early to say?
So long as clubs are willing to keep on spending, the agents looking after players will continue to benefit. What makes this season a slight anomaly, though, is the end of a sharp climb.
The Premier League’s agent spending had ballooned from £272.6m (2021-22) to £318.2m (2022-23) and up to £409.6m (2023-24). Those were big consecutive leaps north but a very small reduction to £409m this season would suggest limits have been reached.
The teeth shown by the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) in recent times brought enforced sales to the summer market last June and though there have been those, like Chelsea and Bournemouth, finding ways to circumvent limits, there has typically been greater consideration given to the allowed losses in the Premier League.
Money paid to agents has long been something to be included in annual accounts and will remain the case should the Premier League eventually mirror the squad cost control model adopted by UEFA in 2020.
That limits clubs to spending a set percentage of their turnover on wages, amortised transfer fees and, importantly, agents’ fees. Those competing in UEFA competitions next season will be capped at 70 per cent, down on the 80 per cent of this season.
And just for a European yardstick, the 20 clubs across Italy’s Serie A spent a combined €226m (£194m) in the calendar year of 2024, roughly half of their Premier League compatriots, whose financial muscle in the transfer market continues to be unrivalled.
(Top photo: Getty Images)