Earlier this week a report was released which detailed the amount of money that Premier League clubs paid to agents from the 1st of October 2010 to the 30th of September 2011. This period of time covers the January transfer window last year and all the dealings over the summer. As expected Manchester City are the biggest spenders, closely followed by Tottenham Hostpur, Liverpool and Chelsea, but somewhat surprisingly, it’s cash-tight Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United that come in fifth. The Magpies spent close to £6.4 million on agents fees last year, but was it money well spent by Newcastle?
The immediate reaction to seeing these figures is ‘why are Newcastle spending so much money on agents fees?’ It’s no surprise that Man City have spent close to £10m, while Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea are never shy of flashing the cash either. But how have Newcastle spent more than the likes of Manchester United? With the money that United have spent on players, you have to be wondering whether Newcastle are just throwing cash down the drain. But of course things are never that simple.
However much we dislike agents and the influence that they have in the modern game, their role is now an essential one and we can’t get away from this. To get the best players, you have to pay their agents top dollar, otherwise they’ll just flout their client to another club. The fact that Newcastle have paid agents a lot of money to a large extent is offset by the almost paltry amount of money they spent on players’ transfer fees and thus goes to other clubs.
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When you look at the players that Newcastle have managed to bring in over the last 12 months you have to say that this is £6m well spent. When you can get the likes of Yohan Cabaye, Demba Ba and Hatem Ben Arfa for a combined fee of £10m, you don’t mind so much when a small premium is paid to their agents. After all, they do play key roles in choosing where their clients go and it seems that Ashley as an astute businessman knows more than most that there are certain people that you have to keep sweet, agents being one group.
You only have to compare the amount that Newcastle have spent to some other clubs to see how well they’re faring. Blackburn spent an incredible £4m, money that seems to have gone down the drain as relegation from the Premier League looms large even at this stage of the season, while neighbours Sunderland spent £3.75m, money that didn’t do former manager Steve Bruce any good as he was given the chop earlier this week.
In the context of the figures, it seems like this has been £6m pretty well spent by Newcastle. As long as their dealings are above board and top quality players are brought in then I won’t complain. Newcastle are the 5th highest spenders on agents and where are they currently in the Premier League? 6th. A coincidence?
Well considering Ba, Abeid & Marvueax were all free agents, they would have cost us a little more in Agents fee’s but then when the 3 are worth a total of around £15m-£20m, spending that little extra on agents fee’s isn’t a problem imo 🙂