Aston Villa Agent Fees
This week the FA published the tally of agent fees that Championship clubs have spent in this season’s two transfer windows. It showed that Aston Villa had spent significantly more than any other Championship team. In fact, more than double of any teams apart from Sunderland and Reading.
Contrast that to what Villa Footballing Director Steve Round had said at the AVST AGM last month, when he’d stated that Villa had kept agent spend to a minimum and hadn’t broken the limit for anyone.
Villa’s agent spend of £5,510,180 is actually more than four Premier League clubs including West Brom.
The amount covers 18 Villa players from the FA transaction list (see below), taking into account players in and out, and also new contracts.
In terms of incoming players, it’s interesting that Villa top the agent fees table despite it covering two transfer windows where the club didn’t spend big on any transfer fees.
Instead, they relied on loan deals and getting in free agents like Samba and Terry.
Why are Aston Villa Agent Fees High in Comparison?
Once again, Villa’s agent fee spend of £5,510,180 only covers 18 player transactions (no big incoming deals) and five of them are youth player contracts (including Keinan Davis).
Wolves amount of £2,001,023 is lower than the likes of Birmingham City, Derby, Norwich and Cardiff, yet it covers the coming and goings of 36 players – double Villa’s amount.
Does the Jorge Mendes factor once again factor?
Sunderland, who’s agent spend of £4,370,897, covering 29 players, is the second highest in the division, and another example of a club with a lot more player transactions than Villa.
It seems that Villa had to spend big on agents to swing particular deals. Was it the John Terry deal? The Robert Snodgrass one? The Lewis Grabban deal? Also, was there a big outlay on agent fees in terms of trying to offload Ross McCormack on loan?
It’s certainly an intriguing equation when comparing to some of the other clubs in the division.
Any ideas?
Championship club agent spend
Aston Villa – £5,510,180
Barnsley – £419,639
Birmingham City – £2,461,909
Bolton Wanderers – £223,432
Brentford – £1,690,415
Bristol City – £843,174
Burton Albion – £268,490
Cardiff City – £2,026,917
Derby County – £2,180,305
Fulham – £2,428,175
Hull City – £1,882,530
Ipswich Town – £241,969
Leeds United – £1,349,452
Middlesbrough – £2,538,840
Millwall – £311,505
Norwich City – £2,212410
Nottingham Forest – £1,141,512
Preston North End – £1,046,679
Queens Park Rangers – £1,817,113
Reading – £2,850,283
Sheffield United – £652,070
Sheffield Wednesday – £1,714,130
Sunderland – £4,370,897
Wolverhampton Wanderers – £2,001,023
From FA List of Intermediary payments
UTV
At first sight this seems pretty poor but should it be offset against the wages saved ? I don’t think there would be too much argument with letting any of these go.