At least Agents are making a few bob from us!

PLYMOUTH Argyle were the third highest spenders on agents' fees in League Two last season.

That is despite them being in administration for the first three months of the 2011/12 campaign.

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Argyle committed £78,860 to agents' fees on a total of 42 transactions, according to an annual report from the Football League.

That was made up of 16 new registrations/transfers, nine updated contracts, four cancelled contracts and 13 loans.

Only the promoted pair of Swindon Town (£448,506) and Crawley Town (£136,800) spent more on agents' fees than Argyle in League Two last season.

Swindon, under the charismatic management of Paolo di Canio, were involved in 78 transactions, including 46 new registrations/transfers. Four clubs in the division did not pay any agents' fees – Accrington Stanley, AFC Wimbledon, Barnet and Crewe Alexandra.

In total, there were 1,012 transactions in League Two, of which 121 involved the use of an agent.

Clubs agreed to pay £971,365 in agents' fees, compared to £221,525 the previous campaign.

The reporting period was from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012.

Football League clubs spent a total of £21.7 million on agents' fees last season, up from £16.7m in 2010/11.

Of that £21.7m, all but £3m of it was committed by Championship clubs, with West Ham United topping the list at £4.3m.

Football League chairman Greg Clarke said: "While £21m is a lot of money leaving the game, it should be noted a considerable amount of this has been spent by a small number of clubs.

"Almost a fifth was spent by one club alone.

"Where such spending forms part of a sustainable business plan, it shouldn't be of great concern and supporters should be encouraged to see our clubs committing themselves to the new Financial Fair Play regulations."

Ridsdale's Mates

A lot of that spend is down to two things, in my view - firstly, retaining Paul Hart to oversee the clearout of players, and, following on from the clearout, we had to rebuild the squad virtually from scratch, so my guess is that we won't see anything like that sort of spend from now on.

What is also depressing is seeing the number of loans in that time. An entire first team! The loan system is horrific and needs reviewing badly. Also I don't like seeing a team containing a large amount of loans as there are times when some just don't seem committed. Plus even if they are, most were hideously average and the rare good ones were off and never to return. At times last season I thought we resembled a football league work experience scheme.

warny - its the future of lower league football mate.

I always wonder what it is that the agents are doing to 'earn' such money, and why some clubs seem to survive without paying anything, or hardly anything.

GregCampbellFanClub wrote:

warny - its the future of lower league football mate.

Whereas with some modest investment to retain players and staff in 2007/8, we would now probably be in Blackpool's position but with substantially higher attendance figures. No need for ground breaking offers and praaaaaaaper pasties then ! What's the worst thing that could happen, administration? We couldn't even do that properly and got railroaded by a banker and his jamboys ffs !

Guess who plumped for Trusting in Stapes and the orgasmic model ! It now resides in the directors' sty with the rest of the more equal brigade. When will they ever learn ?

Swindon spent near on half a million quid on agents fees alone! Am I the only one that finds that a touch alarming?

I wonder how much the agent actually gets and how much is returned to the personal bank account of the guy that wrote the cheque out.

Agents really are horrible creatures and not that far removed from pimps.

They're here to stay in football unfortunately and should've been stamped out years ago when they started with the ridiculous demands and holding clubs hostage. Since agents became more prevalent, players staying loyal to clubs has become a thing of the past.

The water is further muddied when agents actually own the player they are hawking around, rather than the clubs.

I would like to see what would happen if a club turned around one day and said they would not deal with agents? Would they be left with no players, or would players decide to drop the middle men?

It would have been helpful if the Herald went the whole hog and put some names next to all those transactions. 13 loans - I can barely recall half a dozen.

Dougie wrote:

It would have been helpful if the Herald went the whole hog and put some names next to all those transactions. 13 loans - I can barely recall half a dozen.

Is it because the 13 loans include the ones we sent out?

Agents are the Cancer of the football world.

GOB wrote:

I wonder how much the agent actually gets and how much is returned to the personal bank account of the guy that wrote the cheque out.

Don't worry, we had Ridsdale writing the cheques for us, so I'm sure nothing like that could have happened!

Greenjock wrote:

I would like to see what would happen if a club turned around one day and said they would not deal with agents? Would they be left with no players, or would players decide to drop the middle men?

Didn't the guy at Blackpool do this - Karl Osysten . Didn't do them any harm!