Liverpool Fall to Fourth in Fees Paid to Player Agents in Premier League

When it comes to a football club’s squad investment, everybody talks about the headlining transfer fees Fewer talk about the impact of wages on a club’s spending, and even fewer still talk about agent fees.

Over the past two seasons, Liverpool have led the way on the latter front, shelling out an eye watering £43.8M to agents in 2018 and £30.3M in 2019. For the just completed 2020 financial year, though, there’s a new leader.

Between February of 2020 and February of 2021, Liverpool paid out £21.65M, making them the league’s fourth top spenders on agent fees—while Chelsea rocketed up into first with £35.2M paid to agents.

Manchester City paid the second most in agent fees over the past year at £30.2M while local rivals United came third, having spent £29.8M. Tottenham and Arsenal were fifth and sixth, each paying out around £16.5M.

At the other end of the list, Burnley and West Brom were the only sides that paid less than £5M over the past year, and while there isn’t a one to one correlation, it’s obvious sides near the top of the table pay more.

Agent fees are typically negotiated and paid out whenever a player signs a new contract, whether following a transfer or extending with his current club, adding an often overlooked cost to any deals a club makes.