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

After paying more to agents than anyone else for two years, Liverpool fell behind Chelsea and the Manchesters in 2020.

The Liver Bird on the Bob Paisley Gates Photo by Visionhaus

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.

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