Payments to agents 09/10

[Phoenix]

a large part of that is going is going to be for Mr Joe Cole's agent.

[El Rojo]

Fuck's sake.

 

Some people are never happy - second in the table only to Chelsea and still we moan.

[Jose Jones]

a large part of that is going is going to be for Mr Joe Cole's agent.

 

I'd say so.

We've been shit at giving money to agents for years. Harry Kewell was a particularly egregious example. I'd imagine the Mascherano deal didn't come cheap either.

[Royal Family]

*awaits Royal Family to blame Benitez despite it pointing to Hodgson and Purslow*

 

Silly boy. Rafa was in charge for 9 months of this period, and Roy for a mere 3, so I'm not sure about your logic!

 

The disgrace here is that we've spent £9m on agent fees at a time when the club's net transfer spend has been negative. But actually I wouldn't "blame" either manager - most of our deals have actually been set up by Monsieur Macia, and i posted on the equivalent thread last year that our figures would be high this year. I've drawn attention for two years now to the closeness between the club and certain Italian agents. Add in the negligent, absentee owners we had (let's just hope the new guys will be better?), and you have a situation where this can happen because we're not a well-run club.

 

There's been a culture at this club for over a decade that has allowed us to be fleeced and mulcted by agents: our last two managers for instance have each been represented by agents (something I'd never previously heard of regarding managers) and this allows a culture to develop which normalises the role of the agent.

 

As i said last year, the clubs should be made to publish a detailed breakdown of these fees. For instance, I wouldn't mind betting that we paid some money to agents of our top players to help "persuade" them to stay over the summer.

[piscinin]

Silly boy. Rafa was in charge for 9 months of this period, and Roy for a mere 3, so I'm not sure about your logic!

 

All those deals were negotiated by Purslow.

[Royal Family]

All those deals were negotiated by Purslow.

 

Actually, not so - agents fees tend to be paid over the duration of a contract, so the large sum could also be a reflection of deals done 2, or 3 years ago - esp that large tranche of contract renegotiations in 2008-9.

[piscinin]

Actually, not so - agents fees tend to be paid over the duration of a contract, so the large sum could also be a reflection of deals done 2, or 3 years ago - esp that large tranche of contract renegotiations in 2008-9.

 

Good swerve. The point remains the MD is responsible not the managers.

[Trucker Paddy]

 

Good swerve. The point remains the MD is responsible not the managers.

 

But what about "Rafas fight for control" that he got in march 2009, legs it..........

[usernameunknown]

Silly boy. Rafa was in charge for 9 months of this period, and Roy for a mere 3, so I'm not sure about your logic!

 

 

Rafa had the january window, Hodgson had the summer. I know which was far far busier than the other.

[Andy K]

According to the Independent it was the summer clearout that was the cause of the £9m, with agents being paid for incoming, outgoing and renegotiated deals. Clearly some of this spend could have been avoided if Hodgson had either not been so hasy in getting rid of players like Aquilani, Insua and DLV, or stood up to Purslow, insisting that he should be making the football decisions.

 

Liverpool have paid out more than £9m – the price of the second striker they could not afford last summer – on agents' fees in the past year, a figure eclipsed only by Chelsea, as the Anfield club tackled the legacy of previous manager Rafael Benitez.

 

 

The amount spent by all Premier League clubs on agents in the year from 1 October 2009 to 30 September, a period taking in transfer windows in January and last summer, was more than £67m, only £3m less than the previous year despite a general reduction in transfer activity.

 

While Manchester City vastly reduced their figure from £12.9m to £5.9m – the appointment of Brian Marwood as football adminstrator was designed to deliver in-house expertise – Liverpool's outlay soared to £9.03m because of the sheer turnover of playing staff. Coincidentally, manager Roy Hodgson failed to secure West Ham's Carlton Cole as a second striker on the summer transfer deadline day because the club's £9m bid proved insufficient.

 

Liverpool's new owners, New England Sports Ventures, have made the pursuit of better value in the transfer market a priority. But as the club seeks to ship out many of the players that Benitez had on the books, their payments to agents may not look much better when the Premier League publishes its next table of sums paid to agents in a year's time.

 

Hodgson, who has complained publicly that Benitez bequeathed him an "unbelievably overstaffed" club, has sold Diego Cavalieri, Javier Mascherano, Damien Plessis, Albert Riera, Krisztiá* Nemeth, Yossi Benayoun, plus Lauri Dalla Valle and Alex Kacaniklic, makeweights in the deal which brought in Paul Konchesky from Fulham. Each has incurred agents' fees and so, too, the loan deals including Philipp Deggen, Alberto Aquilani, Nabil El-Zar and Emiliano Insua.

 

Hodgson did not choose to sell Mascherano and Benayoun, but he and his former managing director, Christian Purslow, mandated agents to find new clubs for some of the players they were desperate to shed. The substantial effort put into keeping those stars that Liverpool do not want to lose has brought new contracts for Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina, from which their agents also take a cut.

 

The incoming players have been Brad Jones, Fabio Aurelio, Konchesky, Christian Poulsen, Joe Cole, Danny Wilson, Jonjo Shelvey and Raul Meireles. A concern for Liverpool must be how to sell some of those players currently out on loan whom they do not want back: Aquilani has impressed at Juventus but Insua, also on a season's loan, is currently not a starter at Galatasaray. Agents may be called in to help secure deals which will spare Liverpool their salaries.

 

The new director of football strategy, Damien Comolli, also has his ideas about whom he wants to bring in – and it is little wonder that Liverpool are so desperate to do something about their academy's dire record in nurturing players of Premier League standard. In the past decade, only three Anfield academy graduates have played 40 or more games for a Premier League club.

 

Manchester City are also relying on their academy to reduce a £133m annual wage bill which risks leaving them in breach of Uefa's Financial Fair Play regulations, while chief executive Garry Cook's determination to cutting the influence of agents at Eastlands has seen their agent-payment outgoings fall to a figure only slightly above the £5.36m paid out by Tottenham Hotspur, the club who pipped them to fourth spot last season.

 

Manchester United, where Sir Alex Ferguson has resolved to develop the club through investing in youth, have paid only £2.3m to agents, which is considerably less than Bolton's £3.5m. The Wanderers' figure reflects the wage bill which led chairman Kevin Gartside to warn last month that players may need to be sold in January. Blackpool's £40,000 figure reflects their over-performance.

 

Liverpool's announcement yesterday that Jamie Carragher needs surgery for a dislocated shoulder, and may be out for up to three months, increases the prospect of a centre-half being signed. The France international Adil Rami, one of a number of Lille players that Hodgson has watched recently, has a physical strength which suggests he is cut out for the Premier League. But Lille will want ¤15m (£12.5m) for the Moroccan-born player – and then, of course, there will be the agents' fees.

 

Club payments to agents

 

The table shows the total paid by each Premier League club to agents involved in transfers and loan deals in the period 1 October 2009 to 30 September 2010.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Would our agency fees be higher due to the amount of free signings we make.

[Original202]

Hodgson did not choose to sell Mascherano and Benayoun, but he and his former managing director, Christian Purslow, mandated agents to find new clubs for some of the players they were desperate to shed.

 

Interesting, so it's not like on Football Manager where you can just send a fax to everyone offering the player for a knock down price...

[Trucker Paddy]

Yes

[Royal Family]

re that Independent analysis: Can I be the first to state that i would much rather pay £9m to agents than pay £9m to west Ham United for Carlton Cole...:whistle:

[straight_red]

So hang on, if a club wants someone of the payroll, agents basically say "give us some cash or he's not going anywhere". Anyone else think that sounds a little iffy?

[navbasi]

So hang on, if a club wants someone of the payroll, agents basically say "give us some cash or he's not going anywhere". Anyone else think that sounds a little iffy?

 

Not really, if the club tell the agent their player is no longer needed, then that agent has to "work" to find his player a new club. If a player instructs his agent to find him a new club, then that's a different matter altogether..

[ctkeepercoach]

Also, since we've re-upped so many of the big players (and Rafa) over the past 3 seasons, we keep getting hit for agent's fees in places where there weren't necessarily players changing club. That's the other time I can think of where agent's get a take.

[Liverpool lad]

So who do you reckon was on the take?

[Walton Park]

Rafa had the january window, Hodgson had the summer. I know which was far far busier than the other.

 

Did you actually come out of your mothers womb a ballbag?

 

I am extremely suprised you havent blamed Carragher for the agent fees yet!

 

I cannot believe Hodgson has even been mentioned on this thread. Get a grip you massive tit.

[Walton Park]

So who do you reckon was on the take?

 

Macia possibly. There is/was something not right with him.

[Liverpool lad]

Macia possibly. There is/was something not right with him.

 

Can we say he looks shifty?

[Jose Jones]

Probably not a coincidence that Purslow was gone very soon after NESV took over going by that Independent article.

[usernameunknown]

 

I cannot believe Hodgson has even been mentioned on this thread. Get a grip you massive tit.

 

Hahaha are you a bit thick?

 

A thread about agents fees. Konchesky, Meireles, Jones, Joe Cole, his own contract to get him here from Fulham. Yeah, its clearly absolutely impossible that Hodgson is anything to do with it. Impossible!

[Walton Park]

Hahaha are you a bit thick?

 

A thread about agents fees. Konchesky, Meireles, Jones, Joe Cole, his own contract to get him here from Fulham. Yeah, its clearly absolutely impossible that Hodgson is anything to do with it. Impossible!

 

Its a disgwaaaaace!!!

[usernameunknown]

Its a disgwaaaaace!!!

 

Do you have some sort of speech impediment so type like that aswell?

 

Or, are you just trying to be funny and failing horrendously?