[Archived] BLACKBURN ROVERS TOP AGENTS' FEES SPENDING

[jim mk2]

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere. Interesting story.

BLACKBURN ROVERS TOP AGENTS' FEES SPENDING

By Paul Hirst, Press Association Sport

Blackburn spent over £3.5million on agents' fees last season despite only just avoiding relegation to the third tier of English football.

A Football League report released on Friday morning revealed the Sky Bet Championship club spent £3,538,034 on agents' fees.

Staggeringly, that figure amounts to almost a fifth (19.1 per cent) of all spending on agents' fees in the league.

The sum has risen to such a big figure because the club signed a number of big names in the summer of 2012 - such as Jordan Rhodes, Danny Murphy and Nuno Gomes - following their relegation from the Premier League.

Rovers finished in 17th place last season - just four points above the relegation zone - while this year they are 11th in the standings after two wins in five games. Managing director Derek Shaw admitted the big-spending approach of last summer did not work.

He said: ``After suffering relegation from the Premier League, there was an influx of new signings, including a number of 'high profile' players on lucrative contracts, in the hope that we would make an immediate return to the top flight.

``Regrettably, those moves didn't work out, both in terms of results on the pitch and from a financial point of view, which is something we have worked hard to put right this summer.

``Since Gary Bowyer's appointment as manager in May, he has adopted a very different transfer policy, bringing in a number of hungry, young players, on manageable Championship contracts, and if recent results are anything to go by, the early signs are very encouraging.''

Two of the three teams who won promotion last season - Crystal Palace and Cardiff - spent over a million pounds on agents, as did Leeds and Nottingham Forest.

Overall spending on agents by Championship clubs rose by £521,125. Interestingly, the only club in the league to spend nothing on agents was Blackpool, who currently top the table.

Table

Blackburn £3,538,034

Cardiff £1,836,193

Wolves £1,676,300

Crystal Palace £1,345,913

Leeds £1,283,234

Nottingham Forest £1,208,850

Hull £929,535

Brighton £869,988

Bolton £611,900

Ipswich £551,878

Watford £546,250

Derby £533,081

Burnley £531,487

Sheffield Wednesday £487,800

Bristol City £467,115

Huddersfield £459,670

Leicester £407,300

Middlesbrough £365,947

Millwall £233,400

Charlton £227,170

Birmingham £203,100

Barnsley £169,360

Peterborough £83,800

Blackpool £0

Total £18,567,305

[T.J.Newton]

Please tell me that nobody is surprised by this!

(hopefully things will be a lot different when next years figures are released)

[Alex Rover]

The good news is that a decent amount went as "Foreign Aid" to help Portugal's struggling economy

[McClarky]

I pray for the day when we hear the sirens diescending on Kean Towers.

[Gav]

Wouldn't have been so bad if any of the players bought could actually play football, sadly the club has just lined the pockets of greedy ******** already flush with cash.

God I wish I'd have realised a certain person walking through the Jack Walker concourse, was who he was, at the Sheff Weds cup game a few season back It would have been worth getting a 3yr ban.

[Ben-2000]

Almost double than Cardiff who were the next highest. Shocking!

[DE.]

Not surprising, but still makes for horrific reading.

[BlueMonday]

Blackpool £0. Did they not buy or sell any players??

[RibbleValleyRover]

It's only really a problem when the players signed are crap and don't contribute, which was undoubtedly the case last season.

I would be interested to see how much we have spent on fees this season (won't find out until next year). One would imagine it should be a lot lower but still considerable compared to the rest of the division. With a low profile manager and a bad club reputation I suspect we have had to still use agents a bit this season and paid for their services.

Overall it certainly does add to our financial fears for the future.

[BlueMonday]

Further proof, as if needed, we are run by incompetents.

[glen9mullan]

It don't help when 2 agents were used in the Rhodes deal , one being Moyes , the other being McGuire.

Then there was DJ Campbell where his agent representation and people having a piece of the pie favoured terminal 2 at Manchester Airport .

These are just two instances but there are many like this which pie payments got people richer by default !!

Another prominent name over the last couple of years especially with our younger players has been simon conning .

Add to this the Portuguese contingent and it is not all surprising .

One of my biggest fears is the noose and commissions rovers are tied into over the next 3 years on certain contracts . Some have been terminated this time around at the cost of millions , but plenty more with daft commission clauses remain

[toogs]

It don't help when 2 agents were used in the Rhodes deal , one being Moyes , the other being McGuire.

Then there was DJ Campbell where his agent representation and people having a piece of the pie favoured terminal 2 at Manchester Airport .

These are just two instances but there are many like this which pie payments got people richer by default !!

Another prominent name over the last couple of years especially with our younger players has been simon conning .

Add to this the Portuguese contingent and it is not all surprising .

One of my biggest fears is the noose and commissions rovers are tied into over the next 3 years on certain contracts . Some have been terminated this time around at the cost of millions , but plenty more with daft commission clauses remain

Who allowed this to happen?

[Steve Moss]

Who allowed this to happen?

Kean;

Agnew;

Shaw; or,

Shebby.

One or all, or some combination. Take your pick.

[Stuart]

Kean;

Agnew;

Shaw; or,

Shebby.

One or all, or some combination. Take your pick.

Venkys.

[TBTF]

Venkys.

So we have paid big money over to an agent in portugal to bring in players who are struggling to get a game in the indian pub league or in Edinho Juniors case, the Ryman league?

That without question has to be the work of Shebby and if its not corrupt then its a harsh and expensive lesson when Venkys allow a complete prick to come in as global advisor and run riot.

That shyster should never come near the club again.

It wants exposing because its just plain wrong and makes me want to vomit thinking that its us fans who are really paying for all this at the end of it all.

[Stuart]

So we have paid big money over to an agent in portugal to bring in players who are struggling to get a game in the indian pub league or in Edinho Juniors case, the Ryman league?

That without question has to be the work of Shebby and if its not corrupt then its a harsh and expensive lesson when Venkys allow a complete prick to come in as global advisor and run riot.

That shyster should never come near the club again.

It wants exposing because its just plain wrong and makes me want to vomit thinking that its us fans who are really paying for all this at the end of it all.

Exactly what I was thinking TBF TBTF.

[somersetrover]

So we have paid big money over to an agent in portugal to bring in players who are struggling to get a game in the indian pub league or in Edinho Juniors case, the Ryman league?

I would imagine it was more for the agents of Murphy, Rhodes, Etuhu, Best and Nuno than the unknown Portuguese.

[bob fleming]

Another prominent name over the last couple of years especially with our younger players has been simon conning

I'll not even bother asking how you know all this Glen, or why certain people confide in you when you post this sort of thing on a MB, but for Venkys sake, for FFS, the clue is in the guys name!!

[West Yorks Rover]

Kean;

Agnew;

Shaw; or,

Shebby.

One or all, or some combination. Take your pic

' Hello is that Staples, six boxes of extra large brown envelopes please !

' any discount for cash ?

[Baz]

Be interesting to see these numbers deal by deal. That should also be revealed IMO if the FA want the game cleaning up.

[Brfcrule1]

It don't help when 2 agents were used in the Rhodes deal , one being Moyes , the other being McGuire.

Then there was DJ Campbell where his agent representation and people having a piece of the pie favoured terminal 2 at Manchester Airport .

These are just two instances but there are many like this which pie payments got people richer by default !!

Another prominent name over the last couple of years especially with our younger players has been simon conning .

Add to this the Portuguese contingent and it is not all surprising .

One of my biggest fears is the noose and commissions rovers are tied into over the next 3 years on certain contracts . Some have been terminated this time around at the cost of millions , but plenty more with daft commission clauses remain

Glen whilst I agree with most of the above post I speak for myself and possibly most of the fanbase we don't mind sheeling out agent fees for people like rhodes as financially and without his goals we would be a lot worse off and to a degree DJ Campbell who has started to show some good form before his injury and for this level DJ Campbell is definitely a risk worth taking. But fully agree shelling out for the Portuguese rejects apart from Nunes was sheer madness and letting Shebby loose on the transfer window was like burning a hole in your wallet and shelling out massive on Murphy,Etuhu,Best etc.. should never have happened & one of the worst ones was the plank who thought it a good idea for give the donkey Orr a six figure wage whoever was involved in that wants throwing of Darwen Tower!.

[tonyoz]

This agent's fees business makes me sick! I don't think the Premier League has released detailed figures for 2012-13 yet but here are last year's figures where our recently reported figure would have placed us ninth - just behind man U.:

Arsenal £5,580,873 Aston Villa £2,730,539 Chelsea £6,490,382 Everton £3,092,891 Fulham £2,581,208 Liverpool £8,600,444 Manchester City £10,537,982 Manchester United £3,681,580 Newcastle United £3,485,503 Norwich City £1,248,725 Queens Park Rangers £6,818,688 Reading £2,167,833 Southampton £646,106 Stoke City £1,717,266 Sunderland £2,173,762 Swansea City £1,100,845 Tottenham Hotspur £6,595,905 West Bromwich Albion £1,341,301 West Ham United £4,436,992 Wigan Athletic £1,974,305 TOTAL £77,003,130

2012-13 Blackpool made 29 transactions and paid nothing:

Oyston was happy to explain his alternative strategy to Sportsmail. ‘It’s not that I’ve never paid an agent or never will,’ he said. ‘But my view is that when we try to sign a player, his agent is not working for the club. He is employed by the player and should be paid by the player.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2413633/Blackburn-spend-3-5m-agent-fees--Football-League-total-year.html

Unrealistic probably but I like it!

From the BBC:

Accountancy firm BDO, of which he is a partner, recently published a report looking at the impact of FFP on British football.

"We expect continued downward pressure on agent fees as clubs get to grips with financial fair play, particularly in the Championship, where the rules specify a maximum permitted loss rather than a wage cap," Birch told BBC Sport.

"However, the overall picture is more complicated than that because clubs that have been relegated from the Premier League will have their revenues bolstered by four extra years of parachute payments. They will therefore continue to have greater spending power and influence in the search for talent and could skew the annual agent payments figures."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23987048

[Stuart]

It's not so much about the figure involved - we all knew we were being milked dry. This is just picking at a particularly large scab.

I'm more concerned about the 'so what'. We have been royally screwed over because we didn't have anyone in the club saying 'no' to the agents fees. But what will be done about it? Nothing.

There seems to be a massive ethical issue here and the FA should be investigating and punishing anyone found to be corrupt. But no-one cares - unless someone does their investigating for them and wraps it up with a nice little bow. The only people who have tried to investigate are the action group and they've been vilified every step of the way. And even if they did they wouldn't punish individuals, they'd punish the club so people would like it swept under the carpet, particularly as Gary Bowyer is currently doing ok.

[glen9mullan]

I'll not even bother asking how you know all this Glen, or why certain people confide in you when you post this sort of thing on a MB, but for Venkys sake, for FFS, the clue is in the guys name!!

Spent 2 years looking into the agent side at Rovers during the Kean Era. So it's very relevant to the topic and explains a little of why we ended up with loads of deadwood at a high price .

[Veevs]

I would imagine it was more for the agents of Murphy, Rhodes, Etuhu, Best and Nuno than the unknown Portuguese.

Then again according to the mail article from a while back.. it was still a big chunk..

Paulo Jorge: Age 20, Starts: 0, Agent fee: £156,000

Nuno Henrique: Age: 26, Starts: 0, Agent fee: £65,000

Fabio Nunes: Age: 20, Starts: 2, Agent fee: £150,000

Diogo Rosado: Age: 23, Starts: 1, Agent fee: £135,000

Edinho Junior: Age: 19, Starts 2, Agent fee: £150,000

Total: 656k

for reference....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2306573/Financial-picture-Blackburn-Venkys-revealed--Exclusive.html

Add that to our transfers and other loans.. Kane, Bentley, Jones, Stewart, King, Williamson, Sandomierski, Best, Gomes, Rhodes, Murphy, CKR, Etuhu, Murphy, DJ, Rekik.. plus it may include agents fees for managers..