£397K on agents fee

[traff]

Reading spent the second-highest amount on agent fees (league One) in the last 12 months only Derby spent more than £434k

I am rather surprised by this given all of our spending restrictions. Is this needs must, or do we deserve less sympathy than we thought?

[Hendo]

Reading spent the second-highest amount on agent fees (league One) in the last 12 months only Derby spent more than £434k

I am rather surprised by this given all of our spending restrictions anyone. Is this needs must, or do we deserve less sympathy than we thought?

Are you? I’d have thought it was the only way we’d be able to bring players in.

Not surprised by this in the slightest.

[scumbag]

If you're restricted to free transfers I guess that is one of the only incentives you could offer..? I wouldn't say it's particularly large either considering we had 7 players on the books in June.

[traff]

Reading spent the second-highest amount on agent fees (league One) in the last 12 months only Derby spent more than £434k

I am rather surprised by this given all of our spending restrictions anyone. Is this needs must, or do we deserve less sympathy than we thought?

Are you? I’d have thought it was the only way we’d be able to bring players in.

Not surprised by this in the slightest.

Not the method but comparative amount to everyone else.

[Clyde1998]

Looking at the list of players who’s agents we paid a fee to this season, it includes George Puscas. There were 23 separate instances of us paying an agent (an average of £17,300 per transaction).

Additionally whilst we paid the second highest agent fees (link), Fleetwood, Blackpool and Wigan are all within £10k of us.

Not currently in a position to do the maths per transaction, but we don’t from first glance appear to be paying agents a high amount per transaction compared to other League One clubs - we’ve simply had a large number of transactions this season.

[Snowflake Royal]

Reading spent the second-highest amount on agent fees (league One) in the last 12 months only Derby spent more than £434k

I am rather surprised by this given all of our spending restrictions anyone. Is this needs must, or do we deserve less sympathy than we thought?

Are you? I’d have thought it was the only way we’d be able to bring players in.

Not surprised by this in the slightest.

Symptomatic of the shambles we were conning players into joining imo.

We paid basically no fees.

What exactly were we paying for?

[muirinho]

Reading spent the second-highest amount on agent fees (league One) in the last 12 months only Derby spent more than £434k

I am rather surprised by this given all of our spending restrictions anyone. Is this needs must, or do we deserve less sympathy than we thought?

Are you? I’d have thought it was the only way we’d be able to bring players in.

Not surprised by this in the slightest.

Symptomatic of the shambles we were conning players into joining imo.

We paid basically no fees.

What exactly were we paying for?

Just because we weren't paying the player's previous club a fee doesn't mean there wasn't a contract. So part of it is contract negotiation fees, and the other part is essentially "finders fee". Like recruitment agents for normal jobs - the person getting the job doesn't pay the recruitment consultant, the hiring company does.

And given the sheer number of players coming in, the "per transaction" fee doesn't have to be particularly high for it to end up a large number.

[Sutekh]

Looking at the list of players who’s agents we paid a fee to this season, it includes George Puscas. There were 23 separate instances of us paying an agent (an average of £17,300 per transaction).

Additionally whilst we paid the second highest agent fees (link), Fleetwood, Blackpool and Wigan are all within £10k of us.

Not currently in a position to do the maths per transaction, but we don’t from first glance appear to be paying agents a high amount per transaction compared to other League One clubs - we’ve simply had a large number of transactions this season.

Which the club was more or less forced into by the FL restrictions on being able to trade properly.

[skipper]

Seemed low to me, but I am basing that on absolutely nothing except the usual tabloid "agents fees are high".

[Mid Sussex Royal]

There's a spreadsheet on Twitter somewhere and basically every player move, in & out and loans have an agent's fee, even the likes on Bouzanis going to a L2 side on loan.

[rabidbee]

Presumably when Ejaria’s contract was paid up there would also have been an agent’s fee?

[Dirk Gently]

You don't pay agents just to buy players. You pay them to tout around players you want to get rid of. We've needed to get rid of a lot of players.

[Sutekh]

Presumably when Ejaria’s contract was paid up there would also have been an agent’s fee?

Probably - and also when extending/renewing an agreement with an existing player too!

[Clyde1998]

Presumably when Ejaria’s contract was paid up there would also have been an agent’s fee?

He's not on the list interestingly, despite appearing to have an agent.

The transactions we made were:

1. Puscas, George (Permanent transfer out)
2. Maragh, Geneiro (New registration)
3. Dorsett, Jeriel (Updated contract)
4. Knibbs, Harvey (New registration)
5. Smith, Sam (New registration)
6. Mbengue, Amadou (New registration)
7. Wing, Lewis (New registration)
8. Savage, Charlie (Permanent transfer in)
9. Rushesha, Tivonge (New registration)
10. Dean, Harlee (New registration)
11. Button, David (New registration)
12. Button, David (New registration; sub-contractor)
13. Boyce-Clarke, Coniah (Updated contract)
14. Andresson, Jokull (Updated contract)
15. Elliott, Benjamin (Permanent transfer in)
16. Mukiaru, Paul (Loan in)
17. Wareham, Jayden (New registration)
18. Clark, Billie (New registration)
19. Mola, Clinton (New registration)
20. Pereira, Joel (New registration)
21. Holmes, Tom (Loan in)
22. Vickers, Caylan (Permanent transfer out)
23. Bouzanis, Dean (Loan Out)

That's thirteen new registrations (players who were out of contract when we signed them); three updated contracts; two permanent transfer in (players who were contracted to another club when we signed them); two loans in; two permanent transfers out and one loan out

[Clyde1998]

There's a spreadsheet on Twitter somewhere and basically every player move, in & out and loans have an agent's fee, even the likes on Bouzanis going to a L2 side on loan.

Even more strange is the list appears to be in chronological order. Bouzanis was initially loaned in the summer, with an extension made in January. Only the extension appears to have had an agent fee related to it.

[Clyde1998]

So doing the calculations. We spent £17,295 on agent fees this season, which is the third highest per transaction in League One. New signings will probably have the highest agent fees attached to them - so that would be a reason.

The mean average in League One was £10,739, with the median at £10,426.

Our figure was a lower per transaction fee than every Premier League and Championship club, and lower than one League Two club (don't think anyone could guess which one).

A total of 142 clubs in the English league system paid at least one agent fee (including the 25 non-league clubs are listed as paying no agent fees in the club total fees list, but have at least one player listed in the individual transaction list).