Chelsea smash record after spending £75m on agents in two windows
Chelsea paid a record £75 million to agents and intermediaries over the past two transfer windows, latest figures reveal, as part of a total Premier League spend of more than £400 million.
The financial information, released by the Football Association, covers the summer window of 2023 and the January window of this year.
Chelsea’s summer signings included the £115 million move to buy Moises Caicedo from Brighton, the £58 million deal with Southampton for Romeo Lavia and the £40 million transfer of Cole Palmer from Manchester City.
The £75 million figure is a significant increase on last year’s highest spenders on agent fees, who were City (with £51 million). City’s fees to agents also increased over the past two windows, to £60 million.
The scale of the agent fees paid out by Chelsea are another indication of the club’s enormous investment in the playing squad, totalling more than £1 billion, under their Clearlake-Boehly owners.
It will only serve to increase scrutiny on the club’s financial situation, after their latest accounts revealed a £90.1 million loss before tax in the 12-month period up to June 30, 2023.
Those accounts led to fresh doubts over Chelsea’s ability to meet profit and sustainability rules, although the club has insisted it can operate within the Premier League and Uefa’s financial regulations.
The latest figures show that Arsenal (£25 million), Aston Villa (£21 million), Liverpool (£32 million) and Manchester United (£34 million) all spent more than £20 million on agent fees over the past two windows.
The Premier League’s total spend on agent fees was £410 million, up from £318 million in the previous year.
Of all top-flight clubs, Luton Town spent the least on agent fees, at just £2 million. Brentford (£8 million), Burnley (£7 million) and Sheffield United (£5 million) also came in beneath the £10 million mark.
In the Championship, meanwhile, clubs spent £61 million in total on agent fees. The highest spenders were Leeds United, with a spend of £13 million.
And in League Two, Hollywood-owned Wrexham comfortably outspent the rest of the division on agent fees. Wrexham spent around £350,000 of the league’s total agent spend of £2.4 million.
