Agents Fees Published - Pools lay out 5K

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By Albatross
January 13 2005

Ken Hodcroft doesn't like paying Agent's Fees - and the figures published today by the Football League reveal Hartlepool United reduced considerably the amount they paid to them in the second half of 2004. Several clubs did better though....

The 5K Pools apparently spent on Agent's fees in the last six months actually puts us in the middle of the pack as far as Division 2 is concerned, with ten clubs having payed less and six of those having spent nothing. Meanwhile, the big spenders in our division included three clubs that laid out more than ten times as much as Pools - Bristol City (53.5K), Hull (just under 55K) and top of the shop Sheffield Wednesday at a whopping 67K - more than thirteen times our outlay.

This is actually a big fall for Pools - the previous 6 month period saw us lay out 16K on agent's fees, an amount that was exceeded by four clubs. For the whole of 2004 then, we spent less than the following clubs: Barnsley, Bristol City, Hull, MK Dons, Sheffield Wednesday, Stockport, Tranmere and Walsall.

How does this fit then with Ken Hodcroft's statements about not wanting to deal with agents? Is it simply that some fees are unavoidable? Possibly, but then some teams spent nothing at all (Blackpool, Colchester, Torquay and Wrexham). To be honest, it may be a sign of the players we're looking to bring in; the higher the calibre of player, the more likely they are to have an agent - and refusing point blank to deal with an agent may mean no deal at all. Minimising expenditure may be as far as we can realistically go - and the signs for that are promising.