The precise costs of Glenn Roeder's transfer policy became clear today as the latest Football League report detailing the level of payments made to agents by its member clubs had Norwich City shelling out a whopping ?490,000 to the Mr Ten Per Cents of this world – a ?345,000 increase on the fees they paid for a six-month period ending December 31, 2007.
Only Derby County paid out more – ?717,000 for the six months to December 31, 2008, as first Paul Jewell and then Nigel Clough dealt with the aftermath of relegation from the Premiership.
It was a similar challenge that face both Birmingham City and Reading on their exit from the Premier League last summer.
But with both Steve Coppell and Alex McLeish able to keep a steady hand on the tiller squad-wise, so both clubs kept a relative check on agents fees – Blues paying out ?425,000; Royals ?205,000.
League leaders Wolves were equally prudent – splashing out just ?142,150 in the sixth-month period that saw Jason Shackell makes his switch to Molineux.
Given the extremely tight nature of Norwich's finances, that ?490,000 figure will raise more than the odd eyebrow with the Football League reporting that the club made 21 transactions in that period.
It was certainly a busy time as then-boss Roeder – having wielded the axe with a flourish over the so-called 'Plymouth Brethren' – then set about re-building his Canary squad from almost scratch.
Whilst the figure would naturally include the payments made in relation to the full-time moves to Norfolk for Dejan Stefanovic, Wes Hoolahan, Sammy Clingan and the new deal that eventually awaited Gary Doherty, the suspicion has to be the that the bulk of that figure would come on the back of Roeder's aggressive use of the loan market.
Ryan Bertrand's return from Chelsea would have been brokered by a middle man – as would, in particular, Arturo Lupoli's switch back to the United Kingdon from Fiorentina.
Elliot Omosuzi who arrived as a two from Fulham alongside Stefanovic would have added to the agents' pot; as would John Kennedy's loan arrival from Celtic.
And as Lupoli failed to deliver on his obvious, earlier pedigree so Leroy Lita's three-month arrival from Reading would have added another fat agent's invoice to the pile. Ditto Jonathan Grounds.
And, again, somewhere in the mix would be the deal that saw Omar Koroma arrive from Portsmouth after then-Pompey boss Harry Redknapp finally extricated the Fratton Park youngster out of West Africa with the help of Ambrose Mendy.
As ever, today's report will prompt as many questions as it will provide answers – how can Norwich City pay ?490,000 for 21 full or loan deals and yet Sheffield Wednesday manage to pay just ?5,000 by way of agents fees for the 14 transactions they were today reported as completing for the same period?
Likewise Queen's Park Rangers who actually had 27 transactions to report to the Football League – and yet managed to pay just ?40,000 to the middle men involved as their new, billionaire Formula One owners played at being football club owners?
Ipswich, too, appear to have been relatively frugal in their spending – reporting just ?113,000 by way of agents fees for their 19 transactions; ?3,000 less than Doncaster Rovers.
With the Canaries still waiting to make any comment on today's report, Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney welcomed the latest example of 'transparency' within the League. In the Premiership, of course, no such light is shed on who pays what to whom.
He was also deligted to see the overall figure drop – with a total of ?5.7million being paid to agents between August and December 2008, compared to ?7.9 million for the second half of 2007.
“Overall, I believe the publication of agents' fees, along with the more recent decision to prohibit the practice of 'Dual Representation', has brought much greater levels of transparency and integrity to the transfer system,” said Mawhinney, as the League cracks down on agents representing more than one party in any transaction.
And, therefore, getting paid twice for their services.
“To most people it will seem sensible that where agents are working on behalf of players, they get paid by players. And when they work for clubs they get paid by clubs.”
The danger, of course, that while the Football League's belief in transparency is to be wholly applauded, for as long as the clubs produce the figures themselves and there are no independent auditors at work, there can be all sorts of different shades of 'transparency' in play.
All manner of smokes and mirrors can still be put in place to hide a multitude of sins.
The suspicion would be that Norwich remain as open and as transparent as they have always been which, on days like today, might not always work to their best advantage.
For either everyone plays by the same rules of the game – or no-one does. And if no-one plays by the rules, then the question has to be asked as to what real 'value' today's figures actually have.
Leave a Reply