Royce Franklin takes a nostalgic look back at how football has changed in the 67 years since he watched his first live match.
SADLY IN recent years players’ agents have become part of football. While it is understandable players, who frequently earn vast sums of money, need advice it is not difficult to imagine how much better the game would be without agents.
No urging a player to move because his agent wants a cut from a transfer fee. I find it irksome the money agents acquire is going out of the game. They seem to earn a disproportionate amount for the work they do. Let there be no doubt the system is here to stay.
Recently the Football League published figures giving the amount each club had spent on agents’ fees for a year. It is unfortunate the figures were not simultaneous with either a full season or a financial year. Consequently to determine how much has been spent in a season is not possible. Nonetheless the figures give some indication of what clubs are prepared to spend in their attempts to either maintain their status or indeed gain promotion.
My analysis is only for League One where agents were paid £3.168m for the period between October 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015 according to figures released by the Football League. I am suggesting it is reasonable to expect a club’s position might reflect the money expended on agents. The current league positions do not reinforce that assumption. Latics, at the time of writing, were 22nd in League One. They spent £38,473 for the year, the ninth least in the League.
The figures in brackets give the league position of teams on 31st December, 2015. Bury (12) who were promoted during the time reviewed, spent nothing. Rochdale (13) was the second lowest with £4,880. Other teams that spent less than Latics were Port Vale (11) £7.000; Burton (2) – promoted from League Two in 2015 £11.581; Crewe (23) £12,392; Walsall (1) £17.491; Shrewsbury (17) – promoted from League Two – £23,705 and Gillingham (3) £27.125.
Most was spent by Wigan (5) £1,481,088 who were in the second flight for some of the time reviewed. Other big spenders were: Millwall (9) £297,850 -relegated from the Championship during the time reviewed, Sheffield United (8) £254,713 and Barnsley (19) £156, 315.
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