Town spent £551,878 on agents’ fees during the year to June 30th 2013, up from the £233,990 spent in the previous 12 months, the Football League's Agents' Fees Report has revealed.

That £551,878 was spread across 51 deals: 22 new registrations, four updated contracts, eight cancelled contracts and 17 loans.

Town were the 10th biggest spenders on agents in the Championship with Blackburn the highest, having paid out £3,538,034. Five other clubs spent more than £1 million, while Blackpool paid no agents’ fees at all.

Overall, Football League clubs spent a total of £21.5 million on agents’ fees during the 2012/13 season, down £170,000 from the previous season.

Championship clubs paid £18.6 million of that total, League One sides £2.2 million and League Two clubs £700,000.

Football League chairman Greg Clarke said: "Again, this is a considerable amount of money to be leaving the game.

“However, the real challenge is to ensure that such payments are part of a sustainable financial model with clubs only spending what they can afford.

“In conjunction with clubs, we're making real progress towards this goal and now have all three divisions operating Financial Fair Play regulations."

The full report can be downloaded here.

Meanwhile, what appears to be a young Town U21 side are playing a friendly at Fulham this afternoon.

Photo: Action Images

big_gaz67 added 09:53 - Sep 6 If I was chairman I wouldn't pay a penny in agent's fees. If players want to employ agents then they should pay them......
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GunnsAirkick added 09:54 - Sep 6 Not a surprise with that mess that Mick had to sort out last season. One loan this season so far, even if we get a few more in on loan it won't be like last season as we have a solid permanent squad core so it's fine to supplement it with a few loans.
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BillBlue added 10:11 - Sep 6 Interesting to note the team that are currently at the top of the pile paid no Agent's fees at all. Must be doing something right! I agree Gaz.
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cromwellblue added 10:13 - Sep 6 Someone should call Blackpool and find out how they manage that.
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Michael11 added 10:27 - Sep 6 Blackburn spending £3.5m on agents alone is disgusting. Very unfair that relegated teams can blow their parachute payments like that. To be fair, we haven't really bought anyone so £500k on 51 deals isn't that bad really.
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BotesdaleBlue added 10:48 - Sep 6 Eight cancelled contracts - in one year. What an appalling statistic. That's almost one per month of the football season! If this club is to finally move forward we must get our recruitment sorted to prevent the continous pay off of players whom we can't otherwise get rid off. On a positive note, I am more confident that we now at least have the management team to get us back to a more sustainable future ragarding player recruitment and development of our youth talent, although this will be difficult on what is now clearly a very tight budget.

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BroskiBeen added 11:20 - Sep 6 How did Blackpool manage to paid no agent fees at all, maybe the club purposly picked players without agents to save money to get more player, well it worked because they are top, but the agent fees are ridiculous, some clubs paying over £1M, this needs sorting.
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MattinLondon added 12:09 - Sep 6 I will never understand why clubs pay agents - surly their fees should be paid by the player himself? But I suppose when a contract is being terminated then that might well be different. It can't be that hard for the Football League to impose a limit on how much clubs pays agents.
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MattinLondon added 12:10 - Sep 6 On a side note the number of players coming into or leaving the club within that time scale is ridiculous
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theobald1985 added 12:14 - Sep 6 when mike newell spoke out about agents behaviour his career was subsiquently ruined. he said that he had been offered sums of money to sign players he did want. Chairmen need to make a collective stand and not pay agents but they all need to do it together
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cornishnick added 12:51 - Sep 6 Money for old rope being an agent. How do I become one?
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andys_legg added 13:12 - Sep 6 Get off ere, get off your arse, get a nice suit, get a posh car, go find some pro footballers, tell them you will represent them then go make yourself a fortune. Easy
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andys_legg added 13:12 - Sep 6 Get off ere, get off your arse, get a nice suit, get a posh car, go find some pro footballers, tell them you will represent them then go make yourself a fortune. Easy
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Bergholtblue added 13:14 - Sep 6 I agree with Big Gaz. Agents sign up players and act on their behalf, therefore, their fees should be negotiated with the players themselves.
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andys_legg added 13:18 - Sep 6 This is only cos its involved in football cos everyone is moaning about it. I like agents. I would have wanted someone out their getting the best deal for me if I had made it as a pro footballer so I could concerntrate on spending me few thousand pounds a week. He could have got me a few more thousand pounds a week so I may have been in the tens of thousands and then I could concerntrate on spending all that. Sweet

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Blue92 added 15:13 - Sep 6 SEVENTEEN loans! More than anyone else in the league!
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Blue92 added 15:14 - Sep 6 Tell a lie.. Crystal Palace had 18.. but they went up so fair play to them!
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heavyweight added 15:40 - Sep 6 Football League chairman Greg Clarke said: "Again, this is a considerable amount of money to be leaving the game. This is such a stupid comment. How does money spent on players wages for instance "stay in the game".
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jas0999 added 18:40 - Sep 6 Eight cancelled contracts. Wow.
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TimmyH added 11:02 - Sep 7 The leeches of the earth...
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