Southampton: Saints’ £6m spending on agents fees is shrewd business

A report released by the Football Association showing spending on agents’ fees by Premier League clubs has shown Southampton to be shrewd dealers.

The figures released cover the current 2018/19 season and help to outline the amount of money that is lost from English football to players’ agents.

This season, Saints spent £6,151,107 on those fees that are mainly linked to transfers.

Incoming transfers to the club saw Stuart Armstrong, Danny Ings, Mohamed Elyounoussi, Angus Gunn and Jannik Vestergaard arrive on the South Coast during the summer.

This saw an overall outlay of around £55m, with a further £20m due to Liverpool for Ings’ permanent signing this coming summer.

Overall, Saints have done well to keep their spending on agents’ fees to such a low amount.

They have spent the fourth lowest in the Premier League this season and their figure was only higher than Cardiff, Burnley and Huddersfield.

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After a decent summer window that saw some important players arriving, this can be seen a good achievement.

Ralph Hasenhuttl is sure to be given some significant cash to spend once the 2018/19 season finishes as he shapes his squad for his first full campaign in charge.

This is likely to depend on Saints remaining in the Premier League though with so much of their income reliant on the top-flight’s lucrative TV rights deal.

Agents are often spoken about as problematic within football and they can often be the ones negotiating a deal on behalf of their clients.

One high-profile transfer saga that Saints were involved in in January 2018 was Virgil Van-Dijk’s move to Liverpool, which would have also involved a lot of bargaining with representatives.

The amount spent on agents’ fees for this transfer would not be included in this year’s FA report, but the Reds still spent an eye-watering amount.

They gave the most to agents in the Premier League with a staggering £43,795,863 after bringing in Alisson, Naby Keita, Fabinho and Xherdan Shaqiri.