PAUL BARBER believes Albion’s increased bill to agents is the price of doing business.
But the club’s chief executive is happy the club have generally received good service in return for the sum approaching seven figures they paid out to representatives.
He has stressed they maintain a “strict regime” when it comes to how much they will spend on making transfers happen.
Figures released by the Football League show Albion paid £912,421 to agents between October 1, 2014, and September 30 this year.
Championship clubs paid in excess of £26 million to agents, making the average a little more than £1 million.
But sums paid varied widely, from figures either side of the £2.8 million mark paid by Cardiff and Fulham and in excess of £2.3 million by both QPR and Reading through to Rotherham’s £185,000.
QPR’s outlay takes their total to more than £5.5 million over two years.
The period covered includes Albion’s forays into the loan market little more than a year ago as they attempted to patch up the poorly constructed squad with which Sami Hyypia was struggling.
It also takes in activity under Chris Hughton, starting with the January transfer window.
While the spirit of transparency is welcome, a further drawback with the listings of agent payments is a lack of detail which makes it hard, in most cases, to analyse whether the club have frittered funds away or secured decent value for money.
Of more value is a detailed look at the club’s accounts, which are due out imminently. These give a far more informative picture of how the club are spending money though are not as up to date as the agents’ fees figures.
But Albion’s payments were a big increase on the £419,957 for the previous period for which figures were available, the year to June 30, 2014.
Barber believes the club have driven a hard bargain and chosen carefully when it comes to agents and that the substantially increased figure should not be interpreted as bad news.
He told The Argus: “It’s the price of doing business.
“We all resent from time to time paying commissions to estate agents for selling our houses. Likewise agents’ fees are part and parcel of the buying and selling of players.
“We have a fairly strict regime, as the agents know, of how much we are prepared to pay, and on occasions that maybe makes it more difficult for us to do some of our business. But the agents we work with are generally very good “They understand our position. They know we don’t have the luxury of parachute payments and therefore huge income to fall back on and in most cases they want their clients to come to a club like us, so there is always that compromise.
“For the most part a lot of agents do good work and they are entitled to receive a fee.”
Among the deals on which Albion missed out in the specified period was the loan of Matej Vydra from Watford. The Czech livewire ended up joining Reading, who are high up in the payments table and who forked out a loan fee of £2 million for his services.
Barber was speaking from a position of strength, given that Albion’s deals, both in and out, in recent months have improved the squad and often excited fans.
Five of the players who took Albion back to the top of the table by beating Birmingham – Beram Kayal, Liam Rosenior, Jamie Murphy, Bobby Zamora and Tomer Hemed – were brought in during the period covered by the study.
Other signings during that time frame who will be deemed a success so far include Gaetan Bong and Uwe Huenemeier while the jury remains out over Niki Maenpaa, Connor Goldson and Elvis Manu.
An early end to Nzuzi Toko’s stint with the club was mutually agreed in January.
Adrian Colunga’s early release from the club was announced on October 7, which would appear to exclude it from the period in question.
Colunga was critical of his representatives after being let go outside a transfer window.
Other key business during the period in question included major new contracts for Rohan Ince, Kazenga LuaLua and Lewis Dunk.
The period under examination also included Leon Best’s ill-fated loan stint as well as the temporary deals for Elliott Bennett, Darren Bent, Ali Al-Habsi, Greg Halford, Emmanuel Ledesma and Mustapha Carayol, some of which had short-lived merit but none of which were roaring successes.
Albion have also made additions at development squad level. It is unclear which deals were subject to agents fees and how much was paid.
But Barber is largely happy. And those who pay to watch the team will not have much complaint at Albion’s recruitment in recent months.
Original article
But the club’s chief executive is happy the club have generally received good service in return for the sum approaching seven figures they paid out to representatives.
He has stressed they maintain a “strict regime” when it comes to how much they will spend on making transfers happen.
Figures released by the Football League show Albion paid £912,421 to agents between October 1, 2014, and September 30 this year.
Championship clubs paid in excess of £26 million to agents, making the average a little more than £1 million.
But sums paid varied widely, from figures either side of the £2.8 million mark paid by Cardiff and Fulham and in excess of £2.3 million by both QPR and Reading through to Rotherham’s £185,000.
QPR’s outlay takes their total to more than £5.5 million over two years.
The period covered includes Albion’s forays into the loan market little more than a year ago as they attempted to patch up the poorly constructed squad with which Sami Hyypia was struggling.
It also takes in activity under Chris Hughton, starting with the January transfer window.
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While the spirit of transparency is welcome, a further drawback with the listings of agent payments is a lack of detail which makes it hard, in most cases, to analyse whether the club have frittered funds away or secured decent value for money.
Of more value is a detailed look at the club’s accounts, which are due out imminently. These give a far more informative picture of how the club are spending money though are not as up to date as the agents’ fees figures.
But Albion’s payments were a big increase on the £419,957 for the previous period for which figures were available, the year to June 30, 2014.
Barber believes the club have driven a hard bargain and chosen carefully when it comes to agents and that the substantially increased figure should not be interpreted as bad news.
He told The Argus: “It’s the price of doing business.
“We all resent from time to time paying commissions to estate agents for selling our houses. Likewise agents’ fees are part and parcel of the buying and selling of players.
“We have a fairly strict regime, as the agents know, of how much we are prepared to pay, and on occasions that maybe makes it more difficult for us to do some of our business. But the agents we work with are generally very good “They understand our position. They know we don’t have the luxury of parachute payments and therefore huge income to fall back on and in most cases they want their clients to come to a club like us, so there is always that compromise.
“For the most part a lot of agents do good work and they are entitled to receive a fee.”
Among the deals on which Albion missed out in the specified period was the loan of Matej Vydra from Watford. The Czech livewire ended up joining Reading, who are high up in the payments table and who forked out a loan fee of £2 million for his services.
Barber was speaking from a position of strength, given that Albion’s deals, both in and out, in recent months have improved the squad and often excited fans.
Five of the players who took Albion back to the top of the table by beating Birmingham – Beram Kayal, Liam Rosenior, Jamie Murphy, Bobby Zamora and Tomer Hemed – were brought in during the period covered by the study.
Other signings during that time frame who will be deemed a success so far include Gaetan Bong and Uwe Huenemeier while the jury remains out over Niki Maenpaa, Connor Goldson and Elvis Manu.
An early end to Nzuzi Toko’s stint with the club was mutually agreed in January.
Adrian Colunga’s early release from the club was announced on October 7, which would appear to exclude it from the period in question.
Colunga was critical of his representatives after being let go outside a transfer window.
Other key business during the period in question included major new contracts for Rohan Ince, Kazenga LuaLua and Lewis Dunk.
The period under examination also included Leon Best’s ill-fated loan stint as well as the temporary deals for Elliott Bennett, Darren Bent, Ali Al-Habsi, Greg Halford, Emmanuel Ledesma and Mustapha Carayol, some of which had short-lived merit but none of which were roaring successes.
Albion have also made additions at development squad level. It is unclear which deals were subject to agents fees and how much was paid.
But Barber is largely happy. And those who pay to watch the team will not have much complaint at Albion’s recruitment in recent months.
Original article