Why have Newcastle clarified how much they have paid to agents?

Posted on December 1st, 2010 | 73 Comments |

Ashley - Why has he clarified agent payments?
Ashley - Why has he clarified agent payments?
As many of you are probably aware, the club took steps yesterday to clarify just how much it paid in fees to agents last season by releasing a brief statement on the club website.

To me it seems like a strange move, especially considering the shroud of secrecy that seems to surround our club most of the time these days.

Most of us know that agents are leeches, parasites if you will, so it’s no real surprise that they have collectively pocketed fees of £2,417,776 during our season in The Championship. That still seems like quite a lot to me, especially when you consider our relative lack of incoming transfers last season, but it’s one of those things that has to be done. Like paying for your car insurance for example – You begrudge paying for it, but you have to pay it.

So why clarify it? I’m honestly scratching my head looking for a reason why. As I said, we all know that agents fees have to be paid so why highlight it in it’s own little statement on the club website? I could understand it if it formed part of the published accounts, but it doesn’t.

Is this a message to Steven Taylor? Could it be the club making a statement that hints towards the fact that perhaps his agent is trying to engineer the best deal for himself and not Taylor? I don’t know. I really don’t know.

Mike Ashley has been keeping himself to himself recently, which is kind of understandable given what has gone on. Perhaps this is just a message to remind a few people that running a football club isn’t easy and has it’s problems? Again, I don’t know. What could be the reason for making these specific figures so public?

This is where I need your help. You see, after being stuck in snow for countless hours throughout last night and today with only the radio for company, I still haven’t been able to fathom out a valid reason for it. I mean there is a whole host of information I would like to see coming form the club before being told how it had spent on agents fees. The fact that it is so specific surely means there is a hidden meaning to it?

What do you think it means? Is there any reason why the club have made these figures so public? Or is this just an extra piece of communication from the club to the fans?

Your thoughts please…..

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

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73 Responses

  2. From yesterday’s Guardian – “Premier League clubs paid just over £67m to agents over the past 12 months, marginally down on the previous year, when the figure was £70.69m . In only the second year of the league’s publication of fees, all 20 clubs’ aggregate payments were listed in the total of £67,138,040.40. Twelve provided a number to the last penny.”

    It looks as if it is a Premier League thing rather than a Newcastle thing.

  3. pretty sure all clubs these days have to reveal this sort of stuff.

    didn’t bolton’s come out not so long ago?

  5. Seems that a lot of clubs have released this information. Smacks of a hint of Paranoia this article. Or just another excuse to have a dig at the management.

  6. “Mike Ashley has been keeping himself to himself recently”

    eh? Hasn’t he always? I’ve got no idea what the blokes voice sounds like!?!?!

    This reminds me how funny it is when people come on here acting like junior accountants, throwing around one or two transfer deals (“so where’s Milner’s money gone? “what about the £8mil we got for Martins” etc etc) or how much we get on TV revenue and bang, there’s an annual spread sheet for NUFC’s finances.

    Most people wouldn’t have even thought of including figures such as these.

  7. ILM – If you take it literally then yes, Ashley has always been quiet….

    But what I actually meant was the hae seems to be letting things run at the minute and isn’t causing disasters like he used to…

  8. Its just the same as theatrical agents nobody moans about them.After all more and more players are becoming very theatrical.

  11. Jay Jay – Nah seems like it is a PL thing as all clubs have done it. I didn’t know as I have been working 15 hour days at the minute. My bad.

    Still wonder why there was a need to put it on the club website?

  15. I suppose Birmingham will be full of charvas tonight then :roll:

    Zulus

    My arse…..

    Fannies :)

  16. Simply an attempt to demonize agents in general and Stretford specifically, in order to pressure Taylor into signing the latest offer.
    Had Taylor accepted, would we not have known by now ?
    Just a bit of hardball, something not unknown to Ashley.

  18. We have to give S. Taylor a contract-offer he cant ignore! He is our best central defender and he is a quite talented player and one for the future! Please Ashley! Put some money on the table for a player that deserves it:D

  19. Ticket arrived yesterday richietoon.

    Toonsy they are your friends, you’ve turned your back on us to be with them :(

  21. It’s so that everyone who sits here saying we need this we need that etc knows that these decisions have financial repercussions thats we would not even consider

  24. Rich – My mate has a box and asked if I wanted to come along for a freebie. Whilst Jay Jay is on the cold I’ll be supping ale in the warm with TV replays on demand and so on ;)

  26. Toonsy…tbh I’d rather be in the cold with the lads than the warm with the chaps ;-)
    Got my Brum tickets today :-)

  29. I Love Mike says:
    December 1, 2010 at 7:49 pm

    “Mike Ashley has been keeping himself to himself recently”

    eh? Hasn’t he always? I’ve got no idea what the blokes voice sounds like!?!?!

  30. toonsy:
    December 1st, 2010 at 8:31 pm
    Jay – You going WEst Brom at the weekend?

    Yes toonsy you big turncoat slag, rather be having cucumber sandwiches and pimms instead of being in the open air with your own, think you should do a special thread so we can abuse you :)

  31. Ah well, at least this ones on sly so anyone who wants to can sit in the warm supping a pint and watching replays. :)

  33. Jay Jay – I don’t need special threads to get abuse mate. The internet mekes people tough enough to do it anytime ;)

    What are your arrangements for drinking on Sunday? I’ll be getting the train. Fancy a pint?

  35. I can get to New Street for 10:37. The walk to Moor St and get train to The Hawthorns, unless you have a better idea?

  41. That Johnson is class. How on earth is he not getting prem games for them. If they don’t finish top 4 I think they will lose patience with that clown Mancini.

  43. Ipswich through to the semi’s, haha! West Brom played a weakened team in the quarters when presented with a golden opportunity to win some silverware. That tells you just how much emphasis is being placed on our game at the weekend. We need to be at 100% if we want all three points.

  46. ~ El Toro ~

    I really don’t wanna get beat off West Brom or Liverpool, two teams that seem to take games with us very seriously, I hope we don’t turn off for these games and in a way Im glad Sol is in there barking orders. The other players seem to wake up a bit more.

  47. Jay Jay – What time you getting there? I’ll meet you there if you like? I’ll wear the gimp mask :)

    Ipswich v Arsenal
    West Ham v Birmingham.

  48. West Brom have done well actually and are on the same points as us. They will see this as an opportunity to prove a point and rub it in our faces if they win. After we ran away with the title last season. I would hate to be in the away end if we didn’t show up and got beaten of them.

  52. Looks like league cup is arsenals to lose can’t see Ipswich, west ham or brum beating them – if only we’d beaten them :(

  53. I honestly thought we would still have to face Man U or Villa in the semis but Im just p### off now. We could have gone to Wembley. :(

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  62. Who’s to say we’d win the cup if we did beat Arsenal? Who knows, perhaps if we won, then in a cruel twist of fate, Avram Grant may not have sacrificed a virgin to the football Gods prior to their match against ManUtd and the Red Devils would have gone through instead.
    Just saying…it is what it is. Nice to fantasize, but CH has bigger priorities. Who knows, maybe he’ll take the FA Cup a bit more seriously and put together an effort for that, given he’ll have a better idea of survival or not by then…in theory anyway.

  63. We could have played our strongest team v Chelsea and lost or won it then lost wih our strongest team v Arsenal and still lost or we could have picked up injuries and been 8 points worse off in the league, we’ll never know and it’s in the past but I wouldn’t trade a single league point to still be in the cup, after all 1 point would have kept us up last time! ;-)

  67. If taylor n ranger sign new deals I wud hav to the club hav done excellent recently with tying down carroll n krul aswell to new long term deals, jus need vukic n jose next

  68. Tell you what, Carroll is going to give Ibanez a nightmare on Sunday. He looks both weak and slow. Also, as good as West Brom are with the ball, without the ball they don’t seem too clever. We should look to get the ball down and play in midfield.

  69. Well, after watching that it’s clear that the baggies didn’t keep themselves for us; it was just one of those games where they tried and got beat.

    Hopefully that will count against them on sunday but we will still have to play well because they can’t be that unlucky twice.

  71. How lads.

    Is it just me…

    …At every home game, when the cameras zoom in on Ashley and weazel face Derek, all I can think of in that first one and a half seconds is me, an uzi 9mm – and a bloody pulpy mess of dead cockneys…

    Frank: Miss, I’m Lt. Frank Drebin, and this is Captain Ed Hocken, Police Squad.

    Busty Female Shop Assistant: Is this some kind of bust?

    Frank: Well… it’s very impressive, yes, but we need to ask you a few questions.

    RIP LESLIE NIELSON.

  72. Mark Mcghee would be an ideal assistant for CH.Before anyone starts mocking me,Mcghee as always been rated as a good coach,it’s his managerial skills that have let him down a bit,and also he has a bit of history with the Toon.Just a thought.