Revealed: How much Coventry City paid in agents fees this season | OneFootball

Coventry Citytake a break from Championship action when they return to Wembley less than a year on from their play-off final defeat against Luton Town, to take on Manchester United for a place in the FA Cup final.

Mark Robins has once again performed miracles for the Sky Blues, but look set for another season in the second tier having gone eight points behind Norwich City in the race for the final place in the top six following their heavy defeat to Midlands rivals, Birmingham City.

Coventry City transfer business this season

Ahead of the 2023/24 season, Doug King wanted to ensure the Sky Blues built on their Wembley defeat to the Hatters that season, and welcomed 11 new faces to the Coventry Building Society Arena during the summer window as they prepared for back-to-back play-off challenges.

Haji Wright, Ellis Simms, Liam Kitching and Milan van Ewijk were just some of the players signed on permanent deals, while Coventry also made use of free transfers and the loan market, welcoming Jay Dasilva, Joel Latibeaudiere, Yasin Ayari and Luis Binks ahead of the new campaign.

The permanent deals were aided by the sales of both Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer to Sporting CP and Sheffield United respectively. While losing two players who had been so pivotal to their play-off charge last term, the money has since been thoroughly invested into the team and Coventry have done well to replace that quality.

The Sky Blues would also add to their squad in January, welcoming Ephron Mason-Clark from Peterborough United and midfielder Victor Torp from Sarpsborg 08. Kyle McFadzean would complete a permanent switch to Blackburn Rovers while Mason-Clare returned to Posh for the remainder of the season to help their promotion push in League One.

But following the FA's release of the money spent on agent fees within the Championship, the Sky Blues find themselves spending considerably less than the surrounding teams, especially when looking at three of the sides fighting for automatic promotion.

Coventry among top spenders when it comes to Championship agent fees

Newly-released figures by the Football Association indicate Coventry City spent almost £2 million on agents’ fees in the last two transfer windows.

The latest set of intermediary and agents’ fees show the Sky Blues spent a whopping £1,834,865 for the period from February 1, 2023, to February 1, 2024.

It marks an increase of just over £800,000 from the £1,023,178 spent by the club in the previous 12-month period, according to Coventry Live.

When compared to their Championship rivals, Coventry spent considerably less than their fellow promotion hopefuls. It was no surprise to see the three teams relegated from the Premier League top the rankings with some quite crazy numbers.

Leeds United topped the rankings by some distance, spending £13,287,784 on agents fees, closely followed by Leicester City (£8,113,789) and Southampton (£7,535,386). Watford, Norwich City, West Bromwich Albion, Hull City and Stoke City all feature ahead of the Sky Blues.

In the second division, just six teams spent under £1 million on agents fees this season, with Rotherham United (£440,671), Sheffield Wednesday (£508,562) Plymouth Argyle (£586,849) and Millwall (£682,948) all at the bottom of the FA's report.

In total £61,340,7670 was spent across the Championship, nearly double the £36,317,802 paid last year.

When looking at the figures, it again highlights the difference in financial gain from the sides you see at the top of the division, compared to the ones at the bottom of the FA's report.

Seemingly the more spent on recruitment and agent fees, the better your chances of success, although the likes of Huddersfield Town and Birmingham City have managed to buck that trend this season with no guarantee of their second tier survival this term.

Coventry have shown they have the ability to compete with sides that spend a considerable amount more than them, especially when it comes to agent fees, but that will seemingly be a problem they continue to encounter, the longer they remain in the second tier.