Revealed: How much Ipswich Town paid in agents fees this season | OneFootball

The numbers on how much each Championship team has spent on agents and intermediaries have been released, and Ipswich rank in a surprising position.

Ipswich Town have outperformed the expectations of many people, and even that is a slight understatement. Winning promotion in back-to-back seasons is one of the toughest things to do in the EFL, but that Premier League spot isn't wrapped up for them just yet.

Kieran McKenna's side have a great chance of securing one of the top two spots in the league by the end of the 46th game of the season, and that chance is boosted by the fact that Southampton have to play the other two automatic promotion contenders - Leicester City and Leeds United - in their final games.

This will be a big help as, regardless of what happens in those matches, at least one of their rivals will drop points, but Ipswich have been culpable of that too.

They've struggled in front of goal over the past few weeks, which has led to some frustrating draws and losses, especially in the East Anglian derby to Norwich City, who only had a few attempts on goal in their 1-0 victory over the Tractor Boys.

The squad that McKenna is working with certainly isn't at the top end of the Championship, on paper, especially when you compare it to what Enzo Maresca and Daniel Farke have at their disposal, at Leicester and Leeds, respectively.

That gap in quality, on paper, has been well reflected in the money that all three of the sides have paid out to agents and intermediaries this season, with all of Town's promotion rivals being way ahead of them in this category.

In the 2023/24 campaign, the Tractor Boys have forked out £1,263,523 on fees for agents and intermediaries, sourced via Wales Online. This ranks 13th in the second tier for money spent on agents this season.

The likes of Leicester, Leeds and Southampton are way above Ipswich in this regard. According to Wales Online's reveal, they make up the top three in the Championship for agent fees in the 23/24 campaign, with the Whites paying out £13,287,784 (over 10.5x what Ipswich spent), the Foxes paying £8,113,789 (6.4x Ipswich's spend), and the Saints paying £7,535,386 (nearly 6x Ipswich's spend).

There is a caveat with these numbers. The aforementioned trio were Premier League sides this time last season, so they were always going to have players who were on higher wages, as well as a higher spend on transfers, than Town, who were a third tier team in the prior campaign.

What it does make glaringly obvious is just how good of a job the Tractor Boys have done this season, and, more specifically, the job that their manager has done.

Ipswich's spend on agents compared to Norwich City

Town have paid just under 30% of what their East Anglian foe have to agents and intermediaries this season, with the Canaries racking up a bill of £4,276,648.

This puts Norwich as the fifth-highest team in the league for this category, with Leeds, Leicester, Southampton and Watford being the only ones ahead of them.

Despite Town's brilliant season, and their superb end to the previous one, they were not the winners of the 2022/23 edition of League One. It was Plymouth Argyle who came in first, and Sheffield Wednesday, who finished in third place, ended up winning the play-offs.

Based on the league positions of the three this season, with Town fighting for promotion, and the other two battling to avoid relegation, there should be no surprise that Ipswich paid more to agents than Plymouth and Wednesday combined. Argyle forked out £586,849, which was the third-lowest in the second tier, while the Owls only spent £508,562 (second-lowest).