Revealed: How much Watford FC paid in agents fees this season | OneFootball

The 2023/24 season has proved to be another disappointing one for Watford Football Club.

After an 11th place finish last campaign, the hope would have been that the club could at least match that finish this time around, and indeed keep a head coach in place for the entire time, too.

Instead, the club look set to finish lower than 11th, and head coach Valerien Ismael, whilst given more time than some of his predecessors, was given the boot last month.

Tom Cleverley is now in charge on an interim basis, though it remains to be seen who Gino Pozzo and company decide to appoint permanently in the summer.

Putting aside Watford's on pitch fortunes for the moment, this article instead looks at agent fees paid by the club between 1st February 2023 and 1st February 2024.

This data comes from the Football Association, who, according to their website, "publish all transactions and payments involving Football Agents/Intermediaries registered with The FA and Clubs each season".

here.

A look at the FA document reveals that between the start of February 2023 and the start of February 2024, Watford spent a total of £4,693,267 on agent fees.

Of course, in the time frame mentioned, there were a number of high-profile transfers in and out of Vicarage Road which will have contributed to that figure.

Last summer, for example, Joao Pedro was sold to Brighton for a reported £30 million, whilst Ismaila Sarr joined Marseille for approximately £15 million.

Of course, in January, the Hornets also landed Emmanuel Dennis on a loan deal from Nottingham Forest.

Championship clubs agent fees spend

In terms of where Watford's agent fee spending ranks, there were only three clubs in the Championship that spent more on agent fees over the same time period - Leeds United, Southampton and Leicester City.

Of course, all three of these sides dropped down from the Premier League last summer.

After doing so, they were not shy of paying agent fees as big money deals went in and out.

Leeds United, for example, forked a whopping £13,287,748 on agent fees.

Leicester City (£8,113,789) and Southampton (£7,537,386) spent significantly less than the Whites, but still plenty more than Watford and most clubs in the Championship.

A number of clubs in the division did not even spend seven figures on agent or intermediary fees. In fact, six clubs fall into this category.

In no particular order, these clubs were Blackburn Rovers, Bristol City, Millwall, Plymouth Argyle, Rotherham United, and Sheffield Wednesday.

The lowest spending of these were Rotherham, who spent just £440,671 on agents between 2023 and 2024.

The Millers were followed by Sheffield Wednesday (£508,562) and Plymouth Argyle (£586,849) in this regard.