Reading FC Paid Third-Highest Agent Fees In Championship For Previous Two Transfer Windows

A whopping £2,850,283 was handed over to agents by Reading FC in the 2017/18 summer and January transfer windows.

Currently in 19th place, the Royals forked out club record fees for both Tiago Ilori and Sone Aluko, although the former’s name is missing in the official FA list of transactions which supply the figures.

What are included are the new contracts handed out to Yann Kermorgant, Liam Kelly, Jordan Obita and a handful of youth players as well as the signings of Liam Moore, Leandro Bacuna, Joey van den Berg and many more. You can check out the full list here.

But the headline figure will be most worrying to Reading fans given that only Sunderland (over £4m) and Aston Villa (over £5.5m) declared higher payments to agents. Following in closely behind are Middlesbrough (£2.53m) Birmingham (£2.46m), Fulham (£2.42m), and a little bit further down the list, bafflingly, are Jorge Mendes play-thing Wolves (almost £2m exact).

Given the league leaders’ figure, it is always possible these transactions are subject to some (perfectly legal) attempt or another of (perfectly legal) perfectly legal activities (please don’t sue us we only have mugs and a tape recorder). Either way, Reading’s total does seem rather a lot for such little return.