How Sheffield United's agent fee spend compared to rest of Premier League amid £400m+ total bill

Sheffield United spent just over £5m on agent fees since promotion to the Premier League a year ago, figures released by the Football Association have revealed. The Blades’ share of the overall top-flight spend, with the 20 clubs between them splashing more than £400MILLION on intermediaries, on top of transfer fees.

The £409.59m total bill was an increase from £318.2m a year earlier, with Chelsea the biggest spenders with a whopping £75m - with signings including British record transfer Moises Caicedo, Christopher Nkunku, Romeo Lavia, Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer over the period covered - while Manchester City, the previous biggest spenders, had an outlay of £60.6m.

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Rivals Manchester United spent £34.05m, while Liverpool paid £31.50m in fees and Arsenal a total of £24.76m. At the other end of the scale United’s bill was the second lowest but more than double Luton’s, who spent just over £2m after winning the play-offs. Burnley, who were automatically promoted alongside United after winning the Championship title, shelled out just shy of £7m.

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The bulk of the agency work at United is likely to have been done in the summer, when United attempted to reprofile their squad to cope with the demands of Premier League football. Late transfer window moves for Cameron Archer and James McAtee will have swelled the total while the January arrivals of Ivo Grbic, Mason Holgate and Ben Brereton Diaz will have also incurred extra fees.

Chelsea's total exceeded the overall spending on agents' fees in the Championship of £61.34m - with Leeds top of the list at £13.28m as United’s Yorkshire rivals push for a swift promotion back to the Premier League.