The Staggering Mismanagement - Recent History.

[kippaxvilla2]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5586069/Steve-Bruce-admits-Aston-Villa-spent-5-5m-agents-fees-bid-secure-Premier-League-status.html

I tried to copy the article but it would only let me post the link.

Based on this we would’ve become the next Leeds had it not been stopped.  £1.5m for Traores agent and the player isn’t even here anymore. 

[cdbearsfan]

Copied and pasted for those who don't like having to visit that website...

Steve Bruce admits Aston Villa spent £5.5m on agents' fees in bid to secure Premier League promotion but reveals 'common sense' has since prevailed

By Laurie Whitwell for MailOnline13:41, 06 Apr 2018, updated 13:53, 06 Apr 2018

Steve Bruce admits Aston Villa spent £5.5m on agents fees to win promotion Past regimes at the club paid the price in trying to secure Premier League status'Common sense' has since prevailed at the club, according to the 57-year-oldBruce reveals he's only spent £600,000 on agents' fees in the last calendar year

Steve Bruce has said the staggering £5.5million Aston Villa spent on agents' fees in the last two transfer windows is the price of past regimes trying to secure the club's Premier League status.

Villa spent more than any other Championship side in figures released by the FA that cover last summer and this winter but the majority of the payments are for deals signed before Bruce's time.

Bruce said 'common sense' has since prevailed at Villa and insisted he would manage the club's money like it was his own. He said the total going to intermediaries 'sticks in the craw'.

Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce admits the club spent £5.5m on agents' fees to win promotion

It is understood Adama Traore's move from Barcelona cost the club around £1.5m in agent fees for this period, while Villa are also still paying intermediaries for players who penned long-term deals sanctioned by former owner Randy Lerner even though they have now left.

'I can only go on my tenure and the last calendar year,' Bruce said. 'Mine is something like £600,000. I think it proves where the club has been, trying to get back into the Premier League, and what's happened before that. Thankfully some common sense has come in.

'I don't believe in still paying agents for players who are not here. That's obviously being the case, with one highlighted in particular.' Bruce has been able to pay high wages for John Terry and Robert Snodgrass but transfer spend on players has been recouped by major sales and the financial situation is precarious if Villa do not go up.

'I was under no illusion it was going to be difficult from the moment I had the conversation with Keith Wyness last summer,' the Villa manager said. 'I understand the situation. That's what we have all inherited all of us. It's clearing up and putting the house in order. It's part of my job.

'I don't get involved as much as I used to. But certainly it's part of my job because I'm the manage the club and I would try to manage the club how I would manage myself in terms of finances.

'Of course now it's difficult because the further you go in the game the more shocked you are by money that is available. We're all in it, we all see it, but it's to the detriment of the game, and certainly the average supporter.

The Villa manager reveals he's only spent £600,000 on agents' fees in the last calendar year

'Especially with so much money going to agents, it's something that sticks in the craw.

'Of course with anything, there's good and bad. It's not my position to sit and criticise agents, they get what they can. But we have to deal with them.

'I'm sure every manager will tell you an example of when a deal hasn't gone through because the agent is not happy. Really it should be the other way around, with the player being in control of the agent, but that doesn't always happen.'

[Chris Stares]

'I'm sure every manager will tell you an example of when a deal hasn't gone through because the agent is not happy. Really it should be the other way around, with the player being in control of the agent, but that doesn't always happen.' [/I]

I think when this happens, it tells you a lot about the player as much as the agent.

[Toronto Villa]

It's not going to get any better though if we go up. The average price of average players in the PL has gone through the roof and with it agent fees. Being in the Championship and not buying many players these past few windows along with better management has helped I'm sure with those fees coming down. But I'm sure the fees at Albion, Palace, Everton, West Ham, before we even talk about clubs in the upper echelon of the PL are scary numbers. And something we will need to plan for well if we go up, want to buy good players and ultimately stay up and compete.

[Damo70]

What am I missing here? If we have spent £5.5 million on agents fees in the last two transfer windows then that was under the current regime, not the last regime. Even the window immediately before Bruce's appointment was under the current regime of Dr T and Keith Wyness. As much as I dislike Lerner what has this got to do with him, apart from the fact he left a club that needed team strengthening?
Also, as high and ridiculous as the figures appear, did we overpay or did we just pay the going rate?

[Toronto Villa]

What am I missing here? If we have spent £5.5 million on agents fees in the last two transfer windows then that was under the current regime, not the last regime. Even the window immediately before Bruce's appointment was under the current regime of Dr T and Keith Wyness. As much as I dislike Lerner what has this got to do with him, apart from the fact he left a club that needed team strengthening?
Also, as high and ridiculous as the figures appear, did we overpay or did we just pay the going rate?

I think part of it is we continued to pay for fees for players who we signed as a PL club that have left the since. So something should have been written into those contracts and others to stop us from doing that. I think everyone at the club has a better handle on things that were done wrong, or indeed mistakes that they have made and hopefully have learned from.

[kippaxvilla2]

Well they paid more than West Brom in agents fees and yes under the current regime but for players signed previous to their existence - in other words overhang payments from players signed under Lerner.

[Damo70]

Surely 'overhang' payments are the problem of the current owner who inherits them but not the fault of the current owner who inherits them.

[Damo70]

Well they paid more than West Brom in agents fees and yes under the current regime but for players signed previous to their existence - in other words overhang payments from players signed under Lerner.

The penny has dropped now. Sins of our father's and all that.

[paul_e]

If we do go up we won't even be able to dodge this by investing in the academy and building the team around that (which seems to be the lnog term plan) because every time we get themt o sign a new deal there'll be agents wanting a slice of the pie for effectively helping them get a pay rise that are offering anyway.

[eamonn]

Well they paid more than West Brom in agents fees and yes under the current regime but for players signed previous to their existence - in other words overhang payments from players signed under Lerner.

If they date from Lerner's time, the narrative about it being due to our promotion-chasing doesn't make sense. He sold up before our Championshit splurge.

[kippaxvilla2]

£1.5m related to fees paid for Traore.  Didn’t he go before the start of last season?

[Mister E]

There's some revisionism going in here.
And why is Bruce getting into all this now? - is this part of his exit narrative (as in: get the first blows in)?

Sorry to be cynical and negative but it does seem a little weird.

[kippaxvilla2]

No it only came out in the press this week.  There were some statistics produced.

[brian green]

Singling out agents' fees also seems to me like a distraction tactic.  The really monumental waste by Villa has been on the insanities of the contracts of Agbonlahor, Richards, N'Zogbia and their ilk.  Bruce says common sense has prevailed.  I wish it had prevailed before we spent £20 million on Hogan and McCormack.