LONDON: Liverpool have narrowly failed to knock Chelsea off top spot this year in the agents’ commission league table writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Brendan Rodgers’s heavy summer spending resulted in the Anfield club declaring £14.3m paid to agents for their work in facilitating transfer deals between October 1 last year and September 30 this year.

However Jose Mourinho’s Premier League leaders spent £16.7m, following a table-topping £13.7m the previous year.

Liverpool’s expenditure of an additional £5m contrasts starkly with the dip in the club’s form this season after heavy spending on new defenders, midfielders and forwards.

Payments this past year to agents by Premier clubs totalled £115m compared with £96.5m last year.

Paid by clubs on behalf of players between October 1, 2013, and September 30, 2014:

Arsenal – £4,293,407

Aston Villa – £2,577,866

Burnley – £711,024

Chelsea – £16,771,328

Crystal Palace – £2,200,797

Everton – £5,753,269

Hull City – £2,459,010

Leicester City – £1,608,418

Liverpool – £14,308,444

Manchester City  – £12,811,946

Manchester United – £7,975,556

Newcastle United – £3,876,250

Queens Park Rangers – £3,242,668

Southampton  – £2,766,444

Stoke City  – £3,986,850

Sunderland  – £5,276,674

Swansea City  – £3,784,090

Tottenham Hotspur – £10,983,011

West Bromwich Albion – £3,493,745

West Ham United  – £6,380,339

Total   –   £115,261,136

The Premier League agreed, in June 2008, that from season 2009/10 onwards each club would publish, on November 30 each season, the total amount paid annually to authorised agents.

Payments made by each Premier League club between October 1, 2012, and September 30, 2013:

Arsenal – £5,485,961

Aston Villa – £3,358,628

Cardiff City  – £2,225,582

Chelsea – £13,721,721

Crystal Palace –  £869,531

Everton – £3,225,159

Fulham – £3,790,115

Hull City – £1,825,718

Liverpool – £9,400,973

Manchester City – £11,179,817

Manchester United – £4,317,690

Newcastle United – £7,294,018

Norwich City – £2,308,987

Southampton – £2,184,412

Stoke City – £3,191,808

Sunderland – £4,640,227

Swansea City – £1,484,878

Tottenham Hotspur – £9,787,676

West Bromwich Albion – £2,211,054

West Ham United – £4,169,134

Total – £96,673,089

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