The FA has released details of all payment to 'agents and intermediaries' made by clubs between 2nd Feb 2021 and 31st January this year. For League 2 clubs this season that basically covers the summer 21 and January 22 transfer windows.

It's maybe no surprise in the circumstances that Pools paid out less to agents than any other club on the division, but the differences are huge. Pools paid out £10,174, but Bristol Rovers (relegated from League 1 last season) shelled out almost 12 times as much, just under £120,000 going to the middle-men.

Only Newport (£15k) and Colchester (£18k) spent less than double what Pools did. The other really big spenders on agents were Salford (£116k), Bradford (£108k) and Orient (£85k).

Obviously teams that were fairly happy with their squads spent less on rebuilding than ones that had struggled. FGR 'only' spent £55k on middle men, which is about the average for the division. And money doesn't always buy success. Of the really big spenders, Bristol Rovers and Salford are still in with a shout of a play-off place but Bradford and Orient aren't even close. And Scunny forked out £45k on agents for what looks like nailed on relegation!

It's not the whole picture - agents aren't always involved in negotiating transfer fees, signing on fees and the like, but the days of Ken Hodcroft being able to say he'd have nothing to do with middle men are long gone.

Pools have done great to be heading for a mid-table finish and it's a testament to the quality of the squad that won us promotion (Pools spent £40k on agents in their last season in the NL). The one thing that can be said for Challinor having to scrape the barrel last summer for signings is it was slim pickings for agents!

I believe IOR at one time wouldn’t deal with agents ?

Yes, I referred to that in my OP. Ken Hodcroft was chairman at Pools right through the IOR period of ownership.

Challinor was sooooooo desperate last summer that rumour has it he tried to hire the dredger to really scrape the bottom......

no he didn,t try he succeeded. mighty mike must have been found under the rocks and not just at the bottom itself.

if the rest had all followed his example on this issue we would not be talking about it now. agents would have been like the watney cup, a short lived thing of the past.

I liked Hodcroft’s attitude to signings.... no budget and the manager just made his case for whichever player or players he wished to sign.
I suppose under the old system at some clubs some of the managers went up to the limit of the budget when it wasn’t necessary to and no doubt gave a few old mates another season in the sun.