Man City boss defends agent fees

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Hughes defends Man City agent spending

Manager Mark Hughes has defended the large sum of money Manchester City have spent on agents over the past year.

Figures released by the Premier League on Monday revealed City were the top spenders with almost £13m between October 2008 and September 2009.

But Hughes has admitted that the outcome was predictable.

"If you do a lot of deals - and overall something like 35 were included, you would expect a figure like that," said the Welshman.

The figures showed that the top-flight clubs spent fees of more than £70m during the period, but Hughes is starting to take action to ensure the Eastlands club do not rely on the use of agents as much.

"There is a role that has to be met and, at the moment, agents fill it," he added.

"Do they provide value for money? You have to base every deal on its merits. Sometimes you feel the agent has really done his job, on others you feel he is getting money for nothing.

"At times they can muddy the waters. Some deals can seem quite straightforward and then they become complicated at the end. On other occasions the deal goes through very quickly."

606: DEBATE I find the revelation that PL clubs have forked out £70m in the last year in fees to agents a bit breathtaking Blueoverthemoon

Agents have tended to be viewed as a necessary evil, especially in situations like Carlos Tevez, whose third party ownership by Kia Joorabchian caused so much controversy following his arrival in England.

It is still not exactly clear how much City paid Joorabchian to gain the player's registration but there is no doubt the deal would not have been possible without Joorabchian's involvement.

Hughes stated: "Agents want to work with us - I wonder why? We do a lot of the work that in the past agents have been able to bring to a club in terms of recommending players.

"Some agents will tell you they have the best player in the world. Now we can make that judgement ourselves because we have seen him 10 times. That has not always been the case but without doubt I would say we are in a better place than we were 12 months ago."

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