Ipswich Town paid out just £303,978 in agents’ fees over the past two transfer windows, one of the lowest figures in the Championship.

https://infogr.am/fees_paid_by_clubs_to_agents_from_february_2016_to_january_2017_

The Blues layout was lower than just three other clubs in the league - only Burton Albion, Barnsley and Rotherham United forked out less.

In contrast, Anglian rivals Norwich City’s spending was more than 10 times as much, the Canaries splashing out £3,272,127 over the same period.

While Mick McCarthy has largely had to make do with free agents, loanees and bargain bin signings – with Adam Webster at around £800k his biggest deal – their cross border rivals have splashed the cash on the likes of Yanic Wildschut and Mitchell Dijks on loan and seen Robbie Brady, Martin Olsson and Sergi Canos depart.

The arrivals of Alex Pritchard and Nelson Oliveira were the headline deals for Norwich in the previous summer window, as Town only brought in Webster and Grant Ward for cash (around £1.4m for both).

In January, McCarthy brought in seven players - non-league prospects Kieffer Moore and Danny Rowe signed, as did free agents Jordan Spence and Steven Taylor, while Toumani Diagouraga, Dominic Samuel and Emyr Huws arrived on loan – but none were the big-name, big-money signing that fans craved.

Norwich’s fellow relegated rivals from the top flight, Newcastle United and Aston Villa, head the table of Championship expenditure on payments by clubs to agents – or intermediaries as they are officially known – which now have to be published by national associations under FIFA rules governing transfers.

Newcastle spent £10,449,578 in the same 12-month period, while Villa spent £5,421,662. Nottingham Forest were surprisingly third in the Championship table (£3,539,912), followed by Norwich.

The total outlay by Championship clubs on agents’ fees for the latest accounting period was £42,429,498, a 62pc increase compared to £26,124,044 in the last full-year results produced in 2014/15.

But that figure was dwarfed by the Premier League which spent £174,227,243 in the same current period, led by Manchester City (£26,286,988).