DESPITE not paying a penny in transfer fees Ipswich Town paid £125,000 in agents' fees in the first half of the season, Football League figures have revealed.

Derek Davis

DESPITE not paying a penny in transfer fees Ipswich Town paid £125,000 in agents' fees in the first half of the season, Football League figures have revealed.

Colchester United paid out £93,000 over the same period between July and December last year, with Championship clubs spending almost £6.7million in total.

Ipswich brought in Pablo Counago, Tommy Miller and Neil Alexander, as free agents during the summer transfer window, while selling Lewis Price to Derby County for £220,000, yet racked up fees totalling £125,000, compared to just £5,000 during the same period the year before.

The Blues are expected to be hit with an even heavier bill after their transfer business during January after signing David Norris for more than £2m from Plymouth, Alan Quinn for almost £500,000 from Sheffield United, and more than £600,000 for Velice Sumulikoski from Turkish side Burtsaspor.

On top of that they have taken keeper Stephen Bywater on loan from Derby County until the end of the season but have already agreed a fee should the move become permanent, and Nick Colgan from Barnsley.

No one from Ipswich Town was available to comment on the amount spent on agents' fees or plans by the FA to audit transfers made by clubs during the January window.

U's chairman Robbie Cowling accepted Colchester had broken their trend of not paying agents but called it a 'necessary expense'.