CHERRIES spent £2,328,862 on agents’ fees between October 2014 and September 2015, figures released this week by the Premier League revealed.

During this period, a total of £129.86m was spent on agents by the 20 clubs currently in the Premier League. The amounts include payments made by clubs on behalf of players.

Cherries drafted in a number of new recruits to fortify their push for promotion from the Championship and to prepare for their debut season in the top flight. The Dorset club paid around £8m to bring in record signing Tyrone Mings from Ipswich, while Max Gradel cost in the region of £7m from St Etienne.

Cherries also stumped up transfer fees on Joshua King (£1m from Blackburn), Glenn Murray (£4m from Crystal Palace) and Lee Tomlin (£3m from Middlesbrough).

Although there is no breakdown in the new figures, clubs can pay agents to sign players on free transfers and in loan deals. Artur Boruc, Adam Federici and Sylvain Distin all joined Cherries on free transfers during this period, while Joe Bennett, Christian Atsu and Kenwyne Jones arrived on loan.

Liverpool top the list of Premier League clubs having shelled out £14m to agents, while every team in the top flight spent at least £1.5m, with Watford the only club to spend less than £2m.

In 2008, the Premier League agreed that from 2009-10 onwards each club would publish the total amount they paid to authorised agents during the period October 1 of the previous year to September 30 of that year, which encompasses the mid-season and summer transfer windows.

During this accounting period, the two windows saw 172 transfers take place into the Premier League, while 573 plays left or were loaned out. Added to the 542 new and renewed contract deals, there were almost 1,300 deals done in the year which could have seen payments made to agents.

During three seasons between 2007 and 2010, Cherries paid nothing in agents’ fees, although they were subject to a transfer embargo for some of this period. In 2010-11, they spent £10,260.

In their promotion season of 2012-13 when Cherries won a place in the Championship, they spent £688,666 on agents’ fees – the highest in League One and ninth in the Football League. The following year, Cherries spent £709,231.