BOSS Eddie Howe insisted spending more than £7million on agents’ fees would be “worth every penny” if Cherries were to preserve their Premier League status.

Top-flight clubs paid a record £1.38billion on transfers in the 2016-17 season – with £174m going to registered intermediaries.

Manchester City were the biggest spenders on agents’ fees (£26.3m) ahead of Chelsea (£25.1m) and Manchester United (£19m).

Liverpool (£13.8m), Arsenal (£10.2m) and West Ham (£9.5m) completed the top six, while Cherries were the seventh highest at £7,415,321, ahead of the likes of Spurs, Everton and champions Leicester.

The figures, published by The Football Association, cover the period from February 2016 to January 2017 and come two years after the last full-year results were revealed in 2014-15.

Howe drafted in six permanent signings during the summer, bolstering his squad ahead of Cherries’ second season in the Premier League. He also moved for Aaron Ramsdale in the mid-season transfer window.

Cherries spent around £35m in transfer fees on Jordon Ibe, Lewis Cook, Lys Mousset, Brad Smith, Marc Wilson and Ramsdale, and another £800,000 in compensation to Fulham for Emerson Hyndman.

The club would also have paid fees to registered intermediaries to secure the high-profile loan signings of Nathan Ake from Chelsea and Jack Wilshere from Arsenal.

Cherries made no fewer than 31 payments to agents during the period with the figure also including contract renegotiations with first-team and under-21 players.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Echo, Howe said: “Unfortunately these days, if you don’t pay agents, you don’t sign players. It’s as simple as that.

“Signing players comes at a big cost, not just the transfer fee and wages of the player, but also the agent.

“A lot of the time, the agent will dictate where their player goes so, unfortunately, it’s a sign of the modern times and the league we are in.

“It depends what you want to achieve. The bigger thing for us is to stay in the Premier League.

“That figure is worth every penny if we do and, to be competitive at this level and in this league, you have to pay those fees.”

Cherries banked more than £70m in central income payments from their debut campaign in the top flight, the figure made up of an equal share, a facility fee, a merit payment, central commercial and live and overseas television broadcasts.

England’s top division is the wealthiest in global football and central payments have increased to around £120m per club this season – with ticket money, replica shirt sales and sponsorship on top.

In three seasons between 2007 and 2010 – when Cherries were in League One and League Two – the club made no payments to agents.

They spent £10,260 in 2010-11, £187,509 the following season and £688,666 when winning promotion from League One in 2012-13, ninth highest in the Football League.

Between October 2014 and September 2015, the period covering when Cherries clinched a place in the Premier League, the club’s spending on agents’ fees was £2,328,862.