Jim White: Agent fees for West Ham target Nikola Milenkovic were up to £3.4m
Jim White claims the agent fees for Fiorentina defender Nikola Milenkovic were in the region of £3million after his move to West Ham broke down last week.
A deal to take the 23-year-old from Florence to east London looked all-but done until talks hit a stumbling block on Friday, thought Italian news outlet Calciomercato have since claimed they will re-open this week.
Speaking via talkSPORT on Tuesday [17/08/21], ex-Sky Sports presenter White shared what he has learnt about the negotiations.
He said to ex-Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan: “What I have heard is [about] agent fees, and I know this is something very close to your heart, you’re so dear against huge sums of money being paid to agents.
“West Ham, I understand, were after Fiorentina defender Nikola Milenkovic. That has broken down but the agent fees were somewhere between three to four million Euros [£2.6-3.4million].”
Name of the game
On the face of it, they sound like extortionate fees to be paying people who may not even have had a major role in proceedings to take Milenkovic to the London Stadium.
However, expensive agent fees just seem to be the way of the football world these days.
Can we really afford to duck out of transfers over reasons like this? White didn’t directly say this was the cause for last week’s breakdown in talks, but it’s a feasible explanation for it.
It just feels like we’re trying to do things on the cheap. There’s something to be said about trying to get the right deal and attempting to elbow ghastly agents out of the way.
But we’re at the stage now where we can’t afford to be choosy.
There are two weeks left until deadline day, and we need to pick up the pace to sign a central defender.
In other West Ham news, Graeme Souness & Micah Richards hailed this ‘Brilliant’ Irons ace after Sunday’s 4-2 win v Newcastle.
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