Despite only signing Petr Čech as a senior player in the summer, Arsenal have seen spending on agent fees more than double over the last year.

Signing Gabriel and Petr Čech from October 2014 – September 2015, Arsenal spent a huge £11.9m on agent fees. More was spent by Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea, but Arsenal’s total was unusually high.

Signing Nacho Monreal, Mesut Özil and Mathieu Flamini in 2013, Arsenal spent just over £5.5m on agent fees, far less than the Premier League rivals we now appear to be roughly level with.

A year later, Arsenal signed a number of first team players but only spent £4.2m on agent fees as Alexis Sánchez, Mathieu Debuchy, Calum Chambers, David Ospina and Danny Welbeck joined the club.

This year’s total may be high due to the influx of young foreign players. Donyell Malen is represented by famous agent Mino Raiola (also the agent of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Mario Balotelli) and signed from Ajax in the summer, along with Ismael Bennacer who appeared to be on his way to Manchester City. Vlad Dragomir also signed, and Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Yassin Fortune came from RC Lens despite interest from Manchester United.

In order to sign talents like that, who are wanted by other clubs, it’s possible we had to spend a lot in agent fees. The change is an interesting one, and we will have to see if it continuous now that the club has more money to play with in the transfer market.