Premier League clubs spend record £115m on agents fees

Chelsea's summer spending included the purchases of Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa

Premier League clubs paid a record £115m to agents in the 12 months to the end of September 2014.

The league's top spenders were Chelsea, on £16.8m. Premier League champions Manchester City spent £12.8m - £1.5m less than runners-up Liverpool.

Manchester United spent just short of £8m, almost double their previous year's spending with agents of £4.3m.

Louis van Gaal's side spent the most on transfer fees by any English club in any transfer window this summer.

Their summer spending included the record purchase of Argentine midfielder Angel Di Maria.

Angel Di Maria joined Manchester United for a British record £59.7m in the summer

The record spend on transfer and agents' fees in 2014 comes after the clubs pocketed their first season's payment of vastly increased TV money. Last year was the start of a three-year domestic TV deal with Sky and BT worth £3.018bn, a 70% increase on the old deal.

It is the second consecutive season Chelsea have led the way in agents' fees spending.

Newly-promoted Burnley and Leicester spent the least amount on agents' fees, with the Clarets the only team to spend less than a million pounds in the annual results.

Arsenal's £4.2m figure is less than that spent by Sunderland, West Ham United and Everton, despite the Gunners' signings of Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck in the summer.

Southampton, who sit second in the Premier League table, spent under £3m in agents' fees for the second year in a row.

Overall the league spent almost £19m more on agents' fees than the previous year.