Erling Haaland's secret £60m Man City double deal paved way for 'frightening' development
The deal that took Erling Halaand to Manchester City set the standard for the kind of agent fees and other unreported payments that have grown to a frightening level.
That is the opinion of legendary former Scandinavian scout Bryan King, who tried in vain to persuade his former club Everton to sign Haaland when he was 15, speaking exclusively to Football Insider.
Transfer fees have exploded this summer, with several players already having moved for figures exceeding £110million.
The transfer record for English players has been broken twice already, with Morgan Rogers' £117m move to Chelsea exceeding the £116m paid for Elliot Anderson just weeks ago.
The Citizens had triggered the striker's £51m release clause at Borussia Dortmund, but it is still unclear just how much money was truly involved.
Transfer insider reveals 'frightening' development
There are still many stages and talks involved in a football transfer that never make it into the media.
Decisions that are reported as decisions, in some cases, may not be about a decision at all, with money inevitably involved in everything.
German publication BILD reported in 2022 that behind the Halaand deal had been around £34m paid to his agent, Mino Raiola, and around £25.5m paid to his father, Alf-Inge Haaland.
And that is not to mention the Norwegian's staggering wages, which have since been boosted by a new contract.
"The thing is, when he moved from Dortmund, the fee was £51m. If you were going to buy a player who was under contract from a club and performing like he was at Dortmund, normal price would be 85 million," King, who also held senior scouting roles at Aston Villa and Tottenham, told Football Insider.
"So there's ways and means of making wages even larger by compensation for the fee you pay for the player. They would have paid £80m for him anyway.
"But the fact that they got him for £51m means there's a leeway there to certainly boost wages and produce loyalty fees and payments and God knows what else, signing on payments and stuff.
"When you see the agent fees that have gone out the game during the last 12 months, it's frightening. "
How much did Premier League clubs pay in agent fees last season?
From April 2025 to April 2026, Premier League clubs shelled out an eye-watering £460m in agent fees.
That is a 13 per cent increase on the year before, with Chelsea the highest spenders for the third consecutive year.
The Blues spent £65m in agent fees, nearly £30m more than any other Premier League side.
£460m is a record for the Premier League, and the trend does not appear to be going anywhere but up.