Top football agent Phil Smith today hit back at knockers who claim his profession is packed with parasites bleeding the game dry.

The mud has been flying thick and fast this week after it was revealed that Portsmouth paid £3.4m to agents during Harry Redknapp's two-and-a-half year reign at the club.

But Smith, who represents Albion players Danny Cullip, Darren Currie and Alexis Nicolas, as well as manager Mark McGhee, refuted the accusation.

Smith said: "You have to have a hard-skin. It can be tough because you get called loads of things.

"Agents are convenient scapegoats and we get caught in the crossfire.

"All we do is get deals for our clients so they can get on with their careers, rather than worry about contracts.

"You try to be honest and do your job with diligence. You want a deal that everyone feels happy with.

"It's not just about making the most amount of money as quickly as possible. You have one eye on the future."

Smith, who represented Bobby Zamora when he made the £1.5m switch from Albion to Tottenham last year, believes the notion of agents milking football and putting nothing back is wrong.

He said: "Don't tell me we just take money out of football. My firm (First Artist Corporation) has secured £10m worth of sponsorship for football, acted as agents for the England team for ten years and were told by Lincoln that we kept the club afloat by arranging the sale of two players, one of whom was Darren Huckerby.

"We helped bring £1.5m to the table for Brighton with Bobby. We have bought a couple of players who have been to Brighton's advantage recently. Darren Currie is good value in their division and other people are kicking themselves for not taking him.

"Alexis was an unknown quantity but has shown he is a hard worker and, despite his height, tough enough to handle himself.

"We got to know Mark when he was out of a job completely and were instrumental in him going to Millwall. We would like to think we did the same with him going to Brighton. I rang Dick (Knight, the Albion chairman), at a time when he may or may not have been wanting to see him and brokered an introduction."

Smith outlined the role of an agent.

"We look after our clients contractually. It's not just about doing a deal and not speaking to the club for two years. There is the after-sales bit too. We also offer personal management which includes looking after endorsements and the media."

Smith does not apologise for his firm making money from player deals.

He said: "If the agent has helped the club net a few million quid for a player and the agent earns £200,000 out of it, so what?

"Do directors who take large salaries out of football put it back into the game?"

He says figures quoted for agents' earnings are misleading, like the £3.4m supposedly raked off from Pompey.

Smith said: "I don't believe that figure is an accurate reflection, some of it relates to player contracts being paid up. If it is an overseas deal, a percentage goes to a third party."

His public company formed 25 years ago and has looked after top names likes Ruud Gullit.

It was also involved in establishing the agents charter to improve good practice.

Smith accepts there are a few bad apples.

He said: "At First Artist we don't have to justify our existence to anyone. Unfortunately there are agents who aren't so credible and they give the rest of us a bad name."

Former Albion defender Gary Stevens, who spent three months at First Artist when injury ended his playing career, is on the agents' side.

He said: "I decided I didn't like the business. You have to be pretty ruthless to drive a hard bargain. But that's what agents are there for.

"They've done an awful lot of good work. The truth is that clubs will get players on the cheap if they can and the players want as much as possible. The easiest way out is to have an intermediary, ie the agent.

"There is no doubt they've made an absolute killing in the last six to eight years but the market is hardening and it is the good ones who are still doing business."

Albion chairman Knight spends a lot of time dealing with agents.

He said: "Some are good and some are not.

"No one is happy to pay out large sums of money that go out of the game.

"We have to cut our cloth financially and will only pay a small percentage of the player's contract should an agent help to bring a new player to us. We don't begrudge them that but have to stick to within the limits we have set ourselves."