Once again it was a last minute frenzy that spurred on spending in the transfer window after a sluggish start. At £490m the final outcome was marginally up on last year’s figure of £485m, but failed to beat the record of £500m in 2008.
£300m was spent on foreign players. The ‘trickle down’ effect to the Football League was limited with just £50m spent at that level.
Once again it was a last minute frenzy that spurred on spending in the transfer window after a sluggish start. At £490m the final outcome was marginally up on last year’s figure of £485m, but failed to beat the record of £500m in 2008.
£300m was spent on foreign players. The ‘trickle down’ effect to the Football League was limited with just £50m spent at that level.
Some analysts are portraying Liverpool as the losers in the transfer window as the owners failed to go the extra mile to secure the signature of Clint Dempsey from Fulham. The club is now short of strikers after the Carroll loan.
Deloitte Sports Business said £110m was spent on Friday’s transfer deadline day, up from £100m last year. Five clubs – Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal – spent in excess of £30m each over the summer. Southampton spent just short of £30m.
Dan Jones, partner at Deloitte Sports Business Group, said: ‘While the highest levels of spending continue to be at those clubs competing at the upper end of the Premier League and in European competition, we have also seen significant investment by the newly promoted teams looking to establish themselves in the Premier League.’
He said the key challenge for Premier League clubs remained how to manage costs – notably transfer expenditure and players’ wages.
Deloitte said Premier League clubs would be even better off when new television deals kicked in next season.
Meanwhile, a UK accountancy firm said the continued big spending from Premier League clubs showed the league was isolated from any fears surrounding the euro currency, unlike many of its European counterparts.
‘All of the domestic broadcast deals are done in pounds and they far outweigh the overseas deals, so that is a good buffer against any euro crash,’ said Pete Hackleton, of the sports and entertainment team at firm Saffery Champness.