Premier League transfer spending hits record £870 million
By Lee Kilby
The summer transfer window was the richest in Premier League history as total spending for the calendar year reached £1bn for the first time.
Summer outlay passed £870m, 4% up on the record set last year.
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The biggest spenders, Manchester City, set an individual record, with £160m splashed out on new talent this summer including £55m for Kevin De Bruyne from Wolfsburg and £49m for Raheem Sterling from Liverpool.
Manchester United have also been busy, spending £139m to bring in Martial, Memphis Depay, Matteo Darmian, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin.
Manchester United’s £36m signing of Monaco teenager Anthony Martial was the biggest deadline-day move.
Since the introduction of the transfer window system in 2002, gross transfer spending has exceeded £7.3bn, with over 80% of this being spent in summer transfer windows, according to financial analysts Deloitte.
The four Premier League clubs competing in this season’s Champions League – City, United, Chelsea and Arsenal – had a combined gross transfer spend of around £340m, representing around 40% of the aggregate gross transfer spend by Premier League clubs.
Liverpool were also busy this summer, spending the Sterling money (and more) to sign seven players. Christian Benteke (£32.5m), Roberto Firmino (£29m) and Nathaniel Clyne (£12m) were the most expensive.
Alex Thorpe, senior manager in the sports business group at Deloitte, said: “This summer has seen another record level of transfer spending, as Premier League clubs continue to use increases in their revenue to invest in playing talent.
“Gross spending of £870m by clubs across the league has broken the record of £835m set last summer. Total spending in 2015, across both the January and summer windows, is also a new record, reaching the £1billion mark for the first time.”
Deloitte’s analysis found that:
- Premier League clubs spent around £90m on deadline day compared to £85m a year ago.
- Manchester City recorded the highest-ever gross spend by a Premier League club in a summer transfer window, spending £160m on new talent this summer.
- The four Premier League clubs competing in this season’s Champions League – Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United – had a combined gross transfer spend of £340m (around 40 per cent of the total).
- The next highest spending league was Italy’s Serie A, with a gross spend of £405m. Spain’s Primera Division was next with a gross spend of £400m, followed by the German Bundesliga with £290m and France’s Ligue 1 with £220m.
- Football League clubs benefited from net transfer fees of around £50m from Premier League clubs.
- The total at the start of the day stood at £790m – £45m short of the £835m record set last summer – but Anthony Martial’s £36m move from Monaco to Manchester United helped break the record.
The financial rewards of staying in the Premier League at the end of this season are immense. Starting from 2016-17, the Premier League TV rights deal increases from £3.018bn to £5.136bn for three seasons.
The bottom club will pocket £99m per season with the champions earning more than £150m in prize money, even before extra money is paid for featuring in a TV match.