By Andrew Warshaw
February 1 – January is supposedly never the ideal time to buy players in terms of planning yet Premier League clubs spent a record £430 million in the winter transfer window that closed Wednesday night, according to Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, exceeding the previous record set in 2011 by a staggering 91%.
The pressure to secure potentially decisive deals at both ends of the table has never been greater and deadline day expenditure by Premier League clubs of £150 million is also a new January window record.
The most expensive move on the final day came when one of the Continent’s most proven goalscorers Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joined Arsenal, who had been desperate to replace Alexei Sanchez, from Borussia Dortmund for a club record £56 million.
Elsewhere, Tottenham signed Paris St Germain’s Brazilian winger Lucas Moura – who has never quite fulfilled his much-touted promise in France – for £23 million while Olivier Giroud and Andre Ayew made £18 million moves – to Chelsea and Swansea respectively.
The most expensive Premier League signing of the entire January transfer window actually went through on the opening day of the month when Liverpool signed defender Virgil van Dijk from Southampton for £75 million.
Total expenditure could have been even higher if big-spending runaway league leaders Manchester City, who had already smashed their transfer record by bringing in defender Aymeric Laporte, had persued Leicester’s gifted playmaker Riyad Mahrez. But they baulked at the asking price and walked away.
Not surprisingly, the Premier League was again the highest-spending league in European football during the January window. The next-highest spending league was La Liga, with total transfer expenditure of around £250 million (€285 million). Clubs in the Bundesliga spent around £65 million (€75 million).
Deloitte said total spending for the 2017/18 season, taking in both windows, is an estimated £1.9 billion, growing for the sixth consecutive season and eclipsing last season’s previous record high by 35%.
Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, commented: “Premier League clubs have taken the opportunity to refresh their squads in January before the decisive phase of the season.”
“International trade has flourished, with the highest ever January gross overseas outlay in Premier League history (£260 million), but also the highest amount of January receipts from abroad (£185 million), with names such as Coutinho and Costa leaving the UK and Laporte and Aubameyang arriving from abroad.”
“While another record-breaking season catches the eye, Premier League clubs’ expenditure continues to be well within their means in the context of revenue generated. Estimated 2017/18 net spend of £755 million represents just 17% of forecast 2017/18 Premier League revenue, in line with the average over the 15 years since the first transfer window in January 2003, as clubs’ increase investment in players in proportion to the overall growth of the football business.”
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