By Paul Nicholson
February 2 – Spending in the January 2021 transfer window plunged across Europe’s big five leagues from £890 million in 2020 to £270 million in the buying window that closed yesterday, according to figures from Deloitte.
Premier League spending during the January 2021 window fell from £230 million in 2020 to £70 million. Deloittes said the volume of activity across the other four ‘big five’ European leagues was just over half their previous three-year average for January.
Of the £70 million spent by the Premier League, more than 75% was accounted for by three £10 million+ transfers; Said Benrahma (loan made permanent at West Ham), Amad Diallo (Atalanta to Man Utd) and Morgan Sanson (Marseilles to Aston Villa).
Premier League clubs completed 24 transfers during the window compared to the average of 46 across the previous three years’ January windows, said Deloitte.
Spending across Europe’s other big leagues saw drops corresponding drops to less than 30% of 2020 spends: Serie A (2021: £70m/€80m 2020: £180m/€215m), Bundesliga (2021: £45m/€50m 2020: £165m/€195m), La Liga (£30m/€35m 2020: £110m/€130m) Ligue 1 (£25m/€30m 2020: £100m/€120m).
Dan Jones, partner at the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said that despite lower spending in January, a very busy summer window saw for Premier League “saw total net expenditure for the 2020/21 season reach a new record level of £950m. It remains to be seen if the relatively low activity in January will continue throughout 2021. We certainly do not expect to see another new record this summer.”
The January window is first time that new Brexit rules on the restriction of free movement of labour between the UK and Europe have been applicable. The introduction of a points based system for English clubs to sign all foreign players will likely have impacted on the number of transfers, though the pandemic and commercial uncertainty is the larger determinant of transfer values.
“During the January 2021 window, Premier League clubs’ expenditure on players from non-English clubs fell to just £45m. In the previous two January transfer windows, Premier League clubs’ spend on this category of expenditure averaged £165m. While new post-Brexit rules on acquiring players from overseas may have contributed to this, the financial impact of the pandemic was, by far, a more important factor,” said Jones.
Contact the writer of this story at paul.nicholson@insideworldfootball.com