As expected, Premier League clubs splashed a whooping sum of £1.4billion recruiting 115 players during the summer transfer window.
Manchester United recruit, Harry Maguire, is the most expensive acquisition during the window and became the world’s most expensive defender after Red Devils splashed out £80m for his signature.
Arsenal were also active in the summer market after paying £72m on Lille forward Nicolas Pepe, with other top deals including Tanguay Ndombele (£63m to Tottenham) and Manchester City drafting Rodri (£62.5m) and Joao Cancelo (£60m).
Manchester United topped the spending chart with £148m after Maguire’s record-breaking fee followed the signings of Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£50m from Crystal Palace) and Daniel James (£18m from Swansea), newly promoted Premier League side, Aston Villa, where the second biggest spenders, with a £144.5m on 12 players.
Arsenal broke their transfer policy with a £138m spree, signing Pepe, William Saliba (£27m, loaned back to St Etienne for the season), Kieran Tierney (£25m), David Luiz (£8m), Gabriel Martinelli (£6m) and loaning Dani Ceballos.
Manchester City invested £134.8m on defensive midfielder Rodri (£62.5m) and full-back Joao Cancelo (£60m) – in addition to Zackary Steffen (£7m) and Angelino Jose Angel (£5.3m).
Everton’s expenditure hit £118.5m after drafting Alex Iwobi in a late Deadline Day deal, in addition to Moise Kean (£27.5m), Jean-Phillippe Gbamin (£25m), Andre Gomes (£22m) and Fabian Delph (£9m).
Tottenham were the only other club to surpass £100m after prising Ryan Sessegnon from Fulham for £30m in the final hours of the window, having signed Ndombele and youngster Jack Clarke (£8.5m).
Leicester (£91m), followed by West Ham (£78m), Newcastle, Wolves (both £65m), Brighton (£58.5m), Southampton (£50m), Bournemouth (£45.7m) and Watford (£45.5m).
Newly promoted Norwich spent a league-low £1.1m, while Liverpool (£4.4m), Crystal Palace (£11m), Burnley (£15m), Chelsea (£40m) and Sheffield United (£43m) remained more frugal.
Premier League clubs also racked in £806.5m from sales of 291 players compared to £359m recouped in 2018.
Chelsea top the list of clubs that made money from outbound players. The Blues got £213.2m from selling Eden Hazard to Real Madrid for £130m and Alvaro Morata to Atletico Madrid for £58.3m.
Leicester City collected the next biggest sum from Maguire’s £80m move, followed by Manchester United (£74m), Everton (£60m), Manchester City (£58.1m), Arsenal (£55.5m), Crystal Palace (£50m) and Bournemouth (£36.5m).
West Ham (£33.25m), Newcastle (£31.7m),Tottenham (£29.7m), Liverpool (£28.82m), Southampton (£26m), Watford (£18.2m), Burnley (£8.5m) and Wolves (£3m) also received fees for outgoing players.
The total number of Premier League signings in the summer fell for the sixth year in a row.
Eleven Premier League clubs broke their transfer record this summer, with Sheffield United smashing theirs four times. Arsenal, Aston Villa, Leicester (twice), Manchester City, Newcastle, Southampton, Tottenham, Watford – on deadline day – West Ham and Wolves are the other 10.
Dan Jones, partner Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: “With this level of net spend, combined with a more modest increase in Premier League broadcast rights values for the coming season than we have seen previously, we would expect wages to increase at a greater rate than revenue, returning to a wages to revenue ratio of over 60%.
“However, this does not signal major financial concerns as Premier League clubs collectively generated pre-tax profits of £426m in 2017-18, while net spend as a proportion of revenue of 12% is at its lowest since 2012.”
Deloitte predicted that LaLiga clubs could still overtake the Premier League’s total. Spain’s top-flight clubs have spent £1.1bn, with Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona accounting for two thirds of that alone. That number will increase with their deadline not until 2 September.
Anthony Nlebem
