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CRAIG HOPE: Premier League clubs have spent more than LaLiga, Serie A and Bundesliga COMBINED this summer and are set to smash their £1.43bn record… who needs to break away when we have the most super league of all?
- Premier League clubs have spent nearly £1.47billion in the transfer window
- That is already the most the English top-flight has ever spent in one summer
- A wealth of world class talent has made its way to the Premier League this year
- Chelsea and Arsenal have both already spent over £100million this summer
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So much for Covid-19 and the caution it engendered checking the financial abandon of Premier League clubs. The only thing that is contagious this summer is the spending bug.
When Wolves complete the £38million club-record signing of Portugal midfielder Matheus Nunes this week, it will take the division’s total outlay past £1.4billion.
To give that figure some context, it beats the combined spend of La Liga (£371million), the Bundesliga (£424m) and Serie A (£559m).
England’s Raheem Sterling swapped Manchester for London, joining Chelsea for £55million
Central defender Lisandro Martinez joined Manchester United from Ajax for £56.7million
There are still two weeks of the window to run, meaning a new Premier League record in excess of the £1.43bn of 2017 will be set.
The pandemic, followed by a global recession, was supposed to have a deflationary effect on the transfer market. Not so, at least not within these shores.
A fee north of £30m no longer weighs heavy on a player’s shoulders like it once did, simply because there are so many signings to share the load. Nunes will become the 17th in that bracket since June, taking Wolves beyond £100m on new arrivals in the process.
The Premier League has spent more than LaLiga, the Bundesliga, and Serie A combined
Take a look at where your club stands in the Premier League transfer rankings this season
West Ham, too, have invested more than that sum in six additions — a headline-grabbing spree not so long ago — but we’ve barely batted an eyelid.
Even newly-promoted Nottingham Forest have tipped a ton, and are still among the favourites to be relegated.
It is all a reminder of the monetary might and the monster that has become of the Premier League, three decades on from its inception.
Manchester City paid Erling Haaland’s £51million release clause to buy him early in the window
And the total spend across 22 clubs during that 1992-93 season? That would be £55.5m — slightly less than the cost of left back Marc Cucurella, who joined Chelsea from Brighton this month.
Who needs to break away when we have the most super league of all on our gold-plated doorstep? It is certainly the envy of the world.
‘In Italy, we are jealous of the Premier League — in the 1980s and 90s, that used to be Serie A!’ says Massimo Callegari, a presenter and commentator for SportMediaSet.
‘It is the NBA of European football, the most fascinating games to watch on the television and in the stadium. The intensity, the pressure, the quality of the players.
Marc Cucurella was sold by Brighton to Chelsea in a move that could be worth up to £60million
‘This is why it is the richest league in the world and clubs are able to spend so much on transfers and wages.
‘We wish it was Serie A, but you cannot argue with the success of the Premier League. Why do English clubs need the Super League when you already have the exact concept of what the Super League would be about?’
The 80s and 90s saw top players such as Paul Gascoigne, Graeme Souness and David Platt swap England for Italy. The motivation for making the same journey has changed.
‘We only get the players who aren’t good enough for the Premier League, or who have failed to prove themselves in England,’ says Callegari. ‘The two biggest signings this summer are Paul Pogba returning to Juventus and Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan.
Brazilian striker Richarlison left Everton to join Antonio Conte’s Tottenham for £60million
‘Look at Pogba, he wasn’t even first choice for one of the worst Manchester United teams in recent history.
‘Now, it is the dream for young Italian players to move to the Premier League and play against the likes of Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk.
‘The days of that happening the other way round are long gone and will never return. There is too big a gap to bridge with the value of the TV deals.
‘I do think English clubs overpay for a lot of players, but European competition tells us they are the strongest. And they only look like getting stronger.’
This summer’s spending would certainly support that notion.