Spending by English Premier League clubs in the January transfer window remained stable in 2015 but summer activity helped the league to a new yearly high, according to analysis by the Sports Business Group at Deloitte.
Teams in England’s top flight spent £130m (€163.4m/$203) on new recruits last month, matching the combined amount for January 2014.
Even though this number falls significantly short of the January window record of £225m set in 2011, the increased revenues and close-season spending power granted to clubs by the latest cycle of television rights deals helped the Premier League to set a new 12-month high of £965m spent for the 2014-15 season – surpassing last term’s previous record of £760m.
Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: “Given the record level of spending seen in the summer, it is not entirely surprising that we haven’t seen a new record for the January window. However, with all Premier League clubs recording record revenues, we might have expected one or two more major deals in this window.
“Despite the relative restraint we have seen in the January window, 2014-15 is still a record season for Premier League spending. Last season saw Premier League spending surpass the £700m threshold for the first time, and the revenue growth at Premier League clubs is such that they have been able to record a combined transfer spend this season of over £950m.”
Spending on Monday’s deadline day was up by £10m to £45m from 2014, with champions Manchester City, leaders Chelsea and Arsenal accounting for around 50 per cent of the Premier League’s total spend. Acquisition of new players from overseas clubs accounted for £65m of gross transfer spending, with £55m the total for deals between fellow Premier League teams – the reminding £10m paid for players from the English Football League.
Chelsea’s signing of Juan Cuadrado from Italian Serie A club Fiorentina for £23.3m was the biggest deadline day move, while Manchester City spent £28m to sign Wilfried Bony (pictured) from fellow Premier League team Swansea City earlier in the window.
Serie A produced the second highest spending at around 50 per cent of the Premier League’s levels, while spending in the German Bundesliga and Spanish Liga was at 40 per cent of the English top flight’s outlay.
