Premier League clubs have splashed out more than ever before in a transfer window as spending this summer surpassed £3bn.
A total of £2.73bn had been spent by 31 August, but big-money deadline day deals – headlined by Alexander Isak’s move from Newcastle to Liverpool for a British record £125m – pushed the total to £3.087bn.
The spending was significantly more than last summer, when the outlay by top-flight teams was £1.96bn.
The total this year is more than was spent by Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A clubs combined.
What were the major deadline day deals?
Deadline day was quiet for the most part, with the major deals not announced until after the window shut at 19:00 BST, although moves could still be completed two hours after that if deal sheets were submitted in time.
Isak’s move was confirmed at 21:30 BST, although an expected move for England defender Marc Guehi failed to happen in the end as Crystal Palace would not sanction the transfer as they faced difficulties in bringing in a replacement for their captain.
Following confirmation of Swedish striker Isak’s departure, Newcastle then announced the £55m arrival of Yoane Wissa from Brentford.
Other notable deals included Fulham completing a club-record £34.6m deal to sign Shakhtar Donetsk’s Brazilian winger Kevin.
Manchester United brought in Belgian goalkeeper Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp for an initial £18.1m, while Red Devils forward Jadon Sancho completed a season-long loan move to Aston Villa, who also signed Liverpool midfielder Harvey Elliott on loan with a buy option.
Tottenham Hotspur took Paris St-Germain striker Randal Kolo Muani on a season-long loan deal, while Arsenal brought in defender Piero Hincapie from Bayer Leverkusen on loan.
Newly promoted Sunderland continued their summer of spending as they brought in Ajax forwards Brian Brobbey and Bertrand Traore, as well as RB Leipzig defender Lutsharel Geertruida on a season-long loan.
Check out all the done deals here.
Having barely dipped their toes in the transfer market in Arne Slot’s first summer in charge last year, Liverpool have gone in the completely opposite direction this time.
The swoop for Isak took their summer spending to £415m – setting a new record for the amount spent by a single club in a single window.
The previous record was set by Chelsea in the summer of 2023 (£400m).
Not only is this more than any other European club, but almost as much as the total spent in other European leagues.
“A humongous flex by Liverpool,” former Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart said on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club.
“The moves and the money they have spent is phenomenal and they have brought in some brilliant players.”
Chelsea and Arsenal also made major moves as they looked to bolster their squad to help challenge more closely for the title, spending £285m and £255m respectively.
But the Blues were good at selling players too, as £288m of sales made for a net profit of £3m, whereas Arsenal were the opposite and managed just £9m in sales for a net spend of £246m.
While Isak’s move was one between Premier League clubs, many of the major deals this summer have involved signings from Europe.
Liverpool, for example, brought in Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen for £116m, Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt for £79m, full-back Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen for £29.5m, keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili from Valencia for £29m and Giovanni Leoni from Parma for £26m.
In other headline deals, Arsenal spent a combined £114.5m on bringing in striker Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting and midfielder Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad, while Manchester United signed striker Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig for £73.7m.
Premier League clubs buying players from the European leagues will have contributed to the Bundesliga, La Liga and Ligue 1 finishing the window with a net profit of more than £400m between them.
“We are reaching a situation where the Premier League spending is so far ahead of the others and is so essential to the transfer market ecosystem, that the remaining ‘big five’ competitions are becoming feeder leagues,” said Paul MacDonald of FootballTransfers.com.
“La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 all spent this summer, but it was money they had already generated from sales.
“Put simply there is the ‘Big One’ – the Premier League is such a behemoth it should no longer really be categorised with the other leagues in Europe.”
Promoted clubs pay out to boost survival fight
For the past two seasons, all three teams who have come up from the Championship have immediately gone back down.
So with the challenge to stay in the Premier League getting harder, all three newly promoted clubs have taken action to change that outcome.
Sunderland, back in the top flight after an eight-year absence, have spent more than half of the other Premier League clubs.
Their total of £162m was the eighth-most, even surpassing Manchester City’s spend of £152m – although Pep Guardiola’s side had yet to confirm a proposed deal for Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma on Monday night.
“In the last couple of years the promoted clubs have gone straight back down,” said former Premier League striker Chris Sutton.
“I’m astonished by Sunderland’s spending, but they have given themselves an opportunity of staying up.”
Both Burnley and Leeds have also spent around £100m in the window to try to ensure they are best equipped for survival – that’s more than Aston Villa, Brentford, Crystal Palace and Fulham.
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