01 February 2014

DELOITTE: Premier League Transfer Spending Hits New Record


Premier League spending this season has set a new record, despite a relatively quiet transfer deadline day.
Since the summer window opened on 1 July, English top-flight clubs have spent £760m, breaking the record of 2008-09 by £90m.

Accountants Deloitte confirmed the 20 top-flight teams collectively shelled out about £130m in January, compared to £120m for the same month last year. It is the fourth highest of the 13 mid-season transfer windows to date. The record is 2011's total of £225m. Deadline day spending was about £35m, a similar amount to last year. The biggest moves were Chelsea's £12m signing of defender Kurt Zouma, who was immediately loaned back to St Etienne, and Fulham's £11m recruitment of Olympiakos striker Konstantinos Mitroglou.


The biggest signing in Scotland was Leigh Griffiths's move to Celtic from Wolves for an undisclosed fee.
The largest moves happened earlier in January, with Juan Mata joining Manchester United from Chelsea for a club-record £37.1m and Chelsea buying Nemanja Matic from Benfica for £21m.

Deadline day was largely dominated by struggling Premier League teams and big-money deals that never materialised.

Fulham went big and spent £11m on Greek striker Mitroglou. They also signed Tottenham midfielder Lewis Holtby on loan, Everton defender John Heitinga on a free transfer and Manchester United youngsters Ryan Tunnicliffe and Larnell Cole for undisclosed fees.

Crystal Palace also signed five players. Blackpool winger Tom Ince joined on loan, Wolves keeper Wayne Hennessey came in for £3m and they paid undisclosed fees for Celtic midfielder Joe Ledley, Southampton midfielder Jason Puncheon and Blackburn defender Scott Dann.

Yevhen Konoplyank would have been the biggest deadline day move had he joined Liverpool
West Ham signed Napoli defender Pablo Armero on loan until the end of the season, while Sunderland spent £3m on Brighton midfielder Liam Bridcutt, their fifth transfer of January.

Cardiff City confirmed the recruitment of Manchester United winger Wilfried Zaha on loan, their sixth transfer of the window.

It was a day of expected big-money moves which never came to fruition. Liverpool had been expected to sign Ukraine forward Yevhen Konoplyanka in a £15m deal that fell through late on when the Dnipro owner did not sign the paperwork.

Manchester City were interested in FC Porto pair Eliaquim Mangala and Fernando but decided they were not willing to pay in excess of £40m for the duo.
Arguably the most high-profile transfer was midfielder Kim Kallstrom, who joined Arsenal on loan from Spartak Moscow.

Meanwhile, some big names left England's top flight. Fulham forward Dimitar Berbatov went to Monaco on loan and Southampton's record signing Dani Osvaldo, currently suspended by his club for fighting a team-mate in training, went on loan to Italian table toppers Juventus. A few days earlier, Paris St-Germain paid £19m for Newcastle midfielder Yohan Cabaye.
The mid-season transfer window is usually bigger in England than on the continent and again that showed this year.

Brazil midfielder Hernanes went from Lazio to Inter Milan for a reported £16.5m, but he was the only big-money switch across the continent on deadline day.
The second-highest spending division in Europe over the month was France's Ligue 1, although they only spent about £52m, 40% that of the Premier League.

Teams in Italy's Serie A spent about £39m (30%) and Germany's Bundesliga, which provided last season's two Champions League finalists, £26m (20%), while Spain's clubs spent even less.

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