A record spending spree by Premier League clubs in the summer transfer market topped the $2.2 billion mark before the window closed on Thursday with Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and – belatedly – Chelsea, all signing players to wrap up their squad overhauls.
The headline on a typically frantic final day of trading was the arrival of Brazilian winger Antony at United from Ajax for $95million, making him the fourth most expensive player in the club. Premier League history and football’s most expensive signing.
This brought United’s total spending in this craziest transfer window to around $240 million – a figure surpassed across Europe by Chelsea, who eventually signed a standout striker in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Barcelona. During the club’s first transfer window in the post-Roman Abramovich era, Chelsea spent $280 million.
Man City’s signing of Swiss centre-back Manuel Akanji for $17.5m looked low-key by comparison, while Liverpool’s only move – signing Brazilian international Arthur Melo on loan from Juventus – was still significant as she strengthened the team’s injured midfielder.
Fueled by revenue from huge global broadcast deals worth around £10bn ($11.8bn) over three seasons, Premier League clubs have returned to pre-pandemic spending levels – and more – to leave the rest of Europe in its wake.
English top-flight clubs spent roughly the same price on players as those in the top leagues of Spain ($500m), Italy ($750m), Germany ($485m) and France (540 million USD) combined, according to calculations by the Transfermarkt site.
Net spending by Premier League teams was $1.35 billion, compared to Italy ($8 million) and Spain ($64 million). In France and Germany, the leagues actually made a profit according to Transfermarkt.
Summarizing the outrageous follies of English clubs was Nottingham Forest’s business since securing a return to the Premier League for the first time since 1999.
Forest signed three players on deadline day to take their total entries through the window to a remarkable 21, at a cost of $160 million. RONALDO REMAINS The future of Cristiano Ronaldo has been a hot topic since the end of last season – the Portuguese star pushed to leave Man United because the team is not in the Champions League – but the five-time world year will stay at Old Trafford, at least until January anyway.
Ronaldo came on as a second-half substitute for United in their 1-0 Premier League win over Leicester on Thursday and manager Erik ten Hag repeated after the game that he was counting on the 37-year-old striker this season.
Antony’s arrival, however, adds further competition in attacking points, with Ronaldo having started just one of United’s five Premier League games.
United’s rebuild under Ten Hag ended with the signing of Slovakia goalkeeper Martin Dubravka on a season-long loan from Newcastle, replacing David De Gea.
BUSY FULHAM Fulham had a busy end to the game, bringing in three forwards and a defender on deadline day.
Former Brazil winger Willian is back in the Premier League after previous spells at Arsenal and Chelsea, while former Man United winger Daniel James has arrived on loan from Leeds.
Brazilian striker Carlos Vinicius has joined Benfica, while Fulham have brought in left-back Layvin Kurzawa on loan from Paris Saint-Germain.
PSG have further reduced their squad by selling Senegal midfielder Idrissa Gueye to former club Everton, who have also signed young striker James Garner from Man United.
A Southampton deadline spree has also resulted in four transfers – including Croatian defender Duje Caleta-Car, who left Champions League qualifiers Marseille for a side that will do well to finish in the first half of the Premier League. League.
Aston Villa have signed Belgian midfielder Leander Dendoncker from Wolverhampton.
SOLITAIRE SIGNATURE Leicester chose the last day of the window to make their first and only outside signing of the summer, Wout Faes from French club Reims. Faes filled the vacancy left by Wesley Fofana, who joined Chelsea on Wednesday for 75 million pounds ($87 million).
Leicester’s stingy approach this summer has made the club an outlier in the Premier League and manager Brendan Rodgers grumbled after Thursday’s loss to United – which left his side in last place and without a win – about the failure of the club to strengthen the team. in the summer transfer.
“With the greatest respect,” Rodgers said, “we didn’t get the help in the market that this team needed.” windows – previously amounted to 1.86 billion pounds (2.18 billion USD) in 2017-2018.
This figure was exceeded in this transfer window alone.
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