Another summer gone, another record broken. The rest of Europe will once more have gazed with envious eyes (or scarcely contained fury) as Premier League clubs indulged in another year of lavish spending. It had seemed at one point that last year’s figure of £3.1billion gross spending during the summer transfer window, which obliterated the previous record of £2.4billion, would not be reached. But as the end of the transfer window neared, clubs embarked on a spree that to some looked more akin to panic buying, perhaps for fear of being left behind by their rivals. Even before Manchester City had set a joint British transfer record by signing Enzo Fernández from Chelsea for £125million, the summer 2025 figure had been passed but once that move was confirmed, a new £3.3billion mark of gross spending had been set. There are some significant differences compared with last summer, however. Chelsea are once again among the biggest spenders with £349million splashed out, but they are ac...
The Swiss Ramble provides a forensic analysis of Championship finances. The figures relate to 2024/5 and accounts for four clubs are not available. One club (Wycombe Wanderers) published abbreviated accounts. Sheffield Wednesday was in administration. It should be noted that overall Championship figures are very susceptible to the mix of clubs in any one season, i.e., ‘big’ versus ‘small’ clubs. Spending by one club can have a distorting impact on some metrics, e.g., Sunderland spending on transfers. The underlying finances remain as crazy as ever as clubs compete to reach the promised land of the Premier League. In effect what we have is a Premier League Division 2. Anyway, here are some highlights from the Swiss Ramble. Much more is available on his Substack page. The 23 clubs (i.e. excluding Sheffield Wednesday) generated £907m of revenue and £22m other operating income, but then paid out £1.6 bn in operating exp...