Chelsea’s £408m gross transfer spend this summer was almost twice as much as the next highest club in the Premier League, which was Tottenham with £216m. Two other clubs spent more than £200m, namely Manchester City £210m and Arsenal £204m.
In fact, half of the clubs in the Premier League had gross
spend above £100m, including Bournemouth £111m and Nottingham Forest £107m.
Some of the smallest outlays were at two of the promoted clubs (Luton Town £20m
and Sheffield United £56m), while Everton and Crystal Palace also spent a
relatively low amount with £35m and £34m respectively.
Chelsea also led the way in terms of player sales with
£232m, followed by Brighton £165m, Wolves £149m, Manchester City £139m and West
Ham £136m.
In contrast, five Premier League clubs made less than £10m
from player sales: Brentford £9m, Burnley £3m, Bournemouth £1m, Crystal Palace
£1m and Luton Town, who sold nobody for money (according to Transfermarkt).
The big spenders
Chelsea also had the highest net spend with £175m, followed
by Arsenal £145m, Manchester United £130m and Tottenham £110m. Surprisingly,
the next highest club was Bournemouth £110m, with the South coast club even
ahead of Liverpool £97m and Newcastle United £94m. Newly promoted Burnley also
splashed out nearly £100m.
Four Premier League clubs ended up with net sales.
Acknowledged masters of the transfer market, Brighton and Hove Albion,
generated £77m, followed by Wolves £67m, Everton £37m and West Ham £16m.
The Premier League’s financial dominance was amply
demonstrated in this summer’s transfer window, as their £2.4 bln gross spend
was around the same as the other four members of the traditional “Big Five”
leagues combined (La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1).
The Saudi Arabia Pro League has overtaken all the other
leagues with £834m, though this was still only a third of the Premier League.
As evidence of the Premier League’s spending power,
Burnley’s £93m net spend was higher than any of the clubs in Germany and Italy,
and more than all but one club in both France (PSG) and Spain (Real Madrid).
Chelsea’s gross spend of £1.4 bn in the last five years
(including the summer 2023 transfer window) was by far the highest in the
Premier League, over half a billion more than Manchester City £865m, closely
followed by Arsenal £856m and Manchester United £842m.
Liverpool fans will note that their £503m gross spend was
only ninth highest in the top flight, lower than Tottenham £777m, Aston Villa
£629m, Newcastle United £561m and West Ham £508m.
The lowest spend obviously came from clubs that played in
the Championship and League One for most (or all) of this period, i.e. Luton
Town £29m and Sheffield United £173m.
Player sales
Two clubs have done much better than the rest with player sales
in the last five years, namely Chelsea £647m and Manchester City £572m,
followed by Brighton £373m, Everton £357m and Wolves £313m. The rest of the Big
Six have not been great at making money from player sales, especially
Manchester United, whose £199m was less than a third of Chelsea.
Only two clubs in the Premier League generated net sales:
Brighton £80m and Everton £4m. The Seagulls’ result was particularly
impressive, given that selling many of their leading players does not seem to
have harmed their performances on the pitch.
Five of the top 20 Premier League player purchases were made
by Chelsea, followed by Manchester City and Manchester United with three
apiece.
If we look at the size of the largest player purchase for
each club, we can see the difference in budgets. Five of the Big Six spent more
than £50m on their marquee signing (with Tottenham not far behind at £48m),
while aspirational clubs like Newcastle United (Tonali £56m) and Aston Villa
(Moussa Diaby £48m) also made a sizeable splash.
Shopping at Lidl
rather than Harrods
In stark contrast, four clubs paid less than £20m for their
main signing, including all three of the clubs promoted last season: Sheffield
United £19m, Burnley £16m and Luton Town just £5m. The other one was the
ever-cautious Crystal Palace £17m.
Even in a division as wealthy as the Premier League, the
harsh reality is that some clubs shop at Harrods, while others have to make do
with Lidl or Aldi.
The Saudi Pro League has become a threat to a certain
extent, but it has also funded clubs’ expenditure and helped some to balance
their books. Put bluntly, it is
questionable whether clubs could have secured such good deals with any other
league, e.g. would Wolves have got £48m anywhere else for Ruben Neves? Or
Fulham £46m for Mitrovic? Or Liverpool £41m for a 30-year-old Fabinho?
For a long time, clubs in the Big Six were unwilling to sell
to each other, as they did not want to strengthen a rival, but that appears to
have changed. This summer, £187m changed hands in such deals with Chelsea being
the most active, selling Havertz to Arsenal, Mount to Manchester United and
Kovacic to Manchester City, while buying Cole Palmer from City. If we throw
Champions League qualifiers Newcastle United into the mix, we could also
include Lewis Hall’s move from Chelsea.
The relegated clubs
The three relegated clubs this season sold a hefty £278m of
players, which was 60% of the total of £461m for the entire Championship.
Southampton led the way with £158m, followed by Leicester City £93m and Leeds
United with a relatively low £28m.
Southampton offloaded Lavia, Tino Livramento, James
Ward-Prowse, Nathan Tella and Mohammed Salisu, generating more from player
sales this summer than all of the Premier League clubs with the exception of
Chelsea and Brighton.
Leicester City sold their best two players, as James
Maddison went to Tottenham, while Harvey Barnes moved to Newcastle United, but
the only meaningful sale made by Leeds United was Tyler Adams to Bournemouth.
Making money from the
Academy
Chelsea have made nearly £200m from the sale of academy
products in the last three years alone, including £73m this summer (Mason Mount
£56m, Ruben Loftus-Cheek to Milan £14m and Callum Hudson-Odoi to Nottingham
Forest with a surprisingly low £3m).
Less well-known is how much Manchester City have quietly
accrued from their academy, but this has in fact amounted to £130m in the last
three years, which is particularly impressive given that the 16 players that
they sold had a grand total of just three City first team appearances between
them.
This included £39m in 2023, featuring James Trafford to
Burnley £15m, Carlos Borges to Ajax £12m, Shea Charles to Southampton £11m and
Adedire Mebude to KVC Westerlo £2m.
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