Hey big spender!

Taking the raw figures directly from Transfermarkt, we can see that reports of the demise of the Premier League, at least in terms of transfers, are a little over-stated, as the €2.4 bln outlay is the second highest in history for the summer window. That said, this was €0.4 bln (15%) less than last season’s €2.8 bln record.

Although gross spend held up pretty well, the Premier League’s net spend this summer was its lowest since 2015/16 (though the January window is still to come).

Chelsea had the highest gross transfer spend for the third year in a row, i.e. ever since the Clearlake Capital crew bought the club from Roman Abramovich, with a chunky £265m.

The second highest spending club was Brighton, who used some of their gains from the last couple of years to fund a £235m outlay, while Manchester United again spent big with £219m.

Perhaps unexpectedly, the two lowest gross spends this summer were Manchester City £25m and Liverpool £43m, while the next smallest were clubs facing some PSR challenges, namely Everton £51m and Newcastle United £70m.

In terms of net spend, we find a surprising name at the top of the table, as Brighton’s £186m was easily the highest in the Premier League.

The next highest was actually Ipswich Town, whose £127m highlighted how much a promoted club has to spend if it wants to have any chance of being competitive in the Premier League, especially if it has been out of England’s top flight for many years.

The other two clubs promoted from the Championship last season were also in the top eight: Southampton £71m and Leicester City £52m.

Six clubs had net sales, especially Manchester City with a massive £143m, but also including Liverpool £17m. The other clubs who sold players for more than they spent were Everton £34m, Wolves £33m, Crystal Palace £23m and Newcastle united £7m.

The Big Six

Looking at the last two seasons, Chelsea are miles ahead of the rest of the league with £755m gross spend, which is more than £300m more than Tottenham £435m and Manchester United £430m, followed by Arsenal £357m and Brighton £349m.

The lowest of the Big Six by far were Liverpool with only £222m, though that does not seem to have prevented a storming start to the seasons, while the club on the other side of Stanley Park, Everton, were rock bottom with £93m, which really underlines the impact of all their financial issues (not just PSR, but also lack of funds).

Extending the analysis to cover three years shows that Chelsea have spent exactly £1.5 bln, which is an unprecedented amount in such a short timeframe. This was more than twice as much as any other club with the next highest being Manchester United £678m, Arsenal £608m, Tottenham £578m and Manchester City £517m.

In other words, over a longer time period the financial might of the Big Six is more clearly seen, with the only outlier being Liverpool, whose £356m was only 13th highest in the Premier League.

Brentford were renowned for making profits from player sales in the Championship, but they have switched tack in the Premier League, so they had the third lowest player sales in the last three years.

Manchester City have basically broken-even in terms of player trading, which is also the case for Brighton. In other words, the Seagulls’ spending spree this summer has been funded by big sales in the previous two years.

The 5-year period really demonstrates the differences within the Premier League. Chelsea have been in a class of their own, at least when it comes to transfer spend, with £1.8 bln, while the rest of the top five places are also filled by the traditional elite: Manchester United £945m, Arsenal £911m, Manchester City £860m and Tottenham £857m.

However, the other member of the Big Six, Liverpool, are back in ninth place with £560m, having been outspent by Aston Villa £668m, West Ham £600m and Newcastle United £574m.

Aside from the large amounts spent by the Big Six, net spend in the last five years highlights the large amount of money spent by aspirational clubs in an attempt to break through the glass ceiling.

In this way, Newcastle United have the fifth highest net spend of £438m, while West Ham and Aston Villa are also in the top eight with £293m and £278m respectively.  The only club with net sales in this period is Everton.

Championship

Two of the clubs relegated from the Premier League last season had the highest gross spend, namely Burnley £49m and Leeds United £30m, followed by Hull City and Norwich City with £24m apiece.  The same two clubs also had very high player sales, which is pretty much the norm for relegated clubs, so Leeds generated £166m and Burnley made £103m.

Four other clubs sold more than £30m, namely Hull City £43m, Sheffield United £39m, Norwich City £32m and Watford £31m. However, more than half of the division only made £5m or less from player sales.    The only two clubs with meaningful net spend this summer were Middlesbrough and Coventry City with £18m and £16m respectively.

Birmingham City in League One net spend was around twice as much as them. Fuelled by Tom Wagner’s investment, the Blues had the six highest transfers in League One this summer. In fact, they now have the three highest ever deals in England’s third tier, led by the staggering £15m paid to Fulham for young forward Jay Stansfield.

Even though the Premier League has reduced its transfer spend this summer, it still splashed out around £2.4 bln, which is not exactly small change.

This was not only more than twice as much as the next highest league, but actually more than La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A put together.