Premier League clubs spent £215m to buy new players in the January
INVESTIGATION has revealed that 20 Premier League clubs spent a total sum of £215 million to buy new players in the January window, recording a net transfer profit of £40 million compared with a net spend of £100 million last year.
According to BBC Report, Premier League teams spent a record £1.38 billion on transfers in the 2016-17 season, after a summer outlay of £1.165 billion.
Spending in January 2017 is the second highest behind the record mark of £225 milllion six years ago and dwarfs the £35 million spent in the first January transfer window in 2003.
Everton were the Premier League club to spend the most on a single player, paying Manchester United £22 million for France midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin.
The bottom six clubs accounted for half of total expenditure, with sides in the bottom half of the table spending £145 million (67 per cent of total expenditure).
Deadline-day spending by top-flight clubs totalled £60 million, up £20 million on last year, and the second-highest ever after £135 million in 2011.
Championship sides spent a total of £80 million, a big increase on last year’s total of £35 million and a new record for a January transfer window for the division. The £40 milllion spent on deadline day was the same amount spent by Premier League clubs on deadline day in January 2016.
The Premier League was once again the highest-spending league in European football. The next highest was France’s Ligue 1, with total transfer expenditure of about £130 milllion.
The sales of Oscar, Dimitri Payet, Odion Ighalo and Memphis Depay, as well as around £20 million worth of sales to Championship clubs, have helped Premier League clubs record net receipts for the first time in a transfer window.
However, Premier League clubs recorded a transfer window profit for the first time despite spending reaching a six-year January high of £215 million.
The biggest fee was the £60 million paid to Chelsea by Chinese Super League side Shanghai SIPG for Brazil attacking midfielder Oscar.
Also departing the Premier League was Dimitri Payet with West Ham accusing the France forward of lacking “commitment and respect” as he rejoined Marseille for £25 million.
The top six sides did not shell out the only new purchase among the leading sides being Arsenal’s surprise signing of left-back Cohen Bramall from non-league Hednesford Town for £40,000.