Teams in the U.K.’s Premier League spent £1.2 billion ($1.53 billion) buying players in the first shortened summer transfer window, according to analysis by Deloitte’s Sports Business Group.
Tim Bridge, director of Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, said: “Premier League clubs’ gross player transfer expenditure of £1.2 billion continues to demonstrate the sheer purchasing power of the most commercially successful football league in the world. With Premier League clubs’ aggregate revenues forecast to reach £5 billion in 2018/19, clubs can well-afford to significantly invest in on-pitch talent in the quest for both success and survival.”
Premier League clubs’ net player transfer expenditure to August 9 was £865 million, well in excess of the £665 million for the summer 2017 transfer window. Of the players transferred-in, just £175 million (14 percent) were intra-Premier League transfers, a record low proportion across the history of the summer transfer window.
Tottenham Hotspur was the only club not to do any business at all during this summer, the first time since the transfer window was introduced in 2003 that a Premier League team hasn’t had any incomings.
The north London club will again be competing in the UEFA Champions League, as well as moving into its newly-built stadium next month, but manager Mauricio Pochettino has insisted he’s content with the situation. Instead, the Argentine has praised the work of the Tottenham hierarchy in securing some of the club’s key assets on long-term contracts, including World Cup Golden Boot winner Harry Kane.
However, he has called the decision not to sign players as “brave” and pointed to factors surrounding Brexit for a lack of transfers. Commenting close to the end of the window, he equated the weakness of the pound against the euro to an additional 30 percent increase on player fees from the continent.
Premier League clubs may now no longer be able to purchase players until January, but they will be wary about losing some. Many of Europe’s other top leagues haven’t followed the same model and can still buy players up until the end of August.
Source:CNBC
