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English football flaunts financial power

Published:Friday | September 2, 2022 | 12:13 AM
Sporting’s Ricardo Esgaio (left) and Ajax’s Antony jump for the ball during a Champions League Group C match between Ajax and Sporting CP, at the at the Johan Cruyff ArenA in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on December 7, 2021.
AP
Sporting’s Ricardo Esgaio (left) and Ajax’s Antony jump for the ball during a Champions League Group C match between Ajax and Sporting CP, at the at the Johan Cruyff ArenA in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on December 7, 2021.

LONDON, England (AP):

A record spending spree by English Premier League clubs in the summer transfer market passed the US$2.2 billion mark before the window closed last night with Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and – belatedly – Chelsea all signing players to conclude the reshaping of their squads.

The headline transfer on a typically frantic final day of trading was the arrival of Brazil winger Antony at United from Ajax for US$95 million, making him the fourth expensive player in English Premier League history and football’s most expensive deadline-day signing.

That took United’s total spend in this wildest of transfer windows to about $240 million – a figure only topped in the whole of Europe by Chelsea, which finally signed an out-and-out striker in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Barcelona. In the club’s first transfer window in the post-Roman Abramovich era, Chelsea spent a staggering $280 million.

Man City’s signing of Switzerland centre back Manuel Akanji for US$17.5 million felt low-key by comparison, while Liverpool’s only move – the loan signing of Brazil international Arthur Melo from Juventus – was still significant as it strengthened the team’s injury-hit midfield.

Fuelled by income from huge global broadcasting deals worth about 10 billion pounds (US$11.8 billion) over three seasons, Premier League clubs have reverted to pre-pandemic levels of spending to leave the rest of Europe in its wake.

England’s top-flight clubs spent about the same on players as those in the top leagues in Spain (US$500 million), Italy (US$750 million), Germany (US$485 million) and France (US$540 million) combined, according to calculations by the Transfermarkt website.

The net spend of the Premier League teams was US$1.35 billion, compared to Italy (US$8 million) and Spain (US$64 million). In France and Germany, the leagues actually made a profit according to Transfermarkt.

Summing up the outrageous splurge by English clubs was the business conducted by Nottingham Forest since securing a return to the Premier League for the first time since 1999.

Forest signed three players on deadline day to take their total number of incomings across the window to a remarkable 21, at a cost of US$160 million.