Top league clubs spent 4.5 billion euros on signings this summer

During the summer transfer window, English Premier League teams spent the most on new players. In contrast, the Bundesliga once again demonstrated its traditionally more conservative approach.

Harsh and unexpected economic consequences of the pandemic — something clubs in many sports will be recovering from for a long time. But that statement doesn’t seem to apply to the five strongest football leagues in the world.

Collectively, all 98 clubs from the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, and French Ligue 1 spent a staggering 4.5 billion euros during the summer transfer window. That’s according to the latest study by the consulting firm Deloitte. These figures clearly show that professional football clubs — at least in the world’s most developed leagues — were not significantly weakened economically by the coronavirus pandemic.

To put things into perspective, the three most expensive players who joined the Premier League this summer cost a combined 250.4 million euros. The Premier League also dominated all competitions in terms of transfer spending, reaching 2.2 billion euros. With performance-related bonuses, that total could eventually rise to 2.6 billion.

“The environment in the Premier League is stable and economically robust. Moreover, many clubs didn’t want to wait for the start of the new season  and needed to bring in quality players. And quality usually comes at a higher price. Overall, the Premier League has once again demonstrated its economic power,” said sports analyst Jozef Tokos for the Economic Daily.

The title of most expensive summer signing went to Brazilian winger Antony, for whom Manchester United paid Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam a hefty 95 million euros.

In addition to traditional English giants like Manchester United and Chelsea, even second- or third-tier teams dug deep into their club coffers. For example, newly promoted Nottingham Forest invested nearly 162 million euros to strengthen its squad, and East London’s West Ham United spent 182 million euros on new acquisitions. This is one of the reasons the gloomy outlook from two years ago hasn’t materialized.

“The fact that transfer spending has returned to pre-crisis levels is undoubtedly good news for football,” Tokos added.

Other top leagues also didn’t hold back this summer, but none came close to the Premier League. The remaining four elite competitions spent a combined total of 2.3 billion euros — nearly the same amount that the English top flight spent on its own.

At the bottom of the summer spending rankings was Germany’s Bundesliga, which comes as no surprise. German clubs and their managements are known for a more cautious and conservative approach. Bundesliga teams spent “only” 484 million euros on new players this summer.

Another distinct category consists of clubs that focus on developing young talent and then selling their gems to wealthier leagues like the Premier League or La Liga. Over the long term, French clubs such as Lille, Lyon, and Monaco have produced the best results in this model, earning hundreds of millions of euros from player sales over the last decade. Lille alone has earned 379 million euros, and Lyon 282 million.

“With figures like these, it might be worth considering whether to take a risk and use those funds to aim for sporting success — that is, to invest in signing top players,” Tokos concluded. (...)