Tim Bridge of the Deloitte Sports Business Group says the revenue generated by clubs in the 2022/2023 season transfer window is very encouraging coming from the heavy impact of global covid -19 pandemic.
One of the clubs rated to have spent most during the latest transfer windows is Chelsea and it’s owner who also assumed the role of interim sporting director Todd Boehly has made the most of his first transfer window at Chelsea splashing out a Premier League-high £258.5million on seven players.
In the record revenue of the transfer window the combined revenues of clubs dropped during Covid, from £5.2bn in 2018-19 seasons to £4.5bn in 2019-20 season signaling the English premier league's first year-on-year fall.
Accounting giant Deloitte, estimates revenues will hit a record £6bn this year, surpassing pre-pandemic levels due to the new foreign investments in broadcast deals and the sales of club merchandise to global fans.
While the deliberate move by traditional top four teams like Arsenal, tottenham, Leeds united to bolster their squads ahead of the new season with mid level teams also splashing the cash to compete with the so called big teams in the league in the battle for the top four also increased spending.
Teams like Brighton and Ajax from the Dutch league also got into the act by playing the devil’s advocate setting up a bidding war between Manchester City and Chelsea, then Manchester United and Arsenal on the other end, in order to generate massive funds for their respective players and in turn raise double funds to buy their replacements with big profit margins afterwards.
Chelsea Marc Cucurella and waited until they got their £55m asking price before selling their left back. Leicester extracted £69.5m from the Blues for Wesley Fofana.
Reports show that clubs that sold their players made huge profits in the just concluded transfer window as clubs who have managed to survive the huge Covid -19 negative impact were also not in a hurry to accept first offers thereby been able to maximize the value of their players.
Transfer fees were inflated across leagues in Europe even in the previously conservative Dutch league, with Ajax leading the race.
In the EPL, teams with new owners like Newcastle and mid table teams like West Ham ,Wolves and Leeds United all broke their transfer records and 10 players were signed for fees between the £40m to $ 50m marks and beyond regardless of the age and contract durations of the players.
Several reasons have been alluded for the huge fees from the desperation to make the top four to the quest for a place in the lucrative Champions League and also the recent inflow of big money bags from the middle east buying up big traditional teams.
Despite the fair play mechanism put in place by uefa, it seems some big teams across Europe have their ways to falling foul without being punished like the cases of psg and man city to mention a few leading to the La- Liga president tebas recently calling on uefa to probe psg’s new deal for kylian mbappe.
According to reports the premier League are considering a cap on spending on transfers and wages for the first time as UEFA are also considering replacing Financial Fair Play with a new rule limiting clubs to spending 70 per cent of their revenue in a calendar year and England's top flight could bring in a similar system.
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag admitted after signing Antony from Ajax for £85.5m that United had no choice but to adapt to the current transfer market surging fees.
Pundits, football economists and fans alike expect to see another spending record next summer, especially with the Premier League set to have a fifth place in the Champions League from 2024 and UEFA haven signed new broadcast deals that ensures more money in the Champions League in a stern bid to kill off the threat of the Super League.
Chelsea is premier league's biggest ever spenders in a single transfer window, splashing out an eye-watering £271.1million over the summer.
Chelsea also broke Manchester City's record for most money invested in a single window, which they set at £223.65m in 2017.
They brought in eleven players as follows
Wesley Fofana £69.5m from Leicester city
Denis Zakaria (loan) from Juventus
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10m) from Barcelona
Marc Cucurella (£62m) from Brighton
Raheem Sterling (£50m) from Manchester city
Kalidou Koulibaly (£34m) from Napoli
Gabriel Sloninia (£13m) from chicago fire
Carney Chukwuemeka(£20m) from Aston Villa
Cesare Casadei (£12.6m) from Inter Milan
Eddie Beach- loan from Southampton-undisclosed
Omari Hutchinson from Arsenal-undisclosed
TRANSFER ROLLCALL OF EPL EXPENDICTURE BY CLUBS
Chelsea: £258.5m (this summer spend)
Manchester United: £214m (this summer spend)
West Ham: £170.5m (this summer spend)
Tottenham: £155m (this summer spend)
Nottingham Forest: £150.9m (this summer spend)
Manchester City: £124.5m (this summer spend)
Wovles: £122.5m (this summer spend)
Newcastle: £122m (this summer spend)
Arsenal: £115.7m (this summer spend)
Liverpool: £99.2m (this summer spend)
Leeds: £89.8m (this summer spend)
Everton: £86m (this summer spend)
Southampton: £73m (this summer spend)
Fulham: £60.6m (this summer spend)
Aston Villa: £58.8m (this summer spend)
Brentford: £45.8m (this summer spend)
Brighton: £32.5m (this summer spend)
Crystal Palace: £30.8m (this summer spend)
Bournemouth: £24.6m (this summer spend)
Leicester: £15.3m (this summer spend)
The combined spending spree of the 20 Premier League clubs during the window is 67 per cent higher than the previous summer's total of £1.1bn thus spending more than the LaLiga, Serie A and Bundesliga this summer.
