Premier League sets record for richest transfer window ever worth £870m

This 2015 Premier League summer transfer has set a new record for most expensive transfer window ever in the history of English football with overall money spent reaching £870m. This is 4% greater than the record set last year.

CLUBS WHICH SPENT THE MOST ARE:

Manchester City broke their club record twice this summer to bring De Bruyne and Sterling to Etihad Stadium as they became England's highest gross spenders in a single window.

Their total spend of approximately £160m beat the near £150m outlay of Manchester United in summer 2014, including deals for Fabian Delph, Patrick Roberts and Nicolas Otamendi.

Alex Thorpe from the Sports Business Group at Deloitte told the BBC:

"Total spending in 2015, across both the January and summer windows, is also a new record, reaching the £1 billion mark for the first time.

"With all 20 of the Premier League clubs now ranked in the top 40 globally by revenue, we have seen clubs across the league compete successfully in the market for international talent. Premier League clubs' gross spending on players from overseas clubs this summer totaled more than half a billion pounds."

TOP 5 BIG MONEY TRANSFERS:

1. Kevin De Bruyne from Wolfsburg to Manchester City for £55m.
   
   
2. Raheem Sterling from Liverpool to Manchester City for £49m.
   
   
3. Anthony Martial form AS Monaco to Manchester United for £36m.
   
   
4. Christian Benteke form Aston Villa to Liverpool for £32.5m.
   
   
5. Nicolás Otamendi form Valencia to Manchester City for £32m.

COMPARISON WITH EUROPE'S TOP LEAGUES:

Undoubtedly, Premier League ranks first among highest spending league followed by Italy's Serie A, with a gross spend of £405m, followed by Spain's La Liga (£400m), the German Bundesliga (£290m) and Ligue 1 in France (£220m).

MAJOR SOURCE FOR THIS RECORD BREAKING TRANSFER WINDOW:

The Premier League is currently positioned as the world's richest domestic football competition as a result of TV broadcasting rights deal which was increased from £3.018bn for a record-breaking 5.14 billion pounds ($7.9 billion) for three seasons.

The three-year deal with Sky Sports and BT Sports from 2016 to 2019 means that all of England's top clubs will be richer than ever before, with each televised match worth more than 10 million pounds ($15.3 million).

All 20 Premier League clubs already rank among the 40 richest in the world and this new broadcasting deal is 70 percent higher than the three billion pounds ($4.6 billion) that was raised from the sale of the existing deal, which finishes at the end of next season.

Quite simply, bigger bank balances mean that clubs will be able to sign top players on bigger salaries and also invest in other areas, such as expanding grounds or build new ones. They have also promised to spend more on youth development and a range of other community and fan initiatives.

The bottom club will pocket £99m per season with the champions earning more than £150m in prize money, even before extra money is paid for featuring in a TV match. 

 

Alex Thorpe said:

"Looking across Europe, Premier League clubs' gross and net spending this summer is more than double that of any other European league. The driving force behind this is the growth and distribution mechanism of the league's broadcast rights.

"Earlier this year we reported the remarkable rebalancing of revenues and costs, such that Premier League clubs collectively generated pre-tax profitability for the first time since 1999, with clubs set to enjoy a further revenue boost when the next broadcast deals start in 2016.

"Therefore, despite a new record level of player transfer spending this year, collectively Premier League clubs have a chance to invest in playing talent whilst remaining profitable in a way that was previously not the case.''