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EPL summer transfers smash spending record

AngelDiMariaRealMadrid1-Levante2014 (Getty)

By CARL SETTERLUND

Although all the official numbers aren’t in, British financial analysts Deloitte think they’ve got a handle on roughly how much money exchanged hands this summer — and it’s quite a lot.

Deloitte estimates that English Premier League clubs spent a total of £835 million, or roughly $1.4 billion, smashing last year’s record EPL transfer window total of £630 million, which was the first time total spending eclipsed one billion U.S. dollars.

Unsurprisingly, Manchester United broke the spending record for a single club, racking up a tab believed to be in the range of £150 million. Headlining that group is, of course, British record signing Angel di Maria, who joined Louis van Gaal’s revamped side for $98 million.

Although having the World Cup as a showcase probably helped increase the cost of several transfers, much of the increased spending Deloitte attributed to television money, which allowed clubs outside of the tradition power concentration — Hull City, for example — to increase their spending.

More proof of that can be seen in the $500 million spent by EPL sides solely on players already playing in leagues within the United Kingdom.

Elsewhere in Europe, La Liga expenditures eclipsed $700 million, while spending in the Serie A ($430 million) and Bundesliga ($413 million) were roughly equivalent.


Surprised by how much spending increased this summer in the or was it about what you expected? What does it say that EPL spending came close to the combined total of La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga? Which clubs spent the smartest money?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Gab Marcotti wrote an excellent piece about why this is such a misleading article. You can’t just look at money out – money in is a huge factor as well. Net spend is up 0.8%. No big deal.

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  2. For all the MLS critics out there, is this really what you want? How can so many teams change so drastically in a period of a few months? It’s impossible to develop any rooting interest if your team is full of new faces each year…The big boys — United, RM, etc — literally look like they were assembled by twelve year old boys. BUT I WAN’T FALCAO!

    American sports — MLS included! — understand that providing continuity is a hugely important to its fan base. I’ve been cheering for generally the same players for nearly a decade. This was true in Euro soccer for a long time, but I honestly think this is the new norm — a brand new cast almost every season…

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    • interesting–i’ve always felt that mls has a higher rate of turnover than other leagues; wonder if anyone has numbers on that.

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    • MLS lost me at the “brilliant” way of figuring out where Jermaine Jones gets to play…and if people don’t see the absurdity and stupidity of this, I really have nothing to add…

      Donnie picked NE Revs out of the hat…Good luck with that one, Jermaine, you will need it…5,000 people at home games, playing on artificial turf…a classy “franchise”, indeed…

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    • Agree in certain regards and would say your observation about turnover at the really big clubs in Europe has likely established itself as a “sign of the times” that won’t be changing soon, not while the unholy trinity of money, impatience and fear is running the show. Just looking at United transfer window’ performance was a poster child for the “we wait until everybody knows we’re scared and then pay premiums and panic buy for tw weeks solid

      Continuity is a lesser goal for clubs in the modern soccer economy in some ways because the standards for everything have become warped beyond usefulness, or simply discarded, The life expectancy of a manager has been ground almost down to that of a kit design or a club crest that of (another) needless club crest rebrand. A player on a three year contract probably feels like a premenently tenured

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    • So many teams with a brand new cast? Neither city nor chelsea really revamped this year and they are overwhelming favorites to win the league.

      Arsenal are basically the same team as well. Liverpool spent their suarez money but most of their key personnel hasn’t changed.

      Of course united underwent a major overhaul they finished like 17th they had to do something.

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  3. This will be the most unpredictable champions league in years, most unpredictable la liga and EPL.
    For champions I have PSG or RMadrid taking it home.
    Liga Champs= Athletico Madrid repeat
    EPL champs= Chelsea
    MLS= Sounders or Galaxy
    NFL= Green Bay or Broncos

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  4. Man U certainly has an abundance of attacking options but still not too sure about the rest of the squad. Blind is a good signing but they could still use another central defender, a midfield enforcer and a right back. This team had so many holes I guess it wasn’t possible to address them all in one transfer window. If they had completed the rumored signing of Hummels, that would’ve been a really positive step.

    Reply

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