January Spending From Premier League Clubs Increased By 176% In 2023
Led by Chelsea, PL clubs absolutely dominated the January window. The window ended with a bang last night as Chelsea signed Enzo Hernandez from Benfica in a PL record deal. The £107m committed by Chelsea to sign the Argentine midfielder took the total January spend to £895m.
Until this window, the 2018 January window held the record for the most money spent by PL clubs. That year, PL clubs spent £430m on transfers. However, the recently concluded transfer window blew all the previous records out of the water. PL clubs spent £385m more than they had spent in the 2018 window, a growth of almost 90%.
When we compare the recent window with the 2022 window, the growth was almost three-fold. Compared to £285m in 202, clubs nearly tripled their spending by paying out £815m in transfer fees in January 2023.
Other Four Major Leagues Spent A Total Of £210m
The excessive spending in the past month was only limited to the Premier League. The other leagues in the big five spent a combined amount of £220m. This expenditure was in sharp contrast to the Premier League, where clubs spent almost four times the overall spend of other leagues.
When we compare the numbers, the total spend of the other four leagues makes up only 27% of £815m spent by the Premier League. Additionaly, Ligue 1 was responsible for half of the amount of the £220m spent by the other four leagues.
It should be pointed out that the transfer activity by Premier League clubs was primarily led by Chelsea, who spent an exuberant amount of money on new acquisitions. According to the Deloitte report, the West London club spent approximately £301m on transfers in January, making up 37% of the total PL spend. Furthermore, relegation-threatened Bournemouth were the second biggest spender, while three clubs (Manchester United, Brentford, and Everton) didn’t spend any money on permanent transfers.
