After the January transfer window closed on Tuesday, soccer executives across Europe took a deep breath. The amount of money spent in January alone was staggering. Over a billion dollars. The most striking metric, however, was that a single Premier League club spent more on January transfers than all Bundesliga, LaLiga, Serie A and Ligue 1 clubs combined.
It wasn’t just Chelsea who was on a spending spree. In fact, the Premier League accounted for more than 85% of total spending for Europe’s top five leagues. Furthermore, four Premier League clubs in relegation trouble near the bottom half of the table (Southampton, Bournemouth, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leeds United) spent around or more than $50 million each in this window.
Premier League spending in January highlights the discrepancy between the purchasing power of England’s top flight versus its counterparts in Spain, France, Italy and Germany.
He calls for the uprising against the European Super League again. The fans wanted to see the best clubs and best players fighting for a place in elite competitions. Fans didn’t want to see teams buy their way to success and not have the threat of missing out.
The Premier League is in a hope-buy-to-success state, embodying the Super League in that it is a competition built on money. Only that all that money goes to transfers.
top talents
The Premier League is already the most popular domestic league in Europe for fans around the world. The history of many of the clubs is enough to attract attention. However, the arrival of elite players to top-down clubs adds fuel to the fire that is burning the rest of the leagues in Europe.
As more players join the league, there is more incentive to watch. Consequently, fans lose interest in other leagues in Europe. For example, Joao Félix left Atlético de Madrid on loan. That takes one of LaLiga’s most creative and entertaining players into a superior full-back. Mykhailo Mudryk lit up the Champions League with Shakhtar Donetsk, and he won’t be there for the club’s Europa League run. Enzo Fernández burst onto the scene with Argentina at the World Cup, prompting Chelsea to move him away from Benfica. To be fair, Fernández is not the first major departure from Benfica in recent years.
So young players with an abundance of talent are now joining the Premier League. PSV talents Cody Gakpo and Noni Madueke moved to England with a lot of money. Benoit Badiashile and Malo Gusto had price tags of more than $30 million.
At the center of this spending that distinguishes the Premier League is Chelsea. Chelsea’s casual spending of $360m is almost $100m more than the other top four leagues combined. Ligue Un, Bundesliga, LaLiga and Serie A combined for just under $285 million. Reminder, this is the January transfer window only.
LaLiga spoke out against this insatiable spending in the Premier League, calling it a form of ‘cheating’ against the rest of Europe. The president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, shared a video on his Twitter of the corporate general director, Javier Gómez. In the video, Gomez discusses his problems.
“Essentially, they are ‘doping’ the club. They are injecting money that the club does not generate so that it can spend it, which puts the viability of the club at risk if the shareholder leaves.
Think about Todd Boehly leaving Chelsea and how that would affect the club’s ability to spend on transfers.
“In our opinion, that is cheating, because it drags down the rest of the leagues,” Gómez concluded.
Premier League reform of a super league
While it’s easy to point a finger and say that Chelsea are the cause of these record numbers in the Premier League, that’s not necessarily the case. Spending was plentiful across the league. Interestingly, it was not one of the other clubs that tend to spend freely. The two Manchester clubs combined to spend just $15 million on a total of four new players. Tottenham only loaned out two players for $10 million. Liverpool gave $45 million to PSV for Cody Gakpo, but that was their only expense. Even Arsenal, who were under pressure to make moves to fight for a Premier League title, spent less than a fifth of Chelsea. The Gunners still paid a total of $65 million for three players, but two of those came from Premier League rivals Brighton and the aforementioned Chelsea.
Instead, look at clubs with a smaller budget that are making moves. Of course, they need to pocket more just to keep up with a club like Chelsea under billionaire ownership.
Southampton, the club at the bottom of the Premier League table, spent the second most of any team in the top flight. Kamldeen Sulemana’s $27 million price tag is a club record fee for the Saints. Leeds also set a club record fee when they shelled out $37.5m on striker Georginio Rutter. This is the difference. When clubs at the bottom of the table are breaking the bank on players just to stay afloat, it shows the competitive nature of the Premier League.
Compete with other leagues
What stands out for many of these bottom half teams is how they competed with elites in the football tradition for players. The most famous topic was Nicolo Zaniolo, a Roma midfielder or striker who fell out of favor with José Mourinho and the fans. Zaniolo declared his intention to move when Milan and Spurs showed interest. However, the only club that offered Zaniolo anything was Bournemouth.
After Milan never repaid the funds or stated desire to sign Zaniolo, the Italian defected to his second choice at Bournemouth. However, at that point, the Cherries already spent money on replacements. The AFCB, a club on the way to relegation, denied Roma the right-back.
If anything, that shows where the Premier League stands based on signing intent. Relegation teams in the Premier League compete with clubs that have declared joining the European Super League. Bournemouth are targeting players with 11 starts for a team vying for a place in Serie A of the Champions League. That potential deal for Zaniolo was likely a loan, but his market value is somewhere in the $30 million to $40 million range.
If Bournemouth are ready to spend money on transfers when the top clubs in Serie A are more conservative, the game can only grow around the Premier League.
The future of transfers
It can certainly be argued that this season is an anomaly. La Liga’s limits on player transfers with a salary cap hinder its ability to collect major fees. The best clubs in Serie A are under the microscope at the moment due to the manipulation of the numbers. After all, it looks like Juventus will miss out on European competition next season due to a points deduction stemming from “financial irregularities” regarding historical transfers.
The Bundesliga, even its best clubs, are historically frugal. However, that’s not necessarily a talent issue. Bayern have secured Joao Cancelo on loan from Manchester City, even though the Portuguese is still a huge talent. However, you don’t see Schalke, Hertha Berlin and Bochum spending quickly to get out of the relegation zone. In fact, those clubs spent just a combined $1.5 million, including loan deals.
The consequence of this is further growth of the Premier League. In terms of players, the best clubs will only go after the best. That includes young talent like Mudryk and Fernandez and proven players. More eyes are on these players, because clearly that’s the best of the best.
For example, think of that Benfica chart on their most expensive outings. They all cost more than $37 million. Eight of those 10 will be in the Premier League in the second half of the 2022/23 season, even if that’s not where they went immediately.
This will make the Premier League increase its power. As a result, the Premier League becomes the Super League.
PHOTO: IMAGO / Propaganda Photo
