Flexing financial muscle: England break transfer record yet again

Island clubs have spent $870m this summer, up 4.2% from last year.

KARACHI:

This summer’s transfer window brought the usual last-minute frenzy across Europe but it was England, taking advantage of having one extra day of shopping, who made the most out of this year’s transfer window.

Fuelled by money from the Premier League’s increasingly lucrative broadcast deals, English clubs made six of the biggest seven signings in the window, surpassing their previous record of £835 to £870 million.

Manchester City

Last year’s Premier League runner-ups flexed their financial muscle to become the highest-spenders in Europe with a total outlay of £155 million, which includes the club’s record fee of £55 million for Wolfsburg’s Kevin de Bruyne and £49 million for Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling.



Other transfers included Valencia’s Nicolas Otamendi (£32 million), Fulham’s Patrick Roberts (£11 million) and Fabian Delph from Aston Villa (£8 million).

Manchester United

The Red Devils followed suit with a total expenditure of £116 million, inflated by the deadline-day signing of 19-year-old forward Anthony Martial from Monaco — with the French club breaking the record for receiving the most money in one season — who joins Memphis Depay (£25 million), Morgan Schneiderlin (£25 million), Bastian Schweinsteiger (approximately £14 million) and Matteo Darmian (approximately £13 million) at Old Trafford as United witness another expensive summer transfer window, though slightly less than last year’s total of £150 million.

Liverpool

Liverpool added eight new players to their squad and have a total spend of around £80 million, courtesy the signings of Belgium international Cristian Benteke from Aston Villa (£32.5 million), Hoffenheim’s Roberto Firmino (£29 million), Southampton’s Nathaniel Clyne (£12 million) and Burnley’s Danny Ings and Imperial Academy’s Taiwo Awoniyi covering the difference.

The quieter lot: Chelsea, Arsenal

Chelsea and Arsenal both witnessed relatively quieter transfer windows, with the Blues securing Barcelona’s Pedro Rodriguez as the only marquee signing (£22 million) apart from Ghanian left-back Baba Rahman (undisclosed but reports suggest £14 million), Asmir Begovic (£10 million), Papy Djilobodji (£4 million) and Michael Hector (£4 million). Arsenal, meanwhile, only signed Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech for £10 million.

PSG lead race in Europe

Qatari-backed Paris Saint-Germain splashed the most cash in Europe, apart from England, with the singing of United’s want-away winger Angel di Maria for £45 million, while Spanish champions Barcelona pulled off deals for attacking midfielder Arda Turan (£25 million) from Atletico Madrid and winger Aleix Vidal (£16 million) from Sevilla despite being prevented from registering new players until January.

Bayern Munich, meanwhile, made headlines in the Bundesliga with the addition of Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal from Serie A champions Juventus for £27 million, while there was no ‘Galactico’ signing for Real Madrid, who, under new manager Rafa Benitez, brought in Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic from Inter Milan for £25 million in their biggest deal of the season.

The de Gea ordeal

Real’s figures would have gone up by £29 million if United goalkeeper David de Gea’s transfer had gone through. However, administrative blunders from United, according to Real, caused the Spanish giants to miss the deadline and lose out on the long-sought-after move for the 24-year-old.

In Italy

Juventus replaced the outgoing Carlos Tevez with another Argentine following the capture of forward Paulo Dybala from Palermo for £23.5 million, while AC Milan secured the services of Columbian hitman Carlos Bacca for £21 million in addition to Shakhtar Donetsk’s Luiz Adriano for £5.5 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd,  2015.

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