So much for financial struggles... Premier League has spent more on transfers this summer than last
Premier League clubs have now spent more on transfers during the Covid-19 pandemic in this current transfer window than they did last year, according to the latest analysis of their player trading.
Confirmation of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ £27.6 million signing of Nelson Semedo has taken the total net outlay to £624.4 million, surpassing the £614.8 million that was spent during the summer of 2019 before Covid-19 had struck.
The Premier League says that the clubs lost £700 million last season due to the pandemic, and are losing another £100 million per month this season without fans, but there has been no obvious impact in the transfer market compared with last summer.
The current £624.4 million figure, which has been calculated by financial analysts Vysyble, includes reported fees agreed, as well as sales, and so represents the total difference in collective outgoings and incomings.
Much of the spending has been driven by Chelsea, and owner Roman Abramovich’s desire to invest heavily again in the club’s playing squad, but there have also been sizeable deals throughout the division.
The timing of the spending, however, could be awkward. The Premier League signed a joint letter on Monday to prime minister Boris Johnson which asked for a Covid-19 bailout across the sports sector.
Yet with its £9.2 billion three-year broadcast deal largely intact, the Premier League is currently also in talks with the culture secretary Oliver Dowden and the English Football League about whether it can provide financial help to rescue the wider football pyramid.
The 2020 transfer window value has been calculated according to reported transfer fees (without including add-ons) as clubs do not publicly disclose transfer fees that have been agreed. It makes a precise figure impossible, but the same methodology was used in previous years. The Premier League clubs’ reported spending peaked at £875 million during the 2018 window and, while unlikely to reach that level this summer, the collective spending could conceivable now get past the £663 million of 2017, which was the second highest on record.
It could also fluctuate downwards if a greater number of players are sold out of the Premier League between now and the closure of the transfer window on Oct 5.
John Purcell, a financial analyst from Vysysble, said that the “transfer market had been buoyant” but also stressed that Premier League clubs had been accumulating significant economic losses and questioned whether they would therefore be willing or able to bailout another group of economically loss making football clubs in the EFL.
Despite talks shortly after lockdown in March, Premier League clubs were unable to strike universal agreements with players on wage cuts or deferrals.
