Premiership Transfer Fees Top £500m - 09/09/2007

English football transfer fees rose by two-thirds over the summer, setting a new record of more than £500m compared with the £300m spent in the summer of 2006 according to research by Deloitte's Sport Business Group. The first tranche of the Premiership's new £1.7bn three-year television deal, allied to spending commitments made by new billionaire owners drove the budgets of leading clubs. Premiership clubs spent more than £80bn in summer 2006 on a net transfer basis - excluding money flowing between Premiership clubs - giving plenty of room for transfer deadlines in the January window. Average transfer fees rose from about £3.5m to £4m and the number of transfers was up from some eighty to more than 100 for the first time. Total spending in 2007, including the January transfer window for the 2006-7 season, topped £530m, a 60 per cent rise on the £388m in 2006. About half of the transfer spending went outside England.

12 English clubs paid out in excess of £20m compared with three in 2006. Manchester United led the way with £51m, followed by Liverpool with £50m and then Spurs (£40m) and Sunderland (£35m). If one looks at net spending, Manchester City are way up there with £35.2m as they recouped very little from disposing of players. For the first two summers after the introduction of the transfer window, in 2003 and 2004, Chelsea accounted for nearly half the total spending but this time the figure of £17.45m is less than four per cent. The £24.5m sale of Arjen Robben to Real Madrid means they actually made a profit in the transfer market. Arsenal were also low net spenders, spending £16m but recouping this by selling Thierry Henry to Real Madrid for £16.1m.