The frantic transfer deadline with all its hype and television coverage is at the end of August. First, however, there is a ‘quiet’ transfer deadline when managers look at the squads that have reassembled for training at the beginning of July and assess the gaps.
Of course, some clubs like Chelsea and Manchester United like to do their business early. United are hopeful that they will get most of their targets soon, but Chelsea are only now nearing a breakthrough or two.
The frantic transfer deadline with all its hype and television coverage is at the end of August. First, however, there is a ‘quiet’ transfer deadline when managers look at the squads that have reassembled for training at the beginning of July and assess the gaps.
Of course, some clubs like Chelsea and Manchester United like to do their business early. United are hopeful that they will get most of their targets soon, but Chelsea are only now nearing a breakthrough or two.
Agents consider that the market has not really taken off, but £275m has been spent already, including club records broken by Bournemouth and Huddersfield Town. At this time last year Premier League clubs had spent £195m in what ended up as a record breaking summer outlay of £1.2bn. That record is likely to be smashed this summer.
The amount spent last summer represented 111 per cent of clubs’ annual domestic television income. It was only fractionally smaller in 1992 when clubs spent £42.7m in relation to a television income of £32.8m.
Roughly two-thirds of Premier League expenditure this summer has gone to overseas clubs. it is well known abroad that Premier League clubs will pay more.