After a slow start, spending by Premiership clubs in the January transfer window is gathering momentum with some big deals in the offing. However, it is still likely to be well below the record total of 2008.
After a slow start, spending by Premiership clubs in the January transfer window is gathering momentum with some big deals in the offing. However, it is still likely to be well below the record total of 2008.
Gross transfer spending already stands at £70m, more than double the £32m spent last year. That figure does not include the £22.3m move expected to be made by Luis Suarez from Ajax to Liverpool. There is increasing speculation that Liverpool may give way to Chelsea’s attempt to sign Fernando Torres. However, even if the total package is valued at £50m, that would still place the sum for all transfers below the £175m of 2008.
Dan Jones of sport business firm Deloitte commented, ‘The combination of a continued lack of available credit and clubs striving, perhaps with one eye on the new Uefa Financial Fair Play regulations, to improve their financial balance, all point towards fewer transfers involving a fee than in many previous January transfer windows.’
Chelsea have been aiming at a break even target for some years and have failed to reach it. Signing Torres would not help, even if Anelka went in the opposite direction, although debt can always be converted into equity. At £110,000 a week, the wages earned by Torres are well within Chelsea’s pay structure.