By David Owen
February 1 – The magic of amortisation means that top football clubs have long been used to their transfer dealings mitigating bottom-line losses or, especially in more recent times, augmenting profits. But to register a gain in cash terms, without spreading the cost of new signings over the length of their contracts, is much more unusual.
So, the disclosure by professional services firm Deloitte that Premier League clubs for the first time ever received more from clubs in other leagues than they spent with such clubs in the transfer window just ended might be accounted an event of some significance.
All told, the 20 clubs secured net transfer receipts of £40 million, a £140 million swing from the previous year. This compares with a net spend of £270 million over the previous five winter transfer windows.
Is this the start of a trend? The jury will have to remain out for now: the sales of Oscar and Watford striker Odion Ighalo to Chinese clubs were big factors in the overall surplus. However, with tighter regulations on the way, this might not last.
This wasn’t all about China though – both Dmitri Payet and Memphis Depay completed big-money moves to French clubs. The capacity of continental European clubs to offer attractive terms to their top-tier English counterparts, and to players who have grown used to Premier League pay packets, may ultimately prove more important in determining whether January 2017’s outturn is more than a blip.
Deloitte’s analysis suggests that Premier League clubs spent £215 million altogether in this latest window, bringing their gross spending over the 2016-17 season to almost £1.4 billion, comfortably a record.
According to Dan Jones, a partner in Deloitte’s sports business group: “As was the case last year, it is clubs in the bottom half of the table who have driven expenditure this January, investing in their squads in an attempt to secure survival. This is no surprise given clubs’ reliance on the revenues generated from the Premier League’s broadcast deals.”
Spending by clubs currently in the Premier League’s bottom six, at £110 million, is said to have accounted for 50% of the total. Clubs in the Championship, English football’s second tier, spent £80 million, up from £35 million the previous year.
Given the Payet and Depay deals, it is perhaps not surprising that France’s Ligue 1 was the second highest-spending European league after the Premier League, with total transfer expenditure of some £130 million. Clubs in the Bundesliga spent about £85 million, a broadly similar sum to that disbursed by Italy’s Serie A. Clubs in La Liga spent only £20 million.
Chinese Super League clubs are said to have spent £150 million so far in their close season which began in November.
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