Transfer Window Summer 2023 - part 2

Moods For Moderns

After yesterday’s review of this summer’s transfer window, today we will take a look at the activity of each of the Premier League clubs in the transfer market over the last decade, but to make it a bit more interesting they have been grouped together under certain themes.

The grouping is fairly subjective, and teams could arguably be placed in more than one category, but please remember that this is just a bit of fun.

A League Of Their Own

Chelsea were no slouches in the transfer market under Roman Abramovich, but the Blues have gone to another level since the arrival of Todd Boehly’s consortium, splashing out almost a billion in just 18 months. This is an unprecedented level of spending, exacerbated by lengthy player contracts, which has committed the club to significant future payments.

Their recruitment has included two purchases costing more than £100m, namely Enzo Fernandez and Moisés Caicedo, while other big money signings included Wesley Fofana, Mykhaylo Mudryk, Marc Cucurella, Roméo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku and Raheem Sterling (plus many others). It’s fair to say that the jury is still out for a number of these buys.

Boehly has so far shown little sign of slowing down, but the gross spend has been partly mitigated by high player sales, including Kai Havertz, Mason Mount, Mateo Kovacic, Kalidou Koulibaly, Christian Pulisic, Edouard Mendy and Ruben Loftus-Cheek this summer alone.

Hey, Big Spender

The other notable big spenders in the Premier League have been the two Manchester clubs, who actually have very similar gross spend of around £1.7 bln in the last ten years.

Both clubs are spending less than they once did with their expenditure peaking back in 2017/18 (City £328m, United £243m). Nevertheless, in the last five years they have still spent more than almost all other clubs in the top flight with City averaging £173m and United £168m.