Incredibly, Chelsea’s gross transfer expenditure was more than the combined total of all clubs in the Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 – and more than the cumulative spend of Premier League clubs in every January window except 2018.
“The British market is a doped market,” said La Liga’s Javier Tebas. “You can see it clearly in this winter market, where Chelsea have made almost half of the signings in the Premier League. It is quite dangerous that the markets are doped, inflated, as has been happening in recent years in Europe, because that can jeopardise the sustainability of European football. I am happy because our clubs are economically sustainable, and that means that we have a future for many years to come.
“Premier League clubs have outspent those within the rest of Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues by almost four to one in this transfer window, allowing them to hold on to their key players, while attracting top talent from overseas.”during the summer transfer window, the latest figures mean that English football’s top-flight clubs spent a total of £2.8bn during the 2022-23 season, surpassing the £1.9bn spent in 2017-18.