Premier League transfer window costs £835m

Some high-profile football clubs may have had a disappointing season last year, but they have been smashing records this summer. During the transfer window, Premier League clubs spent £835 million on new players - destroying their record of £630 million last year.

The figures were put together by Deloitte, which said that this was one of a number of records set during the transfer window. Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, explained: "This summer has also seen the highest gross spend in a single transfer window by a single Premier League club and a new record transfer fee for an individual player in English football."

The record-breaking individual spend was by Manchester United, which spent £59.7 million transferring Di Maria from Real Madrid. They also set the record for the most spent overall by any club - forking out £150 million on new players - which was just shy of a fifth of the entire transfer spend. There will be fans who wanted to see something dramatic change at the club after last season, and it looks as though every effort was made during the transfer window to change as much as possible.

Other big spenders included the four Premier League clubs competing in this season's Champions League - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City. They spent a combined total of £342 million - which is about 40% of the total.

Why?
The reason for the massive splurge was partly because there was more money to go around, because of improved broadcast deals. Jones explained: "Last season the average Premier League club received over £25m more in central broadcast distributions than they did in 2012/13, which has helped fuel a new record spend this summer."

He added, however, that clubs shouldn't get carried away in splashing the cash, as so many are carrying such major debts. Liverpool, for example has net debt of £114 million, Manchester United of £295 million, and Chelsea £958 million. These are well-financed debts, with no concerns about their ability to meet interest payments, but never-the-less it begs the question as to whether any of these clubs could have managed to pay some of their debts down instead.

Jones adds: "The key challenge remains pursuing their ambitions responsibly. Regulations are now in place at both a league and continental level encouraging clubs to balance their costs with revenue. We hope that while increased revenues continue to allow the league to attract top players, they will also result in a more profitable picture across the league in the years to come."

But what do you think? Have they made the right choices?

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