Manchester City keep Premier League as biggest spenders; Serie A pips La Liga

By Nick Harris

1 September 2010

The Premier League's 20 clubs have spent less on transfer fees collectively this summer (around £382m) than in any summer window for four years, but England's elite remain comfortably ahead of the Europe's other major leagues in spending, and net spending by the Premier League clubs (about £214m) remains high, and in fact is rising.

England's spending has been driven by Manchester City, at £130m or thereabouts this summer; exact figures are rarely confirmed on the record. City bought three of the five most expensive players this summer: Toure, Balotelli and Silva. Barcelona paid the most for one player (Villa, £36m), while the three City players were No2, No3 and No4, and Angel di Maria, moving to Real Madrid for £22.5m, was No5.

These are other nuggets can be seen at a glance and explored in greater detail at the excellent Transfermarkt, a German website and as good a source of collated up-to-date information as any.

The five biggest spending clubs in Europe were City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Rubin Kazan.

The Premier League was the biggest spending league, followed by Serie A (just), La Liga, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1.

Speaking about English clubs specifically, Paul Rawnsley, a director in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: “Despite improved economic conditions and enhanced values from international media rights that kicked-in for the 2010-11 season, without further significant capital injections from owners, transfer spending is unlikely to exceed the high watermark achieved in 2008.  In general, for the time being at least, we are seeing a new financial reality as clubs strive to improve their financial balance.”

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