Gross transfer spending by clubs for the January window was £50million - a similar level to last season.
Adding the spending in January 2005 to that in last summer’s transfer window, gross transfer spending by clubs for the 2004/05 season has been around £260million, the same as the 2003/04 season.
Chelsea have reported transfer acquisitions of over £250million since July 2003, which has contributed around 40 per cent of the overall spending by Premier League clubs since that time. In the period since July 2003, Chelsea’s transfer spending is more than double the combined spending of rivals Arsenal and Manchester United.
As a result of Chelsea’s spending spree, gross transfer spending by Premier League clubs in 2003/04 and 2004/05 has been significantly greater than in 2002/03 (£187million), but still not up to the 2001/02 levels (£323million).
Around two-thirds of the spending by clubs in 2004/05 has gone to non-English clubs. This is the highest proportion of transfer spending being ‘international’ rather than ‘domestic’ since the formation of the Premier League.
Whilst some non-English clubs have acquired players, Premier League clubs have received around £40million in 2004/05 from non-English clubs - the balance of payments is an outflow of around £130million.
The spending in the January 2005 window is greater than that reported by clubs in the rest of Europe.
Dan Jones, partner of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: “Looking forward, if the anomalous ‘Abramovich factor’ is removed from the equation, we expect that the level of transfer spending will be significantly lower in 2005/06.
“We expect there will still be a few blockbuster deals involving Premiership clubs and maybe one or two in continental Europe. However, we expect the overall value of deals will be much lower.”
