Transfer season is over.
In total about £450m was spent as compared to the record £500m last year. City obviously skewed the spending with £120 million spent on new purchases. They accounted for 27 percent of the total spent. The other notable spenders were Aston Villa, Liverpool, Tottenham, and Sunderland.
As per Philip Rawnsley, director of Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, the drop could be attributed to a number of different factors:
” the exchange rate, the tax regime in Spain being more favourable to players and clubs, and perhaps clubs thinking there is less of a risk in buying established Premier League players than from overseas.”
Arsenal, Man Utd, and Liverpool benefited with substantial money brought in by player transfers but they chose not to spend. Some of the money was used to pay down debt but I think that the real reason as the article alludes to was that Real Madrid and City’s spending spree brought out the inner conservative in the other big clubs as they reacted to the inflated transfer market.