The net spends of teams from England’s Premier League fell to its lowest level since 2015, despite its record-level television rights deals. Premier League clubs net spend was only £575 million, the lowest in four years. Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues in England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany combined to spend a record £5 billion on transfer fees during the summer transfer window. “Looking to the Premier League, this summer’s player transfer expenditure fell narrowly short of record levels, and net spend was at its lowest level since summer 2015,” said Dan Jones, Deloitte’s head of sports business group.
Managers such as Tottenham’s Pochettino and Liverpool’s Klopp have been critics. “I think that was a big mistake for the Premier League to allow that – we open the door to different clubs in Europe to try to create confusion within your squad,” said Pochettino, who has repeatedly complained of having an unsettled squad in recent weeks. “I think after two seasons operating in this way, the Premier League realises that if Europe doesn’t change, we need to go back and start to operate in the same way they operate now.”
The Premier League had hoped other leagues would follow suit in bringing their windows forward to before the season started, but that has not happened. “They spoke about finishing it before the season starts. Good idea, but only England did it,” said Klopp. “That makes no sense. It was a good idea but it didn’t work out.”
