The transfer window for league clubs in England and Scotland has closed, with a total summer outlay by Premier League teams of more than £1.96bn.
According to data from Football Transfers, the Premier League spend was more than double that of its nearest rival – Italy‘s Serie A.
Eight clubs from England’s top flight broke their transfer records, but where was the best business done? What were the biggest deals? And who barely spent a penny?
How did transfer deadline day unfold?
Well two of the most eye-catching deals were actually announced in the early hours of the day after deadline day.
After Chelsea winger Raheem Sterling joined Arsenal on a season-long loan, the Blues confirmed the signing of Manchester United‘s Jadon Sancho on a similar arrangement.
Both transfers needed deal sheets – which extended the 11pm deadline by another two hours – to be signed, with fans left waiting long into the night for confirmation.
England striker Ivan Toney was also a late mover – completing a £40m move from Brentford to Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli.
Before allowing Sancho to leave, Manchester United splashed out the highest fee on the day – signing Paris St-Germain and Uruguay midfielder Manuel Ugarte for an initial £42.1m, which could rise to £50.5m after add-ons.
That made it one in, one out in central midfield for United after Scotland international Scott McTominay’s move to Serie A side Napoli for £25.7m was also confirmed.
Elsewhere, forward Eddie Nketiah joined Crystal Palace from Arsenal in a deal worth in the region of £30m but Chelsea were unable to get a striker signing of their own done as a move for Napoli’s Victor Osimhen didn’t materialise.
Early in the day, Arsenal also sold goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale to Southampton for £25m.
How much have the title challengers spent?
Champions Manchester City had the lowest net spend of any Premier League club in the transfer window – actually turning in a £115.8m profit.
They spent £21.4m on Brazil winger Savinho, but selling players such as forward Julian Alvarez and defenders Joao Cancelo and Taylor Harwood-Bellis made it a profitable window.
In fact, none of the last season’s top three featured prominently when it came to net spend.
Arsenal spent £93.9m – including £38.4m on Italy defender Riccardo Calafiori and £27.4m apiece for Spanish duo David Raya and Mikel Merino – but sold £76.8m worth of players.
Liverpool bought midfielder Federico Chiesa and goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili but selling players such as Fabio Carvalho, Sepp van den Berg and Bobby Clark meant they made a £14.4m profit.
City, of course, have won four successive Premier League titles. They face 115 charges – which they deny – of alleged breaches of the league’s financial rules.
Another busy window for Chelsea
This was another action-packed transfer window for Chelsea, whose total outlay since Todd Boehly became owner in May 2022 has risen to more than £1.3bn.
They did offload more players (12) than they bought (10) but in spending more than £203m they finished with a net spend of £46.5m – more than 12 other Premier League clubs.
Among their sales were a £35.6m deal for Conor Gallagher with Atletico Madrid, Ian Maatsen‘s £38m move to Aston Villa and Romelu Lukaku joining Napoli for £28.2m.
The figures do not include Belgian goalkeeper Mike Penders, who will join Chelsea next summer for a fee in the region of £17m, or £29m Brazilian Estevao Willian, who also join next season.
Brighton go big as several clubs break records
Brighton had the highest net spend in the Premier League – £153.6m from an outlay of £195.7m.
They paid a club record £39.9m for Leeds’ Georginio Rutter, £29.9m for Newcastle’s Yankuba Minteh, and more than £25m for each of Ferdi Kadioglu, Brajan Gruda, Mats Wieffer and Ibrahim Osman.
Selling Billy Gilmour for £12m on deadline day, as well as Denis Undav for £22m earlier in the window, brought some money in.
Newly promoted Ipswich had the next highest net spend – £107.6m.
Brighton were not the only club to break their transfer record, either.
Bournemouth recruited striker Evanilson for an initial £31.7m, Brentford signed Igor Thiago for £30m and Fulham brought in Arsenal’s Emile Smith-Rowe for an initial £27m.
Aston Villa, Ipswich, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham also broke their records.
Promoted clubs spend nearly £300m
The three promoted teams all splashed some of their Premier League cash to try to improve their chances of staying up.
Ipswich and Southampton have both spent more than £100m, while Leicester paid out more than £75m.
Ipswich spent £109m on 10 players – seven of whom are from Premier League clubs including Chelsea’s Omari Hutchinson, who joined for £20m after a successful loan.
Southampton’s signings, which included the deadline-day arrival of Ramsdale, were from a wider variety of divisions.
Leicester, meanwhile, recruited exclusively from top divisions – with four of their seven signings from the Premier League and one from each of the Italian, Portuguese and Belgian leagues.
Meanwhile… £10m for a striker in League One?
Away from the Premier League, Birmingham smashed the League One record with the signing of Fulham striker Jay Stansfield on deadline day for more than £10m.
The previous record for a transfer in England’s third tier was Sunderland’s £4m signing of Will Grigg from Wigan Athletic in 2019.
It meant Birmingham pushed their total spending to £30m – an unprecedented figure for League One.
Stansfield, 21, returns to St Andrew’s after scoring 12 goals on loan at Birmingham last season and winning their Player of the Year award.
He actually scored for Fulham as they beat Birmingham in midweek – but now switches sides in a statement move from the Blues.
