Liverpool registered the Premier League’s biggest net transfer spend during a record-breaking summer window.
Premier League clubs collectively shattered last season’s £3billion spending benchmark, with Liverpool topping the table for overall net expenditure after a summer of unprecedented activity.
Andoni Iraola’s team brought in several high-profile players, including Jeremy Jacquet, Victor Munoz, Lucca Brughmans and Bradley Barcola. Barcola’s arrival cost £123million, while Liverpool generated relatively modest funds from player sales, including Curtis Jones’ £30m move to Inter Milan and Luca Stephenson’s £700,000 transfer to Bolton.
According to football finance expert Kieran Maguire, Liverpool’s net spend reached £218m, just ahead of newly promoted Ipswich, who recorded a net outlay of £193m.
The Tractor Boys, under new manager Gary O’Neil, recruited 14 senior players. Their first transfer-record fee came with the £24m signing of Brazilian forward Emersonn from Toulouse, before Julio Enciso’s £26.1m move from Strasbourg established another new club high.
Tottenham also featured prominently among the window’s biggest spenders, with Roberto De Zerbi’s squad strengthened by the arrivals of Mateus Fernandes, Savio, Omar Marmoush and Sandro Tonali in a £334m recruitment drive.
Premier League clubs set a new summer transfer spending record, while 11 teams also broke their previous individual signing record
Liverpool led the Premier League for net spending after signing players such as Bradley Barcola for £123m
Fernandes initially became Tottenham’s record signing following his £85m switch from West Ham. That mark stood only briefly, however, as Tonali arrived from Newcastle for £100m to become Spurs’ most expensive purchase.
Tottenham recovered some of their spending by raising £188m from sales. Among those leaving were Cristian Romero, who joined Atletico Madrid for £34m, Luka Vuskovic, transferred to Brighton for £50m, and Djed Spence, who moved to Inter Milan for £30m.
Spurs recorded the Premier League’s third-highest gross spending total, with only Manchester City investing more after reaching £472m.
Manchester City’s recruitment included three major midfield deals: Enzo Fernandez arrived from Chelsea for a club-record £125m, Elliot Anderson joined from Nottingham Forest for £116m and Ayyoub Bouaddi moved from Lille for £86m.
The club also completed a £65m agreement to sign Iliman Ndiaye from Everton.
Even after such significant investment, Enzo Maresca’s side brought in £345m through player sales.
Manchester City’s net spend was reduced to £127m — the sixth-highest in the Premier League — by several lucrative departures, including Savio’s £85m transfer to Tottenham, Rodri’s £65.4m move to Barcelona, Nico Gonzalez’s £50m switch to Newcastle and James Trafford’s £40m sale to Leeds.
Chelsea posted the league’s second-highest gross expenditure at £351m, but they also led all clubs in income from sales after generating £451m. That left the Blues with a net spend of -£100m, the lowest figure in the division.
Morgan Rogers became Chelsea’s record signing in a £117m move from Aston Villa. The club also recruited Maxence Lacroix from Crystal Palace for £51m, Marco Palestra from Atalanta for £43m and Pep Chavarria from Rayo Vallecano for £16.3m.
Chelsea offset much of that spending through the sales of Enzo Fernandez to Manchester City for £125m, Nicolas Jackson to Aston Villa for £65m, Marc Cucurella to Real Madrid for £51.8m and Andrey Santos to Manchester United for £50m.
Pierre Sage’s Crystal Palace were the Premier League’s lowest spenders this summer, investing only £51m
Crystal Palace ended the window as the division’s lowest spenders, spending only £51m despite bringing 10 new players into their squad.
This was helped through the loan additions of Evann Guessand (from Aston Villa), Axel Disasi (from Chelsea) and Honest Ahanor (from Atalanta), while Oscar Mingueza (from Celta Vigo) and Takehiro Tomiyasu (from Ajax) joined on free transfers.
In total, Man City, Chelsea, Tottenham, Coventry City, Leeds, Hull City, Aston Villa, Ipswich, Brentford, Brighton and Nottingham Forest all broke their transfer record during the window.