Deloitte found that EPL clubs spent a record £950M ($1.44B) on the August and January transfers this season "even though spending in the winter window" matched last year's figure of £130M, according to Mike Collett of REUTERS. Despite clubs' "relative restraint" in January, the total spending in '14-15 surpassed the '13-14 record of £760M. The amount spent in January was "far less" than the £225M record for the winter established in Jan. '11. Deloitte Sports Business Group partner Dan Jones, who has been monitoring the spending of clubs for the last two decades, said, "Given the record level of spending seen in the summer, it is not entirely surprising that we haven't seen a new record for the January window." The biggest spenders were champions Man City, league leaders Chelsea and Champions League perennials Arsenal, "who between them accounted for around half of the total, according to the firm" (REUTERS, 2/3). The BBC reported a flurry of last-minute deals worth some £45M ($68.3M) helped to lift the total. Big deals on Monday's final day of the window included Chelsea's £23.3M ($35.4M) payment for Colombian winger Juan Cuadrado from Serie A club Fiorentina, which was part-funded by the club's sale of André Schürrle to Bundesliga side Wolfsburg. Man City's £28M ($42.5M) purchase of Swansea's Ivory Coast striker Wilfried Bony was the "most expensive signing of the January window" (BBC, 2/2). The BBC reported in a separate piece Crystal Palace was the "busiest top-flight club on deadline day," signing four players including Wilfried Zaha. Hull City announced the latest transfer, with Lokomotiv Moscow striker Dame N'Doye's move confirmed at 12:10am. Some of the key findings from Deloitte's analysis of the January 2015 transfer window include:
- The acquisition of new players from overseas clubs accounted for £65M ($98.7M) -- 50% -- of Premier League clubs' gross transfer spending.
- Italian Serie A clubs spent 50% of the amount Premier League clubs parted with (£65M), the German and Spanish spend was about 40% (£52M) ($78.9M), while in France it was a quarter of England's (£32M) ($48.6M) (BBC, 2/3).
