The Premier League has "broken new ground once again," according to Alistair Tweedale of the London TELEGRAPH. More was spent this summer than ever before and "the total spend for the calendar year" reached "within a whisker" of £1B ($1.53B). With "all the add-ons and hidden loan fees involved, the figure will smash through" £1B. Late deals on transfer deadline day for the likes of Monaco's 19-year-old Anthony Martial -- signed by ManU -- and Virgil van Dijk -- who left Scottish Premiership club Celtic for EPL side Southampton -- meant the Premier League's 20 clubs broke the records set in '14 for both summer and yearly spend. The top tier's clubs smashed the £835M spent a year previously, with more than £862M ($1.32B) spent by the time the window shut at 6pm on Tuesday. Man City leads the way, having spent £154.2M ($236M) in total, including £54M ($82.7M) on Kevin De Bruyne, £49M ($75M) on Raheem Sterling and £32M ($49M) on Nicolas Otamendi, ahead of rival ManU, which was the only other club to break £100M ($153M). Spending has increased season on season "for the past five summers, and presumably it will not be long" before more than £1B is forked out in a single transfer window (TELEGRAPH, 9/1). The BBC listed a rundown of the biggest deals of the window. The "biggest money move" of the final day of the window was ManU's £36M ($55M) signing of Martial. One player who is staying put is West Brom striker Saido Berahino. Tottenham was "trying to prise him away from the Hawthorns but had four separate bids" -- two of which were more than £20M ($30.6M) -- turned down. West Ham was the busiest Premier League team on Tuesday, signing four players. Everton signed central defender Ramiro Funes Mori from Argentine club River Plate for £9.5M ($14.5M) on a five-year deal. De Bruyne's move to Man City for £54M "has been the biggest deal of the window so far," outdoing the £49M spent to buy Sterling from Liverpool. Liverpool "used the Sterling money (and more) to sign seven players." ManU has "also been busy," spending £83M ($127M) (BBC, 9/1).
BATTLING IT OUT: In London, Malcolm Moore reported this year the English window "opened for a day longer because of a bank holiday." The window in Spain, France and Italy closed on Monday and the £29M ($44.4M) transfer of David De Gea, the ManU goalkeeper, to Real Madrid "foundered after the two sides failed to submit the deal" to FIFA in time. FIFA Transfer Matching System Managing Dir Mark Goddard said, "Whatever you do, don't forget that the computer runs the deadline and it does not care what your explanation is. If you don't do it in time, it is gone" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 9/1). FOOTBALL ITALIA reported with €608M ($687M) spent in the transfer window, Serie A is "richer" than La Liga or the Bundesliga, "but still behind the Premier League." Italian football has "long been impoverished, but from a financial point of view at least it is bouncing back." La Gazzetta dello Sport provided a round-up of the expenses for all clubs put together, and it came to €608M. This was higher than the €571M ($645M) spent by La Liga and the €439M ($496M) spent by the Bundesliga, though still "substantially lagging behind" the Premier League's €1.106B ($1.25B) (FOOTBALL ITALIA, 9/1).
