Premier League spending in the January transfer window "fell for the first time" since '12 after three of the top six clubs "decided not to add players to the squad," per a Deloitte report published on Friday, according to Hardik Vyas of REUTERS. Thursday’s deadline day spending accounted for £50M ($65.5M) -- bringing the month’s spending to £180M ($236M). That is less than half of Jan. '18 spending of £430M, which included Liverpool signing Virgil van Dijk from Southampton for a "world record deal fee for a defender." The top six Premier League clubs -- Liverpool, Man City, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and ManU -- accounted for 43% of expenditure, "lower than January last year," when this figure stood at 62%. Deloitte Sports Business Group Dir Tim Bridge said, "With central distributions to clubs now likely to remain around current levels until at least the end of the 2021-22 season, clubs are potentially taking a more long-term view to their transfer strategies" (REUTERS, 2/1). FORBES' Robert Kidd reported English clubs "were still the biggest spenders in Europe." Clubs in Serie A "were next," spending about £140M ($183M), followed by Ligue 1 (£65M/$85M) and the Bundesliga (also £65M/$85M). Deloitte found "several factors had contributed to the reduction in January spending, including a lack of activity" from the Big Six clubs. A "perceived lack of value in the market was cited as another factor," as was the "strongest ever financial position of Premier League clubs, reducing the need to sell their best talent" (FORBES, 2/1).
A NEW APPROACH: In N.Y., Rory Smith wrote the January transfer window "has come and gone, barely noticed." There has been "no orgy of excess, no frantic scramble to spend as much money as possible, no broken transfer-spending records, no helicopter dashes, no late-night drama." For once -- "for the first time, perhaps" -- English football has been "a model of restraint and of prudence." For once, "it has looked not at price, but at worth." As one EPL exec said, "People are asking crazy money for average players." That, of course, "should hardly have come as a shock." The clubs in the "cash-soaked" EPL had "no sooner helped to create" football’s "superheated transfer market than they began to suffer from it." In public, those working in sales or recruitment in Europe dismiss the notion of an "English tax." Two sporting directors said in '17 that they work "with one price in mind" for a player -- but there can be "little doubt that, at the very least, many see English teams as easy marks" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/1).
