English clubs spend big bucks: Transfer

London: English football clubs splurged on the final day of the transfer window, laying out 210 million pounds to take total gross spending to a record-high 1.4 billion pounds as the Premier League again flexed its unrivalled financial muscles.
Figures from Deloitte's Sports Business Group showed a 23 percent rise from the previous record, set last summer. The spending would have been even higher had several proposed transfers gone through as expected on Thursday.

Even so, Premier League clubs are not breaking the bank, thanks to lucrative domestic and overseas broadcast deals.
For the last 15 years, annual transfer spending has remained within the range of between a fifth and a third, and averaged at around a quarter, of total revenues."

Based on income estimates for the Premier League's 20 clubs this season, the 1.4 billion pounds of new signings represent an average of 31 percent of total revenue per club Premier League spending during the window dwarfed that of other top European leagues. Serie A's total of 735 million pounds was the next highest figure, followed by Ligue 1 at 590 million, the Bundesliga at 510 million and La Liga, where the window closes on Friday, at 500 million.

Spain's top three clubs -- Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid -- all made a profit in the window, while Italy's AC Milan spending left it with a deficit of 162 million euros, representing 76 percent of their total income.

Manchester City were England's biggest spenders, even though their late 50 million pound-plus bid for Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez came to nothing as the Chilean stayed put.

Chelsea's signings of Torino's Davide Zappacosta and Leicester City midfielder Danny Drinkwater put them in second place on 180 million, ahead of Manchester United and Everton, both of whom spent 145 million.

Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur were two of only five clubs who made a net transfer profit in the latest window.