How Leicester’s title victory led to £1bn buying binge

London: And so ends the first pounds 1billion pounds (Dh4.8 billion) transfer window, the biggest — and some might say craziest — summer spending spree in Premier League history. Whether it was almost three-quarters of clubs smashing their transfer records, English sides spending nearly as much as their Spanish, Italian and German counterparts combined, or simply Chelsea re-signing David Luiz — for around 30 million pounds — money madness took hold of top-flight teams like never before between July 1 and August 31 this year. On the face of it, such a splurge appeared likely the moment the Premier League secured another staggering 70 per cent increase in its domestic television deal and inevitable once overseas contracts took its broadcast income to pounds 8.4billion over the next three years.

But there were other factors which fuelled the pounds 1billion buying binge, according to Britain’s most respected football finance expert, Dan Jones, of Deloitte’s Sports Business Group.

They include an unprecedented turnover of managers at the biggest clubs and the uncertainty sparked by Leicester City’s shock title triumph that has made the battle for the top four — and Champions League football — between Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham more intense than ever.

“It’s a bit of a perfect storm,” Jones told The Daily Telegraph, predicting a period of stabilisation in spending, which has more than doubled in the last five years. “You’ve got all those factors all coming at once, so I don’t foresee that next year’s window is going to be bigger than this year’s window.

“Now, what happens in terms of what the next TV deal is and what that brings, we’ll have to wait and see.” The likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona will be hoping not much, the giants of European football already in danger of being totally eclipsed financially by their Premier League rivals. United’s capture of Paul Pogba suggests the days of the best players in the world choosing England over Spain may be returning.

“If you’re looking at the top five players and where are they, that might be a bit more balanced or skewed towards a couple of clubs in Spain,” Jones said. “But if you’re looking at the top 100 then it’s clearly very heavily skewed towards England.”

So much so that the big Spanish and Italian clubs resurrected talk of a breakaway European super league earlier this year amid fears they now had less financial muscle than even the likes of Bournemouth. “I still don’t think that a European super league will happen because I think you narrow the opportunities to win,” Jones said.

“If you’re Bayern Munich, you’re about winning; if you’re Juventus, you’re about winning. As soon as you have a European super league, you narrow the field of potential winners to one.”