Premier League spending hits new record for second consecutive year
It was another big summer of spending for Premier League clubs
Dubai: For the second consecutive summer, Premier League clubs have set a new transfer spending record, with expenditure reaching a whopping £3.46 billion.
Spending on deadline day rose to £475m itself, an increase from £391m last year.
Three of football’s 10 most expensive transfers ever have been completed this summer, with all three involving Premier League clubs. The window also saw four of the five biggest transfer fees in Premier League history.
Enzo Fernandez’s £125m switch from Chelsea to Manchester City was the standout deal, matching the British transfer record. It came after City had already spent £116m on Nottingham Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson, while Chelsea paid £117m to bring Morgan Rogers in from Aston Villa.
Liverpool also made a major splash, paying an initial £106m for Paris Saint-Germain and France forward Bradley Barcola, with the deal potentially rising to £123m.
Tottenham have also spent big, with their club-record move for Sandro Tonali potentially reaching £100m. They have further strengthened with an £85m deal for Mateus Fernandes from West Ham and a £75m agreement for Savio from Manchester City, which could eventually rise to £85m.
Other significant deals include Manchester City paying £85.6m for Lille midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi, Arsenal spending £75m on Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle, and Manchester United signing Cameroon midfielder Carlos Baleba from Brighton for £70m.
The Premier League flexes its muscles again
Outside the Premier League, Yan Diomande’s move to Real Madrid and Anthony Gordon’s transfer from Newcastle to Barcelona are the only deals this summer involving clubs from other leagues to have exceeded £60m.
With English top-flight clubs spending coming to a record 3.46 billion this summer, in La Liga, clubs spent roughly £640m-£650m, meaning the Premier League’s outlay was more than five times that of Spain’s top flight. Serie A was also well behind at around £1bn, while the Bundesliga was below £700m.
The gap with La Liga is especially striking when looking at the biggest individual deals. In fact, one newly promoted Premier League club, Ipswich Town, reportedly spent more this summer than 17 La Liga clubs combined.
This is not simply a one-off summer, either, with the Premier League pulling further away from its European rivals for several years. In 2025, English clubs spent £3.2bn, comfortably surpassing the previous record of approximately £2.46bn. La Liga's spending was only a fraction of that figure, while Italy's Serie A and Germany's Bundesliga also remained well behind.
According to figures reported in Spain, La Liga's transfer investment has fallen by around half since 2020, while Premier League spending has roughly doubled over the same period.
