Summary: Wolves - Manchester United 4:3/Sport1
Last summer, the Premier League teams paid no less than 2.44 billion pounds on transfers - an all-time record. In the January window that closed last night (Thursday), however, they already chose the best league in the world to reduce expenses, and this was reflected in a purchase fee of 96.2 million Only pounds - only the second time in the last 13 years that the winter window amounts to less than 100 million pounds (the previous one, in 2021, was at the peak of the corona virus).
For comparison, last year the league teams spent no less than 780 million pounds "9 - All-time record, including 275 million pounds on the last day of the window (compared to 30 million pounds this time).
Championship contenders Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City didn't spend a single pound, and Chelsea, Manchester United and Newcastle also had little to spend.
The reasons are varied, according to Sky: "There are procurement and fair play laws, but there are also other reasons - the African Championship and the Asian Championship thinned out the squads, and meant that teams were not in a hurry to sell. The Saudi teams, who spent a lot of money in the summer, were less active this time."
Indeed - in the summer of 2023 they spent 853 million pounds in Saudi Arabia, but in the winter window the amount of transfers amounted to only 21.3 million pounds - with only one player arriving in an actual transfer (Ranan Lodi), and the rest in loan deals.
If you add to that the departure of Jordan Henderson and the desire of Karim Benzema to move, you get a particularly bleak window for Saudi football.
"The money is not personal to them, but it seems that it will be difficult for them to hold the attention of the football world, as it was last year," writes Goal.
A total of 17 transfers were made in the Premier League in the winter window, along with 13 loan deals, but in the other four leagues that make up the top 5 in Europe the sums actually grew compared to last year: 218 million pounds in the winter window of 2024, compared to 388 million pounds this time.
This is the first time since 2019 (then it was the Chinese league) that the Premier League does not lead in the amount of spending of the winter window, when this time it was actually the French league that came out on top (162 million pounds).
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The most expensive transaction in England was Rado Dragushin's transfer to Tottenham for £25 million (compared to £107 million for Enso Fernandez last year), when only eight teams spent money in January - over half the league chose not to strengthen (or to strengthen in loan deals only).
However, in the kingdom no far-reaching change of direction is detected - but rather a respite for the continuation of the wastes in the summer.
"Going into the summer, we can only assume we'll be back to seeing the normal, record-breaking amounts we've become accustomed to," wrote Rob Wilson at the BBC.
"Let there be no doubt - the Premier League teams will return in the summer, and they will return in a big way," Sky added.
"The Premier League teams will continue to dominate the market," concluded Dr. Dan Plumlee, a transfer expert for "Athletic". "The power in Europe is still in England.
Maybe it felt quiet in the last month, but the market forces have not changed."
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