Premier League clubs net profit in January transfer window
For the first time ever, the Premier League has seen a positive net spend in the January transfer window. After a frenetic 31 days of on-pitch action muddled with off-pitch transfer activity, the January window slammed shut last night leaving some clubs far more satisfied than some others.
A total of £215m was spent by all the Premier League clubs in January, making the expenditure on players the second-highest in winter window history. That was £10m short of the record £225m spent in January 2011, when Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll hogged the headlines.
That spending, though, was offset by the big money sales sanctioned by Premier League clubs that balanced their coffers and helped them net record receipts in a transfer window.
Oscar’s move from Chelsea to Chinese Super League club Shanghai SIPG boosted the Blues’ coffers by £60m, while West Ham and Manchester United also netted profits by selling Dimitri Payet and Memphis Depay respectively to Ligue 1 clubs.
United’s sale of Morgan Schneiderlin to Everton was the biggest transfer within the Premier League as the Toffees parted with £22m to land the French midfielder.
Watford also turned a profit after striker Odion Ighalo’s £20m move to Chinese outfit Changchun Yatai. In return, the Hornets sealed a loan deal for M’Baye Niang and bought Mauro Zárate to replace to outgoing Ighalo.
Most of the transfer business in the Premier League was done by teams struggling for survival, as the bottom six clubs combined to spend almost half of the £215m spent by the whole of the Premier League.
It remains to be seen whether those struggling clubs’ odds for survival change for the better after all the money spent. According to the odds via SmartBets, Sunderland, Hull City, and Swansea are the favourites for relegation.
Crystal Palace were the big movers among the bottom clubs, spending £30m on Jeffrey Schlupp, Patrick van Aanholt, Luka Milivojevic and loaning French centre-back Mamadou Sakho from Liverpool.
Sunderland pieced together a few cut-price deals, while Swansea spent £18m on five players. Hull City also scoured the bargain market and brought in eight players. Champions Leicester City spent £15m on Wilfred Ndidi, while Burnley splashed the cash on Republic of Ireland international Robbie Brady.
The £215m spent in January takes the total expenditure by Premier League clubs for the 2016/17 season to a record £1.165b, according to financial analysts Deloitte.
Although the big clubs were minor players in the January window, Manchester City’s £27m summer signing of Gabriel Jesus was completed only last month.
The increasing affluence of other leagues across the world has had an impact on Premier League clubs’ finances, and there is still scope for them to turn some more profit since the Chinese Super League’s transfer window runs until 28<sup>th</sup> February.
The January transfer window is widely considered as a market for disaster management and panic buys, but a few gems have also been unearthed in this transfer period over the years.
Teams fighting for survival have made it a battleground to gain any advantage in the relegation dogfight, but we can expect a fair few of the new arrivals to hit the ground running and become genuine Premier League stars.