Transfer market: Arsenal, Swansea City, other 3 BPL clubs with profit
Liverpool made a last-gasp offer of £82million to sign Monaco winger Thomas Lemar, according to reports.
Lemar, 21, was heavily linked with a summer move to the Premier League with Liverpool and Arsenal interested in securing his signature.
The France international, who helped guide Monaco to the Ligue 1 title for the first time since 2000 last season, was the subject of rejected Having sealed a homecoming for striker Wilfried Bony, as well as a sensational loan swoop for Bayern Munich’s Renato Sanches, it’s safe to say that it’s been a very good transfer window for Swansea City.
The Swans have arguably responded well to the disappointment of losing star midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson to Everton earlier in the summer, with Clement making several strong additions to his squad ahead of the new season. But despite a sensational Deadline Day, there are definite positives off the pitch too, with Swansea also making the largest profit of any Premier League club in the current window, according to figures gathered by Bonus Code Bets.
The Swans made around £22 million this summer, with the sales of Sigurdsson (£45 million), Fernando Llorente (£13 million) and Jack Cork (£8 million) helping offset the £45 million spent on new recruits.
Including cuts to the wage bill, Swansea’s overall revenue from the window stands at £96 million - 24 per cent of their total revenue as a club.
Only four other clubs - Arsenal, Burnley, bids from both clubs.
Liverpool viewed him as a potential replacement for top Barcelona target Philippe Coutinho.
While Arsenal made him their No 1 transfer target with Arsene Wenger keen to bolster his ranks and kickstart a new era at the club.
The Gunners tabled a deadline day bid of £92m to try and lure the Frenchman to the Emirates.
But Lemar personally rejected Stoke and Tottenham made a profit during this window, which saw Premier League clubs take overall spending to an eye-watering total of £1.4 billion, which roughly works out as £16.8 million a day.
Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea all spend £551 million between them, with the two Manchester clubs accounting for 40 per cent of the league’s total net spend.
Elsewhere, Watford’s net spend of £38.7 million, which includes the purchases of Andre Gray and Nathaniel Chalobah, was found to be the equivalent of 44 per cent of their total club revenue - the highest of any club in the league.
Alexander Kostin of Bonus Code Bets commented, “It is fascinating to see how transfer spending stacks up against clubs’ revenues. We all know the Manchester clubs are big spenders, but we can see that City in particular are running at quite an unsustainable rate. Perhaps the Citizens should look to Chelsea for a more viable business model as they have made a minimal loss in recent years, despite some major signings. their approach in favour of staying at Monaco - who themselves accepted the bid - which resulted in Alexis Sanchez failing to secure his move to Manchester City.
However, French outlet L’Equipe claim Liverpool also made a late offer of £82m, exclusive of add-ons, to try and sign him.
It is said this bid came off the back of an earlier proposal of £74m, plus £8m in add-ons.
But the newspaper claim both of these bids were rejected by Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev.
However, this could come as a blow to Lemar, who was apparently told he would be allowed to leave the club if an ‘exceptional offer’ came in.
It is also suggested that he was only interested in joining Liverpool if he was to leave the Stade Louis II.
Lemar is contracted to Monaco until the summer of 2020. Manchester City will hit Arsenal with an official complaint after the Gunners blocked their Alexis Sanchez deal after it was signed, according to reports.
Chilean newspaper El Murcurio claims Pep Guardiola and his Etihad bosses are now considering legal action over the botched £60million transfer.
Sanchez took time away from his international camp with Chile to address the dragging situation and it was widely expected he would complete the deal before he faced Paraguay on Thursday night.
City bosses had sent their top delegates to the World Cup qualifier to get the deal over the line.
The collapse is believed to be down to Arsene Wenger’s failure to complete the £92m transfer of Monaco man Thomas Lemar that same evening.
Wenger was in the stands to watch his No1 target destroy Holland in a 4-0 win – bagging a brace in France – and it must have been painful for the Gunners boss to see.