Europe looks on helplessly at ‘wild’ spending by Premier League clubs
Another transfer window of record-breaking spending in the Premier League has led to more soul-searching around Europe, as clubs on the continent are unable to stop the drain of talent to England.
Chelsea have stolen most of the headlines with their eye-watering purchase of Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Benfica for an English record of 121 million euros ($132m).
But he was just one of seven players to move to Stamford Bridge from clubs elsewhere in Europe, and Chelsea were not the only ones spending big.
Of the top 20 January transfers according to specialist site Transfermarkt, only two did not involve Premier League clubs - one was Marseille selling Brazil midfielder Gerson back to Flamengo, and the other was the French side buying Portuguese striker Vitinha from Braga in a 32 million-euro deal.
There were no major moves involving any of the continent’s powerhouses, with not even Paris Saint-germain getting out their chequebook - they failed in an at
tempt to sign Hakim Ziyech on loan from Chelsea.
The spending of the London outfit under new American owner Todd Boehly’s consortium was watched particularly closely by Borussia Dortmund, who will be their opponents in the last 16 of the Champions League this month.
“It is very wild, you just have to say that. They are running in their own race,” Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl said.
The Premier League’s financial dominance is fuelled by domestic and international television revenues which are far higher than in any of the other so-called Big Five European leagues, in Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
Eleven of the top 20 revenuegenerating clubs in the world last year are from the Premier League, according to Deloitte’s latest Football Money League.
The rest now struggle to keep up, and La Liga has also accused Premier League sides of being “doped” because of phenomenally wealthy shareholders putting in additional money to then spend on new players.