£1 billion MASSIVE PREM SPEND’S ON THIS SUMMER
Top English clubs will splash the cash again
THE Premier League is set to become the Billionaire Club in the next 10 weeks.
The transfer window officially opens on July 1 and by the time it closes it is expected that spending by top-flight clubs alone will top £1billion – again.
In the last summer window for transfers Premier League clubs spent £1,189,480,000 on players.
That massive spend included the world-record signing of Paul Pogba, who moved back to Manchester United from Juventus.
The £89million fee topped the previous mark of £86m for Gareth Bale’s move from Tottenham to Real Madrid.
And this summer is expected to see the spending of a year ago increased to make it a record-breaking transfer window.
There is already a spending war under way between the two Manchester clubs.
City and United are expected to shell out in excess of £200m EACH as managers Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho demand the arrival of their top targets in a bid to challenge for the Premier League crown.
And that Pogba record will be a thing of the past if Everton get their way and Chelsea pay £100m for striker Romelu Lukaku, 24, although £70m may be a more realistic figure.
United’s biggest signing is expected to be Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata, 24, at a fee somewhere between £65m and £78m.
It might seem a lot of money for a player who is not a regular starter for the Champions League winners, who prefer France international Karim Benzema in the central striking role.
But Morata’s stats are impressive and Mourinho knows all about his ability and potential to become even better, having first managed him at The Bernabeu seven years ago, promoting him to the first team at the age of just 17.
The Spaniard was Real’s second-top scorer in the season which has just ended, with 20 goals in 43 appearances.
In La Liga matches he has scored 25 goals for Madrid in 63 appearances since his debut in 2010, while on loan at Juventus he scored 15 times in 63 games.
And for Spain, he has nine goals in 20 matches.
United have already secured one of Mourinho’s targets – Benfica’s Sweden centre-back Victor Lindelof, 22, for £31m.
It’s City, though, who are leading the way in the spending race.
They’ve already spent £78m on midfielder Bernardo Silva, 22, from Monaco for £43m – the biggest deal so far – and goalkeeper Ederson from Benfica.
Ederson, 23, has become the most expensive No.1 in the world at £35m.
And the record-breaking nature of the summer has been underlined by the sale of Sunderland’s Jordan Pickford to Everton for £30m.
That has made Pickford, 23, the most expensive British goalkeeper.
Busy Everton boss Ronald Koeman has also just spent £23.6m on Ajax midfielder Davy Klaassen, 24.
So far, at this early stage of the summer transfer market, Premier League clubs have already spent more than £200m.
And there is a lot more to come with champions Chelsea, FA Cup winners Arsenal a nd Premier League runners-up Tottenham all still to flex their spending muscles.