Premier League clubs smash record
PREMIER League clubs spent a January transfer deadline-day record £150 million on Wednesday to take their overall outlay for the month to £430 million, according to analysis by Deloitte’s Sports Business Group.
The most expensive move on the final day of the winter transfer window came when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joined Arsenal from Borussia Dortmund for a club record £56 million. Tottenham signed Lucas Moura for £23 million, and Olivier Giroud and Andre Ayew made £18 million moves — to Chelsea and Swansea respectively — as deadline-day spending passed the record set in 2011.
Announcements continued to trickle in long after the 11pm GMT deadline, with Eliaquim Mangala’s loan move from Manchester City to Everton made public at 0.53am on Thursday.
The top-flight clubs had already made this a record January transfer window, beating another record set in 2011 by £205 million.
Then, Chelsea completed a £50 million move for Liverpool’s Fernando Torres, and the Reds recruited £22.7 million Ajax striker Luis Suarez and paid Newcastle £35 million for Andy Carroll to take the deadline-day spend to £135 million. Seven years on, three other strikers made the headlines, with Aubameyang’s move reliant on Dortmund taking Chelsea forward Michy Batshuayi on loan, and the Blues replacing him with Arsenal’s Giroud.
The most expensive Premier League signing of the January transfer window actually went through on the opening day of the month, when Liverpool signed defender Virgil van Dijk from Southampton for £75 million.
Leicester’s protracted move for midfielder Adrien Silva also went through on the same day, and before the week was out Everton had paid a club record £27 million to sign Beşiktaş forward Cenk Tosun. Later in the window, the Toffees made a second £20 millionplus signing in winger Theo Walcott.
Alexis Sanchez swapped Arsenal for Manchester United as one of the window’s most-talkedabout deals went through on January 22, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan going the other way.
Manchester City had been heavily linked with Sanchez, but switched their attention to a move for Leicester’s Riyad Mahrez, which they walked away from on deadline day, 24 hours after paying £57 million to make defender Aymeric Laporte their club record signing.