A quiet winter in the transfer market

Big clubs in Europe, particularly those in England, have avoided extravagant spending in the January transfer window

LONDON: Premier League clubs were reluctant to plunge into the inflated January marketplace this season -- in stark contrast to last year, when they splashed out a record £430 million on transfer fees. Just £180 million ($235 million) was spent last month, according to finance experts at Deloitte, with the “Big Six” notably restrained.

Chelsea spent around £55 million to sign US international Christian Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund but he was loaned back to the German club for the rest of the season.

Other than that, loan deals bringing Gonzalo Higuain to Chelsea and Denis Suarez to Arsenal were the only moves that caught the eye for the top teams.

SUMMER WINDOW

Liverpool led the way in the summer transfer window, spending more than £160 million and that business has proven to be shrewd, with Jurgen Klopp’s men five points clear at the top of the table. Manager Pep Guardiola repeatedly said champions Manchester City were not in the market for new players over the past month. And any plans for arrivals at Manchester United may have been put on ice as the club waits to appointment a new permanent manager.

The summer transfer window is when most clubs believe the best business is done, with January often a seller’s market.

“It’s a very difficult period to bring players in,” said Everton’s director of football Marcel Brands when he correctly predicted a lack of transfer activity at the club’s annual general meeting early in the month. “We don’t want to let our best players go, also other clubs don’t. I’m more focused on the summer window than the January window.”

BREXIT UNCERTAINTY

Britain’s looming exit from the European Union on March 29 is casting a cloud of uncertainty over all British businesses.

“Clubs still don’t know what the post-exit arrangements will be, not just with players but across the whole portfolio of their activities,” Simon Chadwick, professor of sports enterprise at the University of Salford told AFP. On top of potential complications in obtaining work visas for foreign players, any hit to the British economy could be felt by the clubs in ticket sales, merchandising and future television rights deals.