Football: is Premier League spending out of control?

Five years have passed since an English club last won the Champions League, said Barney Ronay in The Guardian. Across the Premier League, standards have declined. But in one area, at least, English football is still “world class”: the transfer market. Premier League clubs spent a total of £1.43bn on new players in this summer’s transfer window – almost twice as much as any other European league. Transfers are now “in danger of overshadowing the football”: many clubs seem to be more concerned with having a “good window” than on where they finish in the table.

“The fees being paid are eye-watering,” said David Conn in the same paper. And it’s all down to the TV deals – notably with Sky and BT Sport – that kicked in last year. As a result, a bonanza of £2.4bn a year is being shared between the league’s 20 clubs. The champions, Chelsea, took home £151m last season, more than anyone else – but even Sunderland, who finished bottom, received £93m. And that means “most clubs are living within their outsized means”, no matter how “mind-boggling” their spending. Take Kyle Walker, who became the world’s most expensive defender when Manchester City signed him for £50m. That may sound crazy for a player who isn’t even that good at defending, but it’s becoming “the new normal”. Lottery winners “receive counsel on how to spend their new wealth”, said Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. It’s clear, however, that “nobody is advising” English clubs. How else to explain the haplessness of Liverpool and Arsenal: both sides have glaring defensive frailties, yet they only brought in one defender each. But for all the spending, the league is still “short of truly global stars”, said Paul Hayward in The Daily Telegraph. In Europe, three transfers broke the £100m mark; here, the top signings were Romelu Lukaku, who joined Manchester United for £75m, and Álvaro Morata, whom Chelsea bought for £65m. Both are “highly accomplished players”, but not up there with the A-listers of Barcelona or PSG.

This window has turned the conventional wisdom about transfers on its head, said Paul Hirst in The Times. We used to think players called the shots, but it’s now clear that clubs are in control. Look at what happened to Arsenal’s Alexis Sánchez, Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho, who were all desperate to move to a bigger club. None of them got their way because their sides are so rich that they could afford to turn down huge offers. So what next for those “would-be runaways”, asked Amy Lawrence in The Guardian. Simple: they have to “buckle down”. Their relationships with their clubs may look irreparable. But if they put in more of those performances that “made them so coveted”, they will quickly be “welcomed back into the fold”.