Loans moves dominate business in the Premier League

THE transfer window has finally closed, and it was another record breaker in the Premier League.

But lost in the cavalcade of spending (more on that below) was this striking statistic – only four players moved away from the Premier League for fees greater than £10m.

Two of those – Matt Ritchie and Dwight Gayle – were bought as part of Newcastle’s £57m splurge to pretend they are still a Premier League club (they spent more than half the clubs in the EPL, including Everton and West Ham) as they plot a swift return to England’s top flight.

Another was Graziano Pelle taking the money on offer in the Chinese Super League, and the last was Chelsea’s Mohammed Salah moving permanently to Roma, the club with whom the Egyptian spent last season on loan.

This indicated that Premier League clubs are struggling to shift unwanted players on a permanent basis, potentially due to the higher wages on offer in the Premier League.

Manchester City are reportedly paying up to 60 per cent of goalkeeper Joe Hart’s wages during his loan move to Torino, while City had to send Wilfred Bony, Samir Nasri and Eliaquim Mangala on loan overseas after failing to agree permanent sales for the trio.

Manchester United’s German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger is also on record as saying he is happy to stay at Old Trafford and ‘fight for his place’ (train with the reserves while being paid a reported £190,000 a week) rather than depart the Red Devils.

Just as they did last season, Chelsea lead the Premier League in terms of players leaving the club on loan. USA international Matt Miazga was the 38th and final player Chelsea agreed to loan out this window when he was sent to Vitesse.

Elsewhere, Chelsea have sent Juan Cuadrado on loan to Juventus for three years, Bertrand Traore to Ajax, Baba Rahman to Schalke, Nathan Ake to Bournemouth, Patrick Bamford to Burnley, Loic Remy to Crystal Palace, Kenedy to Watford) and Lucas Paizon to Fulham.

Here, we take you through all the insane figures from another crazy transfer period in the English top flight.

1,175,230,000 – TOTAL SPEND

Combined, EPL clubs spent a little under £1.2b on new players, with a further £100m+ spent by fallen giants Newcastle and Aston Villa.

This summer’s transfer window spending shattered last year’s record total of £870m as Premier League clubs cumulatively broke through the billion pound barrier for the first time in history as clubs spent big on the likes of Paul Pogba (a world record £89m), John Stones and Sadio Mane.

Since the introduction of the transfer window in the early 2000s, player transfer spending has exceeded £8.6bn.

12 – CLUBS WHO BROKE THEIR TRANSFER RECORD

Nowhere was England’s spending more on show that with the figure of 13 clubs that broke their transfer record.

The spending records of Manchester United (Paul Pogba – £89.3m), Crystal Palace (Christian Benteke – £32m), Everton (Yannick Bolasie – £30m), West Ham (Andre Ayew – £20.5m), Southampton (Sofiane Boufal – £16m), Swansea (Borja Baston – £15.5m), Bournemouth (Jordon Ibe – £15m), Sunderland (Didier N’Dong – £13.6m), Hull (Ryan Mason – £13m), Watford (Roberto Pereyra – £13m), West Brom (Nacer Chadli – £13m), Burnley (Jeff Hendrick – £10.5m).

Some, like Leicester and Burnley broke their record more than once. The Premier League champions broke their transfer record twice, with the record evolving from the £16 paid for Ahmed Musa before being smashed on Deadline Day with the £29m capture of Islam Slimani from Sporting Lisbon.

Burnley also broke their transfer record twice, first acquiring Steven Defour for £7.5m from Anderlecht before signing Jeff Hendrick from Derby on Deadline Day for £10.5m.

Liverpool reaped the most benefit, inducing two clubs – Palace and Bournemouth – to buy players surplus to requirements at Anfield for club record fees.

20 – YEARS SINCE AN ENGLISH CLUB HELD THE WORLD TRANSFER RECORD

20 years ago, Newcastle broke the world transfer record to sign local legend Alan Shearer from Blackburn for £15m. The distinction of most expensive transfer ever now resides with Manchester United, who signed Paul Pogba from Juventus for £89.m.

32m – THE BIGGEST DEADLINE DAY DEAL

Chelsea paid the most money on Deadline Day when they paid PSG £32m to re-sign David Luiz from the French champions.

177m – THE MOST SPENT BY AN EPL CLUB

Despite Manchester United’s world record purchase of Pogba, it was local rivals Manchester City that topped the EPL spending chart, outlaying £177m for 10 players, including John Stones (£47.5m), Leroy Sane (£37m), Gabriel Jesus (£27m), Ilkay Gundogan (£20.3m), Claudio Bravo (£17m) and Melbourne City’s Aaron Mooy.

17m – THE LEAST SPENT BY AN EPL CLUB

Promoted Hull City spent the least money out of the Premier League clubs, outlaying only £17m for the likes of Tottenham’s Ryan Mason, Cardiff’s David Marshall and Manchester United pair Will Keane and James Weir.

60m – THE AVERAGE SPEND

On average, Premier League clubs spent £60m each this window.

385m – THE SPEND OF ENGLAND’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CLUBS

The four EPL sides that will feature in this season’s Champions League – Leicester City, Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City – spent a combined £385m, roughtly a third of the total spent by all Premier League clubs

12 – THE BUSIEST CLUB

Promoted Middlesbrough signed the most players with 12, acquiring former Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes, Viktor Fischer from Ajax and Atalanta’s Marten de Roon among others.

4 – THE FEWEST PLAYERS BOUGHT

Surprisingly enough, Manchester United bought the least number of players with four as Jose Mourinho prioritised quality over quantity. We’d say Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a pretty quality haul.

170m – EPL DEADLINE DAY SPENDING

Combined, Premier League clubs reportedly spent £170m on players on Deadline Day alone.

12:05 – BEATING THE DEADLINE

Hull’s capture of Markus Henriksen from AZ Alkmaar was the last Premier League transfer to go through, confirmed just after midnight, UK time.

LOOKING AT EUROPE

Taking a look at the other top divisions on the continent, the next highest spending league was Serie A, with a gross spend of £590m, followed by the Bundesliga with a spend of £460m, La Liga with £400m and Ligue 1 on£ 165m.

TOP FIVE CLUBS FOR LOANING PLAYERS OUT

1. Cheleas – 38

2. Manchester City – 21

3. Burnley – 13

4. Liverpool – 12

5. Swansea – 12