Football
ESPN staff 10y

Record transfer window as Premier League clubs spend £835 million

Premier League clubs shattered the previous summer spending record as deadline day took the total transfer window spend to 835 million pounds, according to Deloitte.

- Delaney: What did we learn on Deadline Day?

Manchester United made late moves for Radamel Falcao and Daley Blind while Arsenal signed Red Devils striker Danny Welbeck on a permanent deal to top last summer's total of 630 million pounds for the English top flight.

Deadline day spending was down 55 million to 85 million compared to 2013, though United and the Gunners secured the two biggest Premier League deals of the summer earlier in the window: Louis van Gaal's side signed Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid in a British record 59.7 million-pound move, while Arsenal took Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona for around 30 million pounds.

Deloitte estimate that United's total spend -- nearly 150 million pounds on Di Maria, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo, Daley Blind and Falcao -- was the highest gross spend by any English club in any transfer window, with Liverpool and Chelsea following on 117 million and 91.3 million pounds respectively.

Dan Jones, partner at Deloitte, said: "We continue to see the increased resources that Premier League clubs enjoy, as a result of improved broadcast deals, translate into investment in players.

"Last season the average Premier League club received over 25 million pounds more in central broadcast distributions than they did in 2012-13, which has helped fuel a new record spend this summer."

Elsewhere in Europe, Bundesliga clubs spent a total 278.9 million euros during the summer transfer period -- some eight million less than in the previous year. Borussia Dortmund topped the ranking with a spend of 53.2 million euros, followed by Bayern Munich, who invested 50.1 million euros.

Following the late arrival of Shinji Kagawa, Dortmund crossed the 50 million-euro mark in their bid to replace the outgoing Robert Lewandowski and to increase their squad depth.

With the 36 million-euro investment in Medhi Benatia and Xabi Alonso during the final week of the transfer period, Bayern Munich spent a total of 50.1 million euros this summer, but, unlike Dortmund, also had substantial sales with the departures of Toni Kroos and Mario Mandzukic.

The total spend in Serie A amounted to around 335 million euros according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, with 306 million earned by Italian top-flight clubs given the high-profile departures of Benatia to Bayern and Ciro Immobile to Dortmund.

ESPN correspondents Stephan Uersfeld and Ben Gladwell contributed to this report.

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