Transfer market state of play: Premier League flexes financial muscle again

Transfer market state of play: Premier League flexes financial muscle again as Serie A spends big too Make us your Google favourite The summer transfer window slams shut this week and most clubs in Europe have just two days left to add to their respective squads. The spending has already been off the scale, particularly in England, and with clubs scrambling to get deals over the line on or just before Deadline Day, there could still be some massive transfers to come. Here's how the main leagues across Europe compare in spending so far... Premier League Total Spend: €3.237 billion Biggest Deal: Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa to Chelsea) €137.3m The Premier League spending will almost certainly surpass the record of €3.62bn achieved last summer, as the Premier League dominance over the transfer market shows no signs of slowing. Deals for the likes of Enzo Fernandez to Manchester City are still to go through, coupled with the predictable last-minute spending. What’s also notable is the €1.70bn - or 52% - of deals taking place involving two English clubs. This is a record high amount and does suggest the PL is looking closer to home to conduct their business. To put that into perspective, the cumulative spending of deals involving only English clubs is still 37% higher than the collective total of the next closest league, Serie A. But, some of the deals this summer have warranted a collective gasp from onlookers who might cynically suggest that the circular nature of a few - Aston Villa and Chelsea - might be done for the purpose of the accountants as much as anything else. Serie A Total Spend: €1.082 billion Biggest Deal: Goncalo Ramos (PSG to Milan) €74m Whether the Italian clubs have the money to spend or not, the stature of a number of sides - namely Juventus, Inter, Milan, Roma, Napoli and the new boys Como - demand a level of spending that perhaps isn’t expected in other leagues. As such, these six have spent 64% of the total in this window, securing Serie A’s position as comfortably the biggest spending league outside of England. Some interesting deals have been struck - not least Ramos, who will hope he performs better than the last few ill-fated Milan forwards (we’re looking at you, Christopher Nkunku and Santiago Gimenez). It’s certainly to be more exciting than some of the other closed shops like Germany and France, but Inter remain a formidable yardstick and have spent €101.8m themselves on some - on paper - smart deals from England, leading the Italian press to brand them ‘Inter fish-and-chips’. That name probably needs some work. La Liga Total Spend: €719.5 million Biggest Deal: Yan Diomande (RB Leipzig to Real Madrid) €125m Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid make up over 73% of the entire total of the spending in a league where the smaller teams are losing talent and not really replacing it. Villarreal and Betis have Champions League football ahead and yet have spent just €46.8m between them this summer and their net spend is just €16.37m. Barcelona and Real Madrid have flexed - again - as Atletico grimly try to cling onto them at the top, but the manner in which the big two have activated commercially and have developed their stadiums means that the revenue gulf will only go in one direction. Smaller La Liga teams simply have no means of building competitive teams beyond producing their own talent, and that always moves through waves based on who comes through. If the Premier League doesn’t spend here - as they haven’t this summer - then the number effectively spent also decreases. Bundesliga Total Spend: €666.9 million Biggest Deal: Ismael Saibari (PSV to Bayern) €50m Bundesliga’s spend looks to have fallen back to the mean after spending more than normal last summer, fuelled by some blockbuster sales (Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Benjamin Sesko, among others). A relatively low-key Bayern did their business early and not much else has followed suit beyond Dortmund looking to strengthen. RB Leipzig have landed the big sale of the summer with Diomande headed to Real Madrid and haven’t looked to spend much of it - yet. Their business might be still to come. Indeed, like the Bundesliga as a whole, they remain massively in profit for the summer. But there are no massive transfers happening outside of Bayern, with most deals in the €23m-€29m range. The Bundesliga often does good business at these numbers and is able to sell at a profit in future - but if the Premier League is