Premier League clubs spent £1.24bn on transfers up to the 22/23 season opener

On Friday, the 5th of August the curtain of the new 2022/2023 Premier League season was raised. In the opening match Arsenal defeated their London neighbours Crystal Palace 2:0, displaying solid football, with new players Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus present in the starting lineup.

In a recent report, Paul Kemp from SportingPedia. found that the 20 Premier League clubs have spent a combined of £1.24bn on 65 new players thus far, already eclipsing the spending spree of summer 2021, which was estimated at £1.2bn after the market’s closure on 31st of August 2021.

From the opening of the summer transfer window on the 10th of June until the kick-off of the first Premier League game of the 22/23 season last Friday, 5th of August, a total of 65 players either changed clubs or joined the Premier League from abroad. Before the Premier League curtain raiser a few clubs had publicly admitted they were not fully finished with their dealings and expected more signings.

However, the 1st round of results is already in and given the outcomes some sides might want to reconsider their stance. On average, each of the 20 Premier League sides had paid transfer fees for 3.25 new players, spending £62.23m per team for reinforcements so far.

The new boys from Nottingham Forest have been the most-active, forking out fees for 9 new signings, while Leicester have been avoiding to pay for incoming transfers thus far. 22 players performing in defensive positions joined the Premier League clubs until 19:59 on Friday. The next most sought-after were the midfielders 19, the forwards 17 and the goalkeepers 7.

Amid the much discussed and prolonged change of ownership at Chelsea the club has taken new direction under the guidance of Todd Boehly. The Londoners have been the biggest spenders of the transfer window until Friday 19:59 p.m., when the new season kicked-off, forking out £167.93m for 5 new players.

The Blues are far from finished with their transfer dealings and a few more footballers are expected in London before the deadline on September 1st.

Analyst, Sean Foster expects the teams’ to remain active and added: “Most of the clubs still need new additions and are not finished doing business. As evident from the opening round of games Manchester United, Leicester and Chelsea desperately need fresh blood in order to compete at the highest level.

“I’m convinced that when the window closes on 1st of September, the total transfer fees will easily surpass the £1.5bn valuation, as there will be a few more marquee signings commanding high prices.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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