Austerity, in terms of transfer fees at least, is the watch-word for English football league clubs with the Premiership a major contributor to the reduced value of transfer fees in the Summer 2010 Window. Total fees paid for players has reduced by £50 million to £345 million, a 30% decrease form 2009, according to Grant Thornton's Football Transfer Tracker*.
Although transfer fee expenditure has reduced significantly there has been an increase in net expenditure** of £157 million; although this is largely as a result of expenditure by Manchester City.
"English football clubs continue to be in a state of financial uncertainty. With the exception of Manchester City, no-one is really spending. City's expenditure has been with overseas clubs and so there has been no trickle-down effect for other English based clubs. We have seen more high profile free transfers, for example the moves of Joe Cole and William Gallas as we see clubs looking for ways of reducing or restructuring their wage bills,” says Joe McLean, partner at Grant Thornton’s Leeds office.
The belt-tightening is evident in the fact that between them Aston Villa, Everton, Liverpool, Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur have spent £120 million less in this transfer window compared with the Summer 2009 window.
Premiership Squad Composition Rules
The money paid by Premiership clubs to foreign clubs for players has increased from £154 million to £232 million. Of this Manchester City's acquisitions of Yaya Toure, David Silva, Jerome Boateng, Mario Balotelli and Aleksander Kolarov contributed approximately £100 million. In contrast Manchester City's only major investment in an English player was the £16 million (plus Stephen Ireland) paid for James Milner from Aston Villa.
The Premier League’s Chief Executive argued that the newly introduced squad composition rules would make buying home grown talent more attractive however this does not appear to have been reflected in this transfer window. English and Welsh players accounted for only 16% of all Premiership clubs’ expenditure, down from 36% in 2009.
“There was much talk when the rules were introduced that this may positively influence the buying behaviour of Premiership clubs - however it may be that it is too soon to tell if this will have the desired impact on the make up of premiership teams. However, it does appear that clubs are utilising the fact that regardless of status, any player under 21 may be used to augment the squad,” continues McLean.
“Transfer fees and player wages are two key areas of expenditure for clubs - the data from this window shows that transfer spending at least is being reined back,” concludes McLean.