Serie A clubs spent €1.14bn on the transfer market this summer

Serie A clubs spent €1.14bn on the transfer market this summer, second only to the Premier League.

The 2018-19 season kicks off today with Chievo-Juventus and Lazio-Napoli, so the transfer deadline was last night.

Panorama calculate that Italian top flight clubs spent €1.14bn this term, considerably more than the €907m from a year ago.

These sides increased their overall spending by 25 per cent, putting them second behind only the Premier League, who spent €1.42bn.

It is a massive leap forward, considering Serie A spent just €335m in 2014, then €608.8m in 2015 and €707.35m in 2016.

Juventus opened their wallets the most with €250m, over €100m of that going to Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo, €40m for Joao Cancelo, another €40m for Douglas Costa and €35m for Leonardo Bonucci.

The Ballon d’Or winner is the most expensive player transfer of the summer throughout Europe and the only one to go beyond the €100m mark.

After that, Kepa joined Chelsea from Athletic Bilbao for €80m and Alisson Becker left Roma for Liverpool to the tune of €62.5m plus bonuses.

Roma were the second biggest spenders in Serie A, shelling out €136m in 13 different transfers, but thanks to sales of Alisson and Radja Nainggolan, the books remained balanced.