Transfer deadline days have invariably been the dampest of squibs in recent years but it seems like this one might be shaping up as a zinger. And that’s just at Tottenham.
Across the Premier League as a whole, it’s looking likely to be a record-breaking window. As of 10am today, the 20 clubs combined had spent £1.263 BILLION gross on new players this summer.
Manchester United are leading the way (£145m gross) with Chelsea the biggest net gainers so far (£72.6m) and that’s before any medical and deal for David Luiz is done.
The record spend by the PL clubs combined in one window was the £1.425bn of summer 2017 and as things stand that looks highly likely to be beaten.
Spurs alone may be spending more than £100m today and loads of other deals are bubbling under.
If you think this is all exciting, a word of caution. The Premier League is the only major league in Europe where the value of domestic TV rights has gone DOWN this season, so quite a few PL clubs will be seeing flat or even reduced income in 2019-20.
And yes, the overall TV income haul will be up because foreign rights have grown.
But that will principally benefit the biggest clubs under the new and increasingly iniquitous way the foreign TV revenue will be shared.
So do temper any whooping about the whopping deadline day deals with pause for thought that for some clubs, today’s splurge might be tomorrow’s crisis. We just don’t know whose...