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Premier League clubs spend record £950m in 2014-15

Premier League clubs spent more than £950 million in the 2014-15 summer and winter transfer windows - a new record, according to a new study.

Research from the business advisory firm Deloitte showed that Premier League clubs had spent £80m going into deadline day on Monday, but a number of late deals saw a similar spend - £130m - to the previous year's winter window.

Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal - who signed Wilfried Bony, Juan Cuadrado and Gabriel Paulista respectively - ended the window as the top flight's highest spenders, grossing around 50% of the total Premier League spend.

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The net spend fell well short of the record of £225m set in 2011, when Fernando Torres moved from Liverpool to Chelsea for £50m, though clubs spent more on deadline day - £45m - than they did on 2014's deadline day, which saw £35m change hands.

Despite a relatively quiet month of deals, Deloitte's research shows that the 2014-15 season has still been a record year for Premier League transfers, with clubs spending more than £950m - Manchester United's £153m summer spree being a standout figure - to beat last season's record of £760m.

Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: "Given the record level of spending seen in the summer, it is not entirely surprising that we haven't seen a new record for the January window. However, with all Premier League clubs recording record revenues, we might have expected one or two more major deals in this window.

The acquisition of new players from overseas clubs accounted for £65m (50%) of Premier League clubs' gross transfer spending, followed by acquisitions from fellow Premier League clubs (£55m, 42%), and acquisitions from Football League clubs (£10m, 8%).

In aggregate, Premier League clubs have now spent over £1.3 billion to acquire new players in the 13 January transfer windows between 2003 and 2015). On average, the clubs' transfer spending in January is equivalent to around 20% of total transfer spending in each year.

Top division clubs in Italy are the second-highest gross spenders this January, with total reported transfer spending of around 50% of the Premier League total.

Total transfer spending by top division clubs in both Germany and Spain was around 40% of that by Premier League clubs. Meanwhile gross transfer spending by French clubs was around a quarter of that seen at Premier League clubs.

Here's a graphic showing @Deloitte figures on @premierleague spending - 2014-15 witnessed £950m record spend. pic.twitter.com/vZ0KMh0tg2— PA Dugout (@PA_dugout) February 3, 2015

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