Premier League summer spending crashed through the £1 BILLION barrier on Tuesday night with Arsenal’s capture of Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia the deal that took it past the landmark barrier.
With a day of frantic trading sure to lie ahead before the window shuts, the previous record of close of £900m from last summer will be pulverised.
Manchester City are top spenders so far with £168.2m, followed by Manchester United on £145m with Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger throwing off the shackles of his miserly reputation to be in third place on £96m.
City showcased their financial muscle in 2015 window, bringing in the likes of Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Otamendi, while former Chelsea star Kevin De Bruyne cost a club-record fee of £55m.
The 20 clubs collectively had spent £1.017bn by Tuesday night with perhaps many tens of millions more to follow.
Returning to the club for his second spell, Paul Pogba’s wallet-busting £89m homecoming to Manchester United was easily the biggest transfer of this window and of all time, surpassing the £85m Real Madrid forked out to buy Gareth Bale from Tottenham in 2013.
SUMMER SPENDING IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
Man City: £168.2m
Man Utd: £145.0m
Arsenal: £96m
Liverpool: £67.9m
Chelsea: £67.2m
Watford: £58.4m
Crystal Palace: £51.6m
Everton: £45.2m
West Ham: £42m
Leicester: £41.5m
Southampton: £41.3m
Bournemouth: £34.9m
Swansea: £31.5m
Tottenham: £29.5m
Middlesbrough: £20.8m
Stoke: £18.8m
West Brom: £18.5m
Hull: £14.5m
Sunderland: £13.5m
Burnley: £11m
TOTAL: £1,017.1
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