Transfer deadline day: Premier League spending passes £1bn as clubs flex their financial firepower

Premier League clubs have spent more than £1bn in the summer transfer market for the first time

Paul Pogba during his first training session back at Manchester United (Getty)

Premier League clubs have spent more than £1bn in the transfer window this summer after the total money spent broke into 10 figures on the deadline day, with Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal all splashing the cash to strengthen their squads.

United broke the transfer world record to sign Paul Pogba from Juvtentus in a £89m deal, and their additions of Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan ensured that their spending reached the £145m mark – without taking into consideration the large signing-on fee that striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will have received after signing as a free agent.

City meanwhile saw the Pep Guardiola era get off to an expensive start as the former Bayern Munich and Barcelona manager sanctioned moves for Ilkay Gundogan, John Stones and Leroy Sane among many others. With Nolito, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Bagriel Jesus, Marlos Moreno and Claudio Bravo all following – though Zinchenko and Moreno departed on loan – City have spent over £177m this summer to surge ahead of their rivals as the highest spenders.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger bowed to pressure from fans and spent large this summer, having moved early to sign Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach. The low-cost additions of Rob Holding and Takuma Asano followed, before Wenger responded to fierce criticism of his transfer policy by sealing moves for Lucas Perez and Shkodran Mustafi in the final week of the transfer window.

The Gunners have spent around £90m in the transfer window, surpassing their previous record of £80m set two years ago when Wenger bought the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck.

At the start of transfer deadline day, accountants Deloitte put Premier League spending at £1,005,000,000, with plenty of last-minute deals expected as both Chelsea and Tottenham seek new players for the 23:00 deadline.

Deloitte added that it was the first time that clubs in the top flight had broken the £1bn barrier, having passed the previous spending record of £870m set last summer, and the basis for the large increase has been put down to the new Premier League broadcast deal that saw £5.2bn spent on live coverage of matches for the next three years.