The British transfer record was smashed on deadline day as an unprecedented January transfer window ended with Premier League clubs having spent £2.8bn during the 2022-23 season.
Chelsea’s 121m euro (£107m) deal for Benfica’s Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez – once confirmed – will take the total expenditure by top-flight clubs in January to a record-breaking £815m. More than £275m was spent on deadline day alone before the window closed for English clubs at 23:00 GMT on Tuesday.
The deadline day outlay was an increase of 83% on the previous January record of £150m, set in 2018. And, while an all-time high season expenditure across both the summer and winter windows was guaranteed after a record of £1.9bn was set in September, the final total is double the previous record of £1.4bn in 2017.
The 2018 winter record spend of £430m by Premier League clubs had also already been smashed prior to Tuesday’s deadline day, with the eventual total in 2023 an increase of 90% on that – and almost triple the previous January window (£295m), according to financial services firm Deloitte.
