Football: Fernandez’s transfer record may be short-lived with clubs back to splurge

SINGAPORE – For anyone still labouring under the illusion that the Covid-19 pandemic had changed attitudes towards transfer spending for English Premier League (EPL) clubs, the 2023 January window has delivered a reality check on a never-before-seen scale.

The 2022 winter and summer windows had already made it clear that spending was returning to normal.

A report issued by Fifa in January had highlighted that EPL clubs spent £1.78 billion (S$2.88 billion) in the calendar year, with Italian clubs a distant second at £543.6 million.

English spending made up a third of the global total transfer market in a year that saw £5.25 billion spent worldwide, approaching the 2019 record of £5.93 billion.

But the 2023 January window has laid down a marker that suggests the 2019 record may not last much longer: EPL clubs alone spent more than £815 million, shattering the previous 2018 January record of £430 million.

For the first time since 2011, the British transfer record was broken during a January window.

Fernando Torres’ £50 million move to Chelsea had long been surpassed by summer deals, including Paul Pogba to Manchester United and Jack Grealish’s record-setting £100 million move to Manchester City.

However,

Enzo Fernandez’s £106.8 million move to Chelsea

will be the new benchmark for British clubs heading into this summer, with potential moves for Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane threatening to make it a short-lived record.

The signing of Fernandez, fresh off his World Cup triumph, was just the exclamation point at the end of another “Football Manager” style window from new Chelsea owner Todd Boehly.

Following from where he left off in the summer, Chelsea signed eight players for a combined £323.3 millon and even provoked Uefa into revising their Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules to close the loophole they were exploiting through extremely lengthy contracts to spread the impact of their expenditure.

But ultimately it was Chelsea who put the gloss on the winter window numbers. Most major teams signed only one or two players – with the exception of Nottingham Forest, who continued their quest to sign an entire squad anew as they finalised their 28th signing of the season.

Relatively quiet windows for Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Newcastle United belied the different challenges they find themselves facing and showed the constraints of the January window.

Liverpool stole an early march in grabbing World Cup star Cody Gakpo, but continue to struggle.

United fans were not overly enamoured with target man Wout Weghorst as their “big” signing, but added Marcel Sabitzer on loan once Christian Eriksen’s long-term absence became clearer.

City’s window will be perhaps more remembered for letting Joao Cancelo leave on loan, and Newcastle were not able to follow on significantly from their summer spending as their belts were tightened by FFP considerations – time will tell if Anthony Gordon was worth the £45 million outlay to Everton.

Perhaps the most aggressive club in the window besides Chelsea were Arsenal – finding themselves suddenly in front of the pack, but still light on numbers as they pursue European and domestic trophies.

They signed a back-up centre back in Jakub Kiwior, raided Brighton & Hove Albion successfully once for the bargain of Leandro Trossard.

But they were rebuffed a second time by the Seagulls when they went back with what was definitely not a bargain fee for Moises Caicedo – leading to a last-minute trolley dash to Chelsea to grab Jorginho.

At the other end of the table, Everton’s delay in appointing Sean Dyche as manager affected their ability to bring in much-needed reinforcements.

Southampton signed a few low-cost gambles, Leeds United swung for the fences and Bournemouth showed admirable ambition, but time will tell if it was money well spent.

Across Europe, the big clubs were largely quiet – in Serie A the largest incoming deal was valued at just £5 million, in La Liga just £5.8 million, in the Bundesliga just £8.5 million and in France’s Ligue 1 there was just one deal over £10 million – the move of Vitinha to Marseille from Braga for £28 million.

Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan and Juventus made no signings while AC Milan spent just £443,000 on a back-up goalkeeper and Barcelona spent just £1.6 million on one signing.

The unrivalled financial muscle of the Premier League – with a net spend well over £500 million after EPL clubs recovered less than £100 million in incoming fees – has been shown again, following on from the recent Deloitte Football Money League that showed EPL clubs in 11 of the top 20 positions for the first time.

As we look ahead to the summer, the sense pervades that this is still just the beginning.

With many big teams keeping their powder dry, some big names potentially coming on the market and ownership changes in the offing at several big teams – which surely will be followed by owners splashing the cash to endear themselves to their new fan bases – the stage is set for possibly the biggest transfer window yet.

January 2023 biggest signings:
Enzo Fernandez (Benfica to Chelsea) £106 million
Mykhailo Mudryk (Shakhtar Donetsk to Chelsea) £89m
Anthony Gordon (Everton to Newcastle) £45m
Cody Gakpo (PSV to Liverpool) £37m
Benoit Badiashile (Monaco to Chelsea) £35m

Chelsea’s record window (Total: £327.1 million):
Enzo Fernandez (Benfica) £106m
Mykhailo Mudryk (Shakhtar Donetsk) £89m
Benoit Badiashile (Monaco) £35m
Malo Gusto (Lyon) £30.7m
Noni Madueke (PSV) £30.7m
Andrey Santos (Vasco da Gama) £10m
Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid) £9.7m (loan)
David Fofana (Molde) £8m
Gabriel Slonina (Chicago Fire) £8m