Premier League Clubs Break January Transfer Record and Head for £100m

You might think the 2008 January transfer window has been a bit quiet, with only Nicolas Anelka’s £15m move up the social ladder to Chelsea standing out. But what if I told you that Premier League clubs have already spent £93m on players this month, making January 2008 the most expensive, most money-moving January in English football history? Well, it is.

Avram Grant’s first shopping spree makes Chelsea the biggest spenders, bringing in Anelka, Branislav Ivanovic and young Franco di Santo for a combined £27.4m. Liverpool have spent £6m on Martin Skrtel, and Manchester United have gambled small amounts on Angolan striker Manucho and those new Brazilian Nevilles. But – Chelsea aside – these are hardly gigantic sums, and Arsenal haven’t spent a single penny. So how has the transfer record been broken?

The answer lies with the smaller clubs. The ever increasing TV money available to all Premier League clubs (yep, they actually pay Derby County money to be on TV) means even clubs at the lower end of the table cold afford to live it up a bit and buy themselves something nice this winter. James McFadden’s £5m move to Birmingham City didn’t get many headlines, but is a fine example of a smaller club splashing out on a relatively expensive (and pretty damn good) player. Derby have spent a combined £3.5m on Emmanuel Villa and Robbie Savage while Bolton spent the same amount on Gretar Steinsson.

It all adds up. And with eight days to go that total of £93m is going to rise even further. There’s Eddie Johnson’s recent move to Fulham to account for, Marlon King looks like he’ll be re-joining the Premier League any day now and Kevin Keegan hasn’t even begun spending Mike Ashley’s money at Newcastle yet. So surely by the time February 1st 2008 rolls around we’ll be looking back on the first £100m January transfer window.

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Category: English Premier League