The 2024/25 summer transfer window has officially closed. To summarize the window in a sentence one can safely say some semblance of spends control seemed to have come in the ‘big five’ leagues. While Premier League still spent highest, yet the most notable part is the substantial reduction in the net spend figures for them. Therefore, we felt it right to say – quiet, yet not quite!
This blog looks at the summer transfers in terms of values and its comparisons with previous seasons
Overview
The ‘big five’ leagues spent a combined €5.23bn for 1,494 incoming players in the 2024/25 summer, third highest starting from the 19/20 pre-pandemic period. Premier League’s contribution stands at 45% of the total followed by Serie A at 19%. Few interesting points worth noting:
- 24/25 is the only transfer window where each of the big five leagues have ended up with a negative net balance, that’s spent more than earned
- Premier League’s net balance is reduced by almost half of the 23/24 figures
The Spends
With the change in media rights value post-pandemic for all ‘big five’ leagues, it subsequently affected the transfer spend pattern. In 2019/20 summer, Premier League spends were 27% of the aggregate ‘big five’ spends. Post-pandemic, the share jumped to an average of 47% where as LALIGA spend share dropped as drastically from 25% pre-pandemic to 11% post-pandemic. The chart highlights the pattern
Chelsea FC has been leading the tally as the club with highest spends as well as the club with highest player sales for the second summer window in a row although the spends are more modest in 24/25. The top ten highest spenders have a surprise entry in Brighton & Hove Albion, who seem to have made their ambitions clear with the aggressive spends. Speaking of surprises, the list does not include the usual big spender, Manchester City who contrarily were in the list of player sales with highest value with Julián Alvarez and João Cancelo
The spends trend can be summarised in buckets as given in the infographic. Difference with 223/24 spends pattern is the increase in number of clubs who spent less than €10mn and consequently decrease in the number of clubs whose spends were in the range of €10mn – €50mn. This can be attributed to two key factors, one, financial discipline imposed by individual leagues & UEFA and two, reduction in media rights value subsequently leading to a lower broadcast revenue. Clubs spending above €50mn remained more or less the same in numbers
Net Balance
The most striking takeaway from the 24/25 summer transfer window is the lack of aggregate net positive balance in any of the ‘big five’ leagues as given in the infographic. For the last few years, the German Bundesliga and French Ligue 1 have been consistently registering positive net balances. That trend is reversed this summer leading to a 102% increase over 23/24 summer window net balances value
Saudi Pro League
All the expectations that the big four Saudi clubs would continue to splurge in the 24/25 summer have not been met. From spending over €950mn in 23/24 summer to a very modest spend of €329mn is a huge downturn. Possible strategic rethinking plus the increase in reverse migration of players to Europe maybe some of the factors
Certainly Not the End
There are expectations that further transfer actions will be continued in the winter especially on the player sales side. Having a current squad size in excess of 40 players, Chelsea FC will certainly look to sell the additional players. And the action will go on
Total of 2,865 players involving the big five leagues changed sides in the summer 24/25 window and a large chunk of them were facilitated by agents or intermediaries. In order to become an agent, one has to pass and obtain a 75% pass rate on the FIFA exam following which a licence can be obtained. At SBI, we have a specialised course preparing you for the Agent Exam beginning September 16th, 2024. You can find all the required details here
