English top-flight has spent more than the rest of Europe’s top five leagues combined
The Premier League has set a new summer transfer spending record with more than a week of the window still to run, after Leeds United secured the signing of AC Milan forward Noah Okafor.
Leeds, who were promoted back to the top flight at the end of last season, paid around £18m for the Switzerland international on Thursday.
Okafor’s arrival came less than 24 hours after Bournemouth announced the signing of Amine Adli from Bayer Leverkusen, pushing overall spending beyond the £2.36bn mark set in 2023.
That figure could still rise further before the 1 September deadline, with other transfer deals certain to follow in the week and a half before then.
Even so, the Premier League has already spent more than the rest of Europe’s top five leagues – Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and La Liga – combined.
Liverpool are the highest spending English club this summer, having committed close to £290m, including the £116m paid to prise Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen. Notorious spenders Chelsea follow closely at £246m, while Manchester United (£208m) and Arsenal (£194m) have also made huge outlays.
Manchester City only claim a middle berth with £108m because the upwards of £200m they spent this year on the likes of Omar Marmoush and Nico Gonzalez counts towards January spending.
Smaller Premier League clubs have also spent significant sums. Brentford, Bournemouth, Burnley and Sunderland have all broken their transfer records this summer, while Nottingham Forest broke theirs twice.
Forest first spent £34m to sign winger Dan Ndoye, before spending another £37.5m to bring in winger Omari Hutchison from Ipswich.
