Premier League Bucks Recession: Andrei Arshavin Signs

THE  January transfer window slammed shut yesterday. You might think, given the wintry economic climate, that it was a fairly quiet month for transfer activity - hell no!

Andrei Ashavin. Our scoop!

Quite the opposite: Premier League clubs spent a whopping £178m last month, more than in any previous window. The previous record was last season’s mark of £146m.

When the January transfer window was first introduced in 2003, clubs spent a meagre £35m on players.

The two biggest spending clubs were newly rich Man City (approx £52m) and Tottenham (approx £44m). The record figure is slightly misleading when you consider that none of the Prem’s big four - Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal - spent big in January.

Unlike in previous seasons, most of the wheeling and dealing was done between Premier League clubs- around £85m worth of deals were negotiated between Prem chairmen.

The highest-profile signing from a foreign club is Arsenal’s acquisition of Andrei Arshavin (they got their man in the end) from Russian club Zenit St Petersburg - a deal that the Gooners are set to formally announce later today.

There you have it - if you want a recession-proof business, found a football club. Simple really.

Anorak

Posted: 3rd, February 2009 | In: Sports Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink