Premier League January spend hits highest level since 2011 as season spend tops £1bn
Premier League clubs racked up the second-highest spend of any January transfer window this year, taking the season's total spend past £1bn for the first time.
According to figures from Deloitte, Premier League teams spent roughly £175m in the winter window – contributing to a total bill of £1.045bn for the season.
Read more: Every single move of the January transfer window in one graphic
Only in 2011 have Premier League clubs spent more, when Chelsea broke a record to sign Fernando Torres for £50m, sparking a Liverpool spending spree on Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez which helped take the league's spend to £965m.
Yet this season's spending did not come from the league's biggest clubs. Between them, Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool spent less than £15m on new players.
Instead, it was Newcastle, Norwich, Stoke City and Bournemouth emerged as the league's top spenders.
The increasing financial muscle of the Premier League's middle class was demonstrated in the transfers of highly-rated European talent such as Stoke's purchase of Giannelli Imbula from Porto and Bournemouth's loan of Roma's Juan Iturbe.
In fact, Deloitte found that his January Premier League clubs spent more on players from overseas than ever before, spending £110m compared to £65m last year.
"This January’s spending has been driven in large part by clubs in the bottom half of the table", said Dan Jones from the Sports Business Group at Deloitte.
"The promise of the new broadcast deal for Premier League clubs from next season onwards and the threat of missing out through relegation is contributing to clubs investing in an attempt to stay in the league.”