Manchester United host Manchester City at Old Trafford on Sunday 13 September, and only one of them makes this list. City spent more than any club in the division over the summer, while United ranked 11th on £148m, behind newly promoted Ipswich Town.
Premier League clubs spent a record £3.48bn in total, and anyone weighing the Man United vs Man City odds is pricing a squad gap the window widened rather than closed.
- Manchester City, £458m
Manchester City spent around £458m this summer, and officially became the League’s biggest spender of the window on the final day.
Enzo Fernandez arrived from Chelsea for £125m, matching the Premier League record fee Liverpool paid Newcastle for Alexander Isak a year earlier. Elliot Anderson joined from Nottingham Forest for £116m, briefly the most expensive British player in history, with Iliman Ndiaye, Ayyoub Bouaddi and Allan behind them. Savinho went the other way to Tottenham and Nico Gonzalez to Newcastle for £48m.
- Chelsea, £349m
Chelsea have spent the second-most money this summer, with a recorded £349m of purchases. Fernandez went to City for £125m, Nicolas Jackson to Aston Villa for £48m and Andrey Santos to United for £48m plus add-ons, which funded the lot.
Their own headline signing was Morgan Rogers, bought from Villa for a British record £117m, taking that record off Anderson weeks after he set it.
- Tottenham, £302m
Roberto De Zerbi’s rebuild was the earliest and the boldest. After narrowly avoiding relegation last season and injuries plaguing most of the squad, Spurs knew they had to spend big to fix the problems. Spurs were top of the table in mid-window on just under £230m, made up of £92.5m for Sandro Tonali, £85m for Mateus Fernandes and £52m for Jan Paul van Hecke.
Tonali is a club record, rising to £100m with add-ons. Savinho arrived from City, Marmoush came on loan with a £60m obligation to buy, and captain Cristian Romero was sold to Atletico Madrid.
- Newcastle, £268m
This was a rebuild forced on Newcastle rather than chosen. They recouped roughly £236m by selling three of their best players, Tonali to Spurs, Bruno Guimaraes to Arsenal and Anthony Gordon to Barcelona. They spread the money across eight signings, most of them under 24. Nico Gonzalez came from City for £47m, Bazoumana Toure from Hoffenheim for £43m and Amar Dedic from Benfica for £30m, with goalkeeper Ewen Jaouen added from Reims. Matthias Jaissle’s squad is younger than it was in June, and short of three players who were among its best.
- Aston Villa, £256m
Villa spent heavily, but they sold better than almost everyone. Rogers went for £117m, Ezri Konsa to Arsenal for £51m and Ollie Watkins to Al Hilal for £50m.
They spent a total of £256m, and in came Johan Manzambi from Freiburg for £51m, Jackson from Chelsea for £48m and Joao Gomes from Wolves for £34m, plus Leon Goretzka on a free and loans for Alejandro Garnacho and Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Eight signings, 17 departures, one squad rebuilt in a single summer.
- Liverpool, £198m
After Liverpool had a poor title defence attempt last season, they have spent just shy of £200m. Bradley Barcola was the most expensive signing of the summer, costing £106m from Paris Saint-Germain, rising to £123m with add-ons.
Victor Munoz, Jeremy Jacquet, Ronald Araujo, Ifeanyi Ndukwe and goalkeeper Lucca Brughmans followed. Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate all left on frees, which is why the sales column reads so thin.
Arsenal, absent from this list on £194m, head the Premier League winner odds at 5/6, with City at 16/5 and United at 16/1. On Sunday, £458m of new signings visits £148m of them.
