Transfer deadline day: Premier League clubs net January profit

Odion Ighalo, Robbie Brady, Manolo Gabbiadini and Mamadou SakhoImage source, Other
Image caption,

Odion Ighalo, Robbie Brady, Manolo Gabbiadini and Mamadou Sakho were among the deadline-day deals

Premier League clubs have recorded a transfer window profit for the first time - despite spending reaching a six-year January high of £215m.

Southampton and Burnley made late deadline-day deals, while Odion Ighalo moved from Watford to China for £20m.

Saints paid about £14m for Napoli's Manolo Gabbiadini, and the Clarets signed Robbie Brady for up to £13m

However, top-flight sides brought in £40m more than they paid out, according to finance analysts Deloitte.

Premier League teams have spent a record £1.38bn on transfers in the 2016-17 season, after a summer outlay of £1.165bn.

Spending in January 2017 is the second highest - behind the record mark of £225m six years ago - and dwarfs the £35m spent in the first January transfer window in 2003.

While the window is now closed for the major European leagues, there could still be departures as big-spending China has an official deadline of 28 February.

All figures based on transfers reported as at 00:30 GMT on 1 February

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The main deadline-day deals

Deadline-day sales were led by Nigeria striker Ighalo, 27, moving to Chinese Super League club Changchun Yatai.

Burnley were one of the busier sides, recruiting 25-year-old Republic of Ireland international Brady from Norwich for a club-record fee having earlier snapped up another midfielder, Ashley Westwood, from Aston Villa.

Southampton bolstered their attacking options by bringing in Gabbiadini, 25, while Crystal Palace secured Liverpool centre-back Mamadou Sakho on loan and signed Serbia midfielder Luka Milivojevic from Greek side Olympiakos.

Swansea City signed Aston Villa forward Jordan Ayew in a swap deal that saw Wales defender Neil Taylor go the other way.

Several mooted moves did not go through on a relatively low-key day, with Celtic keeper Craig Gordon and striker Moussa Dembele staying with the Scottish champions despite reported interest from Chelsea.

Sunderland, thwarted in their attempts to sign forward Leonardo Ulloa from Premier League champions Leicester City, had a bid of about £12m rejected by Southampton for forward Jay Rodriguez.

Image source, Moussa Dembele
Image caption,

Dembele tweeted a photo of Leonardo DiCaprio delivering the "I'm not leaving" speech from the Wolf of Wall Street film, with himself in a similar pose

Outside the Premier League

Championship clubs spent a record £40m on deadline day, led by Aston Villa signing forward Scott Hogan from Brentford for a fee that could reach £12m.

Wigan sold winger Yanic Wildschut to Norwich for £7m, but they ended the day with eight new players.

Sheffield Wednesday have to wait until Wednesday to see if their £9.5m move for Middlesbrough striker Jordan Rhodes had gone through in time.

Midfielder Ravel Morrison returned to QPR on a late loan deal from Italian side Lazio, and highly rated West Ham defender Reece Oxford, 18, moved to Reading on loan for the rest of the season.

Image source, Bristol City
Image caption,

Bristol City teased their rivals Rovers, who are based four miles away

Striker Matty Taylor caused a stir by leaving Bristol Rovers, where he has scored 19 times this season, for local rivals Bristol City - the first time a player has done so since 1987.

Championship side City wasted no time in winding up their League One foes, with manager Lee Johnson saying: "It'll be a big step up in standard for him."

Meanwhile, Neil Danns' tour of the clubs of the north west beginning with a B saw him tick off Blackpool. The midfielder's loan deal from Bury follows spells at Bolton and Blackburn. He has also squeezed in Birmingham City and Bristol City along the way.

What were the major deals of the window?

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Everton were the Premier League club to spend the most on a single player, paying Manchester United £22m for France midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin.

However, the biggest fee was the £60m paid to Chelsea by Chinese Super League side Shanghai SIPG for Brazil attacking midfielder Oscar.

Also departing the Premier League was Dimitri Payet - with West Ham accusing the France forward of lacking "commitment and respect" as he rejoined Marseille for £25m.

The top six sides did not shell out - the only new purchase among the leading sides being Arsenal's surprise signing of left-back Cohen Bramall from non-league Hednesford Town for £40,000. He had just been made redundant from his job in a car factory before a trial with the Gunners.

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Key January transfer window findings

  • Premier League clubs spent £215m to buy new players in the January window, recording a net transfer profit of £40m compared with a net spend of £100m last year.

  • The bottom six clubs accounted for half of total expenditure, with sides in the bottom half of the table spending £145m (67% of total expenditure).

  • Deadline-day spending by top-flight clubs totalled £60m, up £20m on last year, and the second-highest ever after £135m in 2011.

  • Championship sides spent a total of £80m, a big increase on last year's total of £35m and a new record for a January transfer window for the division. The £40m spent on deadline day was the same amount spent by Premier League clubs on deadline day in January 2016.

  • The Premier League was once again the highest-spending league in European football. The next highest was France's Ligue 1, with total transfer expenditure of about £130m.

"The sales of Oscar, Dimitri Payet, Odion Ighalo and Memphis Depay, as well as around £20m worth of sales to Championship clubs, have helped Premier League clubs record net receipts for the first time in a transfer window," said Deloitte spokesman Dan Jones.

"As was the case last year, it is clubs in the bottom half of the table who have driven expenditure this January, investing in their squads in an attempt to secure survival."

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Round-up from Europe

Andy Brassell, European football expert

Germany doesn't really get the last-minute English spirit of deadline day, with the Bundesliga wrapping things up at the civilised hour of 6pm local time as usual. Bayern Munich made a pair of big signings in Hoffenheim's Niklas Sule and Sebastian Rudy, but they won't arrive until summer.

Borussia Dortmund moved quickly to snap up 17-year-old Sweden striker Alexander Isak and Bayer Leverkusen also spent big on a youngster on deadline day, paying 12m euros (£10.3m) for Jamaican teenager Leon Bailey from Genk.

Thank goodness, then, for Turkey's taste for the grand gesture, with champions Besiktas and surprise title-chasers Baskasehir both going for striking experience in Demba Ba (on loan from Shanghai Shenhua) and Emmanuel Adebayor (free agent) respectively.

Image source, Getty Images
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Former Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham and Crystal Palace striker Emmanuel Adebayor was a free agent

It was a quiet window for Serie A in Italy, with Juventus spending big on young talent but parking it for the future; for example, Mattia Caldara, a 15m euro (£12.9m) signing, is staying with his current club Atalanta on loan.

With Barcelona typically quiet and Real Madrid barred from involvement, it was similarly sedate in Spain. Villarreal's sale of Alexandre Pato to Tianjin Quanjian for 18m euros (£15.4m) was comfortably the biggest transfer in La Liga, though Jese's loan move to his hometown club of Las Palmas was a romantic subplot on deadline day.

France was busier than usual this winter, with Julian Draxler (36m euros/£30.8m) and Goncalo Guedes (30m euros/£25.7m) both joining Paris St-Germain for big fees, and Lyon splashing out on Memphis Depay (18m euros/£15m). On deadline day it was Lille, under new ownership, who were busiest, signing no less than six in a frenetic 24 hours, led by winger Anwar El Ghazi from Ajax for 8m euros (£6.9m).

Premier League transfer tracker

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