How Chelsea have spent €120m more than Europe's other big leagues combined

Suraj Radia

• 18 Jan 2023 13:09 GMT
• 2 min read

Chelsea have spent more than three times the amount of the major European leagues COMBINED this January, emphasising the growing gulf between English football and the rest of the world.

The Blues confirmed the signing of Mykhaylo Mudryk earlier this week to take their winter spending to roughly €171.5 million, with more signings also thought to be on the horizon.

Meanwhile, teams in the Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga and Ligue 1 have spent a joint total of €53.2m in January so far – a similar amount to Chelsea’s outlay on two of their five signings in Benoit Badiashile and Andrey Santos.

Graham Potter’s side have spent more than €450m since the arrival of new owner Todd Boehly last year including a record-high outlay for a team in a single transfer window during the summer.

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That figure contributed to a new Premier League high of more than €2.1 billion spent by teams last summer, breaking the record previously set in 2017 and accounting for 49% of the total spent by teams across the major leagues in Europe.

European teams using Premier League spending as benchmark

This January, the highest fee spent by a non-Premier League club from a major league has been the signing of Cesar Montes by La Liga outfit Espanyol, who paid €8m to bring him in from Mexican side Monterrey – €1m less than the fee Chelsea paid Atletico to loan Joao Felix for five months.

The standstill spending by European sides could be down to selling clubs holding out for inflated prices from Premier League clubs for their star talent.

Last summer, Shakhtar were in talks to sell Mudryk for around €30m before witnessing the likes of Antony joining Manchester United for €100m, a fee which convinced the Ukrainian side to up their asking price.

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Shakhtar executives were on record as citing Ajax’s sale of Antony as a benchmark for Mudryk’s fee, as well as Manchester City’s €117m signing of Jack Grealish in 2021.

With no teams capable of matching the spending power of Premier League sides, European clubs have been forced to focus on other markets, such as looking to South America and other parts of Europe to find the next Mudryk and potentially make a huge profit from English sides.

Benfica signed Enzo Fernandez from Argentine side River Plate for €14m last summer and the 21-year-old has since been linked with a €125m move to Chelsea, highlighting the level of return teams are now expecting from Premier League clubs.

While sides across Europe have been reluctant to spend big so far this January, the spending by English sides will surely see ripples across the continent as teams reinvest the Premier League millions and continue to operate shrewdly in the transfer market.