Market – England – Antony to Manchester United, Cucurella to Chelsea: Premier League, a market to the point of caricature

New record. The Premier League had never spent so much. 2.21 billion euros to be exact. That’s more than the combined sum of all clubs in Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga and La Liga. The deficit balance of the English clubs exceeds for the first time the billion euros. Even though Manchester City, the biggest spending club in the world for 10 years, has sold more (160 million) than bought (140 million). In short, the English dominated the market like never before. Their clubs have squandered, not to say wasted, billions in transfers whose value has too often been inflated by the disproportionate means of the twenty residents of the elite.

Eleven of the fourteen most expensive transfers of the summer were funded by Premier League clubs. The top of the pyramid shows how the English championship has completely lost its reason. Antony, who has never exceeded 12 goals in all competitions in a season, cost Manchester United 100 million euros, including bonuses. He joins the list of those who have crossed this symbolic barrier (Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann, Neymar etc.) and stands out in the cast. But today, it is enough for a club to resist a behemoth of the Premier League, like Ajax against Manchester, to raise prices to heights that no longer mean anything.

Precedents that should serve as a lesson

Why doubt such investments on players without great reference? Because the Premier League is accustomed to the fact. Over the past six years, the biggest transfers in the English championship have always disappointed and sometimes in gigantic proportions despite the colossal sums committed for their arrivals:

• 2021 : Jack Grealish (117,5 millions d’euros)

• 2020 : Kai Havertz (80 millions)

• 2019 : Harry Maguire (87 millions)

• 2018 : Kepa (80 million)

• 2017 : Romelu Lukaku (84 million)

• 2016 : Paul Pogba (105 millions)

Why question yourself?

We could add Nicolas Pépé (80 million), Jadon Sancho (85 million), Timo Werner (52 million), Fred (50 million) or Benjamin Mendy (57.5 million) as so many industrial crashes. But as chess does not endanger the economy of the most powerful championship on the planet and its clubs, they have never questioned themselves. Manchester United overpays each transfer window and is surprised at the lack of performance of its recruits. This summer, Chelsea followed suit by signing the most expensive transfer window in history with 267 million euros spent.

The real novelty is that low-ranking clubs have gone into the frenzy. Nottingham Forest, promoted, signed 21 new players, never any club had recruited so much, almost a full workforce for 160 million euros. Among them, Giulan Biancone, right defender of Troyes who has never dazzled the L1 with his talent, transferred for 10 million euros! But the 190 million euros pocketed for winning the Championship play-offs last year are enough to get a makeover before entering the big world. Failing to have ideas, England has money and, a priori, it burns his fingers.