The two biggest deals of the summer, Luis Suarez to Barcelona and James Rodriguez to Real Madrid, took place in Spain, but once again it was the English clubs that splashed out the most cash in 2014.
The 20 Premier League clubs set a new record by spending just north of £857m over the summer months. Argentinian winger Angel Di Maria became the biggest signing in the history of the English game when he agreed to join Manchester United in a deal worth £59.7m.
In contrast, Serie A, which not so long ago housed the world’s most expensive football’s talents, has been reduced to scoring the world for mid-range bargains. The biggest signing of the summer in Italy was the £17m spent by Roma on Juan Iturbe.
It was a relatively quiet transfer window in France with previously big-spending Monaco looking to cut costs and becoming net sellers over the summer months. Only the £50m signing of David Luiz by Paris Saint-Germain bucked the trend un La Ligue.
England: (total spend – £857.7m)
Angel Di Maria – Real Madrid > Man United – £59.7m
Eliaquim Mangala – Porto > Manchester City £43m
Diego Costa – Atletico Madrid > Chelsea – £32m
Alexis Sanchez – Barcelona > Arsenal – £32
Cesc Fabregas – Barcelona > Chelsea – £27
Spain: (total spend – £425m)
Luis Suarez – Liverpool > Barcelona – £75
James Rodriguez – Monaco > Real Madrid – £63m
Toni Kroos – Bayern Munich > Real Madrid – £24m
Mario Mandzukic – Bayern Munich > Atletico Madrid – £17.6m
Ivan Rakitic – Sevilla > Barcelona – £16.1m
Germany: (total spend – £250m)
Mehdi Benatia – Roma > Bayern Munich – £24m
Ciro Immobile – Torino > Borussia Dortmund – £15.5m
Hakan Calhanoglu – Hamburg >Bayer Leverkusen £10m
Xabi Alonso – Real Madrid > Bayern Munich – £6m
Matthias Ginter – Freiburg > Borussia Dortmund – £6m
Italy: (total spend – £260m)
Juan Iturbe – Verona > Roma – £17.4m
Alvaro Morata – Real Madrid > Juventus – £15.8m
Konstantinos Manolas – Olympiakos > Roma £10m
Gary Medel – Cardiff City > Internazionale – £10m
Stefan de Vrij – Feyenoord > Lazio – £7.1m
France: (total spend – £100m)
David Luiz – Chelsea > PSG – £50m
Aymen Abdennour – Toulouse > Monaco £10
Tiemoue Bakayoko – Rennes > Monaco – £6m
Batshuayi – Standard Liege > Marseille – £4.8m
Doria – Botafogo > Marseille – £4m
Others:
Adrian – Atletico Madrid > Porto – £8m
Andreas Samaris – Olympiakos > Benfica – £7.6m
Yacine Brahimi – Granada > Porto – £5.6m
Martins Indi – Feyenoord > Porto – £6.4m
Figures compiled by Joe Rennie
