This trend is causing concern among European clubs, with Kieran Maguire, professor of football finance at the University of Liverpool, calling it "a Premier League tax". The Premier League's new squad cost ratio (SCR) rules require clubs to average the original transfer fee over the length of the player's contract, making it more important for clubs to generate high transfer fees to get a higher profit average for SCR.
The Premier League's dominance in the transfer market is not just about the fee, but who the clubs are choosing to do business with. Take a look at the high-value deals, worth £40m or more, which have doubled this summer from two years ago. In 2024-25 there were 13 such deals, this summer there were 27. More striking is the breakdown of these transfers. Two years ago, there were seven transfers worth £40m or more done with teams on the continent. Only six were completed between Premier League clubs.
This summer there were nine deals worth £40m or more with European clubs. But between clubs in England it has trebled, from six to 18. The total spend across all domestic transfers has more than doubled, too. Maguire told BBC Sport that one reason is English clubs now scout players from abroad so extensively that they are signed much earlier, and made into Premier League players.
The transfer market appears to have become a game of spreadsheets where it is almost impossible to value players against each other. The reason is simple, but the explanation more complicated. Profit on a transfer is in some ways more significant than a player's worth in saves, clearances, assists or goals. Because profit enables reinvestment in the squad.
The Premier League's transfer spending is the bubble which just refuses to burst. And it risks creating further inequalities in European football.