In the end, it was a summer like no other. The Premier League’s 20 clubs might not have quite reached the £2billion ($2.31bn) mark by the close of business on Thursday night but they had a fine go trying. Spend, spend, spend, from start to finish.

During a transfer window that has welcomed the stellar names of Erling Haaland, Darwin Nunez and Casemiro to English shores, the Premier League’s collective spend wound up at a staggering £1.91billion once the last cheque was written. Allow for the minor inaccuracies that come with undisclosed fees and it is somewhere in the region of £95million per club.

For all it lacked a signing to topple the £100million Manchester City paid Aston Villa to sign Jack Grealish 12 months ago — still a Premier League record — this summer’s spend turned out to be unprecedented on every other level.

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The combined outlay of clubs in Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 struggled to keep pace with a final sum that cemented the Premier League’s financial dominance. A total of 70 deals were eventually signed off in excess of £10million, with Chelsea and West Ham United doing six apiece.

Serie A was more than £1.2billion back with a total spend of £647million. In gross terms, spending was 50 per cent down on pre-pandemic levels. It underlines the market contraction caused by COVID and how unprepared Italian football was to bounce back from a shock of that scale. High-profile signings have been low cost like the free transfers involving Paul Pogba and Angel Di Maria to Juventus, Paulo Dybala to Roma and the loan of Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan.

Gleison Bremer was the most expensive acquisition in Serie A at €41million (£35.5m, $40.9m), a move financed by Matthijs de Ligt’s sale to Bayern Munich for €77million. Napoli’s window only really got going after Chelsea paid a Premier League record fee for a player aged 30 or over (Kalidou Koulibaly). Only champions AC Milan could buy without selling, a flex of strength found in the club’s sustainable model. But Leeds United, 17th in the Premier League last year, bid more for Charles de Ketelaere and Milan had to count on the club’s enduring appeal and the player’s desire to play at San Siro to get Brugges to accept their inferior offer.

€170m in I.O.Us have been written out by Serie A clubs and there’s a new fashionable deal structure. It’s the compromise between a loan with an option or an obligation. Ladies and gentlemen, Serie A gives you the loan that only becomes permanent if the player fulfils a certain quota of appearances, minutes and other criteria. All in all 86 deals in Italy’s top flight were loans, including 20 on deadline day alone. It reflects the need for prudence and a lack of short-term liquidity. 

Then came Ligue 1 on £482million. No prizes for guessing who led the way in France. Paris Saint-Germain have known more extravagant summers but still managed to spend in the region of £128million. The biggest chunk of that went on Portugal midfielder Vitinha, Ligue 1’s biggest signing of the summer at £36million.

Also prepared to spend were Marseille, who return to the Champions League this season, while Rennes were able to invest big on the back of sizable player sales. Nice were another eyecatching club in the market, spending £60million.