In case you somehow escaped Sky Sports News and its relentless transfer deadline day coverage, here’s a quick reminder of what happened: Premier League spending crossed £1 billion, reaching £1.165 billion by the end of the day.
That’s a fair bit of dosh. It marked an unsurprising fourth successive year of record Premier League summer spending according to Deloitte, up on the £870 million spent last summer, with £720 million invested in players from overseas.
Paul Pogba was the priciest of the lot, coming in at an eye-watering £89 million as he arrived at Old Trafford. But the figures are almost too big to take in now, aren’t they? Here’s what else is worth that much, just for some context.
1. A Paul Gauguin painting
Paul Gauguin’s painting ‘When Will You Marry?’ became the world’s most expensive artwork ever in 2015 when it was bought for $300 million. You could get about five of those for the amount the Premier League spent on footballers this summer. Although there’s only one original, so you couldn’t…
2. Education
Yes, the Premier League has spent a lot, but thank goodness it doesn’t eclipse the estimated figure the Government will invest in education. That is projected at around £102 billion for 2016/17 according to www.gov.uk, putting Premier League spend at around 1% of that figure. The world hasn’t gone entirely mad, then.
3. Bill Gates
The Microsoft tycoon and charity founder, Bill Gates, is estimated to be worth around $78 billion, which comes in at around £59 billion. You’ll have to get saving if you want Gates in your midfield.
4. The Emirates Stadium
Arsenal scrimped and saved to pay for their state of the art stadium, which cost £390 million. The total Premier League spend this summer could have bought Arsenal’s stadium almost three times over. Oof.
5. A big yacht
One of the wealthiest men in the Premier League, Roman Abramovich, contributed to the record spend with the purchases of David Luiz and Marcos Alonso, but he spent even more on his luxury yacht. The Eclipse has two swimming pools and two helipads (for both your helicopters, obviously). The cost? £1.5 billion – absolutely useless up front though.
