A summer market as rare as this is not remembered in the world of football. The crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has not only temporarily moved the transfer window, in Spain it began on August 4 and will end on October 5Rather, it has left the world's clubs in a very delicate financial situation. It is not time to waste. Or at least in LaLiga Santander.
And it is that being almost in the month of September, the Spanish First Division it ranks fourth in the world in terms of transfer spending with a total of 244.95 million (via Transfermakt). Ahead of it is Ligue 1 (269.28 million), the Premier League (417.41 million) and Series A (509.29 million), which is in the first position. Behind, in the fifth ranking, the Bundesliga appears with 170.20 million.
The dominance of England and Italy is a constant in recent years as they occupy the first and second positions respectively both in the last five seasons,, 15 / 16-19 / 20, and in the ten, 10 / 11-19 / twenty. In both time frames the Spanish league is in the third step, always ahead of Germany and France.
The amazing thing about this summer is that even the French league has overtaken the Spanish plus this is the only one of the five major competitions that has a positive balance, that is to say, more income than sales, specifically 63.15 million. At the revenue level, LaLiga is located with 308.10 million behind the Premier League (319.58 million) and Serie A (446.43 million).
These data are given after a record summer 2019 in which Spanish football invested 1,266 million and entered more than 1,100 million in transfers, being the league that received the most money and the second that spent the most.
This summer is being different and while it does continue with a good sales rhythm, thanks in large part to the Barcelona operations (Arthur, Carles Pérez and Cucurella), Valencia (Rodrigo, Ferran and Coquelín) and Real Madrid (Achraf, Javi Sánchez, Jorge de Frutos and Dani Gómez), the expense item has suffered an important recess.
Up to nine teams, Alavés, Athletic, Betis, Eibar, Elche, Huesca, Real Sociedad (Silva's signing was free), Valencia and Real Madrid, they have not yet made any expenses and only Atlético (63 million) and Barcelona (103 million) exceed the barrier of 50 “kilos”. The situation of the Real Madrid, great market agitator in this 21st century and that this year could not spend even a euro on transfers, being reinforced only via the recovery of loaned players, as is the case of Odegaard.
This does not happen in other leagues since for example in Italy only five teams have not invested, while in England there are six, in Germany three and in France one. In addition, the big clubs of each nation are being more active than the Spanish. In Italy, Juventus, Naples, Inter and Parma exceed 50 million with important signings such as Arthur, Victor Oshimen, Achraf and Roberto Inglese respectively.
In the Premier League the Chelsea is the great animator of the market and is that those of Abramovich do not seem to be suffering the consequences of a world crisis. In the absence of the signing of Havertz, 80 + 20 million is official, Stamford Bridge have spent 143.20 million and are followed by almost 80 million from Manchester City and 55.64 million from Leeds United. Stars like Werner, Ziyech, Ferran, Rodrigo and the aforementioned Kai Havertz will land this season in England.
In France the only big purchase has been that of Icardi by PSG but the participation of almost all the clubs in the market is what makes them rank above the Santander League.
All these data lead us to the conclusion that this summer Spain is being a selling nation and not a buyer and that always translates into a loss of talent. Achraf, Arthur, Rodrigo, Ferran and Salisu, there are many important players who have emigrated from Spain to another of the major European leagues and the shadow of Messi's departure to City or PSG is getting longer and longer.
If Messi's tragic departure is confirmed, in three summers LaLiga would have lost the three great stars of world football in the last ten years, Cristiano, Neymar and Messi. In no case is this good news for national football that is saying goodbye to the dominant position it has enjoyed in the last decade.
The Coronavirus has hit Spain harder than other countries and this is also being noticed in the beautiful game. The lack of signings by Real Madrid added to the immobility of eight other teams, causes Spanish football to be counting on more lows than highs. The need to cash in some clubs is evident, as in the case of Valencia.
There is still more than a month of market and things may change, in fact It is obvious that the clubs are going to end up moving, but today it does not look like large purchases will be made by our clubs and instead Messi's departure seems to be closer to being a reality every day. Spanish football is suffering and today the clubs will have to fight against their main European rivals with less investment.