Records broken as Blues and Reds splash cash on transfers deadline day

Spending by Premier League clubs in the transfer window has smashed the record set in January 2009 after a final frenzy saw more than £100m splashed out in the last hours before deadline.

Chelsea’s £50m British transfer record swoop for Fernando Torres plus the capture of David Luiz (£20m), on top of moves by Luis Suarez (£22.8m) and Andy Carroll (£35m) to Liverpool saw the £181m record set two seasons ago eclipsed.

It also highlights the fact that last year’s 10-year low of only £30m spent by the 20 top-flight clubs during the January window looks to have been a blip.

Analysts believe the pattern of transfers has changed so that now clubs are concentrating on a relatively small number of high-value deals.

The spending spree contrasts sharply with Spain where the biggest fee paid was only £6m, and in Germany £12m.

Geoff Mesher, a partner in Grant Thornton’s Sport Advisory Group, said: “Chelsea have splashed the cash in a way that they have not done for a few years.

“Much of this spending is a snowball effect of Chelsea paying so much for Torres – without that money coming in Liverpool would not have been able to afford to bid for Carroll. The timing of the window creates that imperative for the club to act.

“In general terms we are seeing a more significant rise in loan transfers but there are a small number of big-money transfers.”

Mesher said clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea faced a real challenge in squaring such spending with meeting UEFA’s new financial fair play rules for clubs in European competition.

He added: “It’s going to very interesting how clubs are going to be able to square this sort of spending with those rules.

“Are UEFA going to have the bottle to apply them if Barcelona, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Manchester United do not meet the criteria?”