Premier League clubs splashed out almost £130million in this year's January transfer window - more than twice the amount spent last year, reports Sky Sports. The mid-season shopping ended at 11pm on Thursday and around £35m was spent in transfer fees on deadline-day alone, according to figures released by Deloitte.
Three clubs - QPR, Liverpool and Newcastle - accounted for more than half of the outlay this time around, while four clubs - including champions Manchester City - spent nothing.
Of the money splashed during this window, 62% was on players from abroad, 21% on Premier League players and 17% on players from the Football League.
More than £1bn has now been spent in January transfer windows since 2003.
"There were relatively few active spenders in the winter window, with over half of this January's total transfer spending coming from three clubs," Dan Jones of Deloitte's Sports Business Group said.
"Winter window activity tends to be driven by the on-pitch competition at the upper and lower ends of the Premier League table.
"Clubs are now in a reporting period that will count towards the first assessment of UEFA's financial fair play break-even requirement for international competition and Premier League clubs are also considering the implementation of additional cost control regulation at a domestic level.
"Their apparent relative restraint in this transfer window may reflect an increasing focus on clubs achieving more sustainable levels of expenditure relative to revenues."
The Premier League continues to dominate spending across Europe with Serie A clubs the second highest spenders this January, with total reported transfer spending of around 70 per cent of the total for England's top division - a large chunk of that to bring in Balotelli.
Total transfer spending by top division clubs in France and Germany was around 30 per cent to 45 per cent of that by Premier League clubs.
Transfer spending in La Liga was minimal in this winter window, and exceeded by the amounts spent by clubs in emerging markets such as Russia and Brazil.
