Premier League teams have spent more than £1 billion this transfer window. Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham have spent over £100 million on a single player, breaking club records.
The £100m transfer of Sandro Tonali to Tottenham Hotspur was overshadowed by the £116m transfer of Elliot Anderson to Manchester City. And that was followed by Chelsea setting a new record for a British player by signing Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa for £117m.
The spending comes after a winter transfer window in which clubs spent €2.2 billion worldwide.
But the Premier League's financial power is unmatched. With billions at stake, the logical question is how do clubs prepare to make the moves?
In February, around 100 club officials, scouts and agents gathered at Villa Park for a joint event.
also
Chelsea unveils most expensive Premier League transfer
Over coffee and cakes, representatives from clubs including Liverpool, West Ham, Birmingham, Preston, Derby, Aston Villa and Manchester City chatted, along with agents, to prepare for the summer.
In the afternoon, Villa's head of talent and loans, Adam Henshall, gave a presentation on how the club oversees player loans. He outlined the data, risk and reward elements they consider before sending young talent out on loan.
Henshall was asked to give an insight into Villa's operation by TransferRoom, which uses its online platform to connect clubs and agents, initiating or accelerating moves.
Around 800 clubs have registered and this week Villa, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Manchester City, Manchester United, Roma and Borussia Dortmund will be among over 200 clubs meeting with 55 agencies in Madrid for a "deal day" where moves can be finalised.
The aim is to help clubs in a transfer window that is expected to break in the second half of August. Clubs were unable to make most deals earlier due to the World Cup.
Clubs are aiming to work for at least one transfer window ahead. A senior Premier League recruitment executive has insisted anything else is "reactionary".
At the elite level, clubs know who is most likely to move and can plan in advance.
It's different at the lower levels, where there is an acceptance that if a player performs well, he is likely to leave.
Essentially every player is for sale and that leaves sporting directors and managers fighting with fire.
For most clubs, planning begins early for the summer transfer window. Work usually begins immediately after the winter window.
also
Chelsea secure Rogers for £117m
A lot depends on the club's network. In some cases, clubs may contact an agency 12 months before a transfer, discussing the contract or estimated fee. But other moves will be just a few days from initial contact to completion.
One of the biggest moves this summer, despite being a free agent, is that of Poland captain Robert Lewandowski to Chicago Fire in the US MLS. He moved after his contract with Barcelona expired.
Fire had been tracking Lewandowski for a decade, believing he could convince the Pole to move to the US, especially with the large Polish community in Chicago.
"It sounds ridiculous, because at that stage he was at the peak of his career and was scoring goals for Bayern and then Barcelona. But it shows long-term planning," Fire sporting director Gregg Broughton told the BBC.
This became a reality in January 2025, when Chicago Fire were in negotiations for Neymar, who has the same agent, Pini Zahavi.
Neymar chose to return to Brazil to Santos and so it became clear that Lewa could move to Chicago.
Being on the Fire's "discovery list", no other club in MLS could sign Lewandowski. But the club had to bide its time, namely for Barcelona to make a decision on the 37-year-old's future. Until January 1 of this year, the American club was not able to speak with the Pole.
"For a player like Robert it's not just a contract. There are commercial negotiations to be had. What does that look like in terms of his future career beyond football? What would it mean for his wife? Where will his children go to school?" Broughton says.
Lewandowski made his first trip to the city in June and was greeted with great fanfare. There were messages on billboards saying "welcome to Chicago."
Lewandowski signed for two years, after Chicago Fire fended off European and Saudi interest.
also
Alyssa Thomspon, another "record" transfer among female footballers
Some believe that the growing influence of agents has made the transfer window more complicated, as they want more control over deals between clubs. Many deals are completed on the final day, although many teams consider the risk to be greater with last-minute transfers.
Most big deals are struck weeks in advance. And if they're left until the last few hours, it's usually because the numbers need to be finalized.
