The smartest Premier League clubs - ranking each club based on league form and money spent

The Premier League is unquestionably the world’s most popular football league and much of that is down to the fact that the English top-flight spends money unlike any other division in Europe. This season alone has seen the league’s 20 clubs spend no less than €2.93 billion on transfer fees, which is more or less the combined spending of Ligue 1, Serie A and the Bundesliga in the same period of time. In no uncertain terms, the Premier League is in a league of its own when it comes to spending money.

However, while clubs on the continent may look enviously at the money sloshing around the English top-fight, those teams competing in the competition have little time to appreciate their gifted positions due to the fact that they’re competing in a high-stakes race to simply stay in the division. The Premier League’s high price of entry makes it an increasingly competitive competition from top to bottom and often comes down to which clubs can outmanoeuvre their competitors on and off the pitch. So which English top-flight clubs have made the most of the transfer window this season?

The smartest Premier League clubs in the transfer window

When we take stock of how much money Premier League clubs have spent and earned from transfer fees this season, it gives us the transfer net spend. And we can use that figure to gauge how well a club is performing in the league this season by comparing their points total and how other clubs that have either spent more or less than them are also doing. When we log the difference between these two figures - the net spend and position in the league table - we get a table like the one below. Which will come as good news to some clubs and bad news to others.

Perhaps to no great surprise, Brighton race to the top of this table due to the fact that their net spend on transfer fees is actually a profit of €86.4 million, due to the club’s tendency to sell on young players that they’ve developed for large transfer fees. Despite routinely losing their best players, Roberto De Zerbi’s team still sit seventh in the table and are completely outperforming every other club in the division through the manner in which they continue to make fortunes off the pitch but maintain an impressive record on the pitch. 

Credit is also due to West Ham and Wolves, who also made tidy profits in the transfer window this season (€28m and €75.2m respectively) but have also managed to remain competitive in the top half of the table. Similarly, Liverpool fans will note that their somewhat unexpected title challenge for this season’s league trophy is underlined by the fact that their net spend of €111.3m was only the seventh highest in the division. As ever, Jürgen Klopp continues to keep the Anfield club punching above their weight, compared to rivals with deeper pockets in the division. 

In stark contrast, at the bottom of the table we have Burnley, who sit ninth in the Premier League for net spend this season but are currently 19th in the league for points won so far. This, unsurprisingly, is the worst return on money spent in the English top-flight, with Chelsea closely behind them with a rating of -9 according to our data having spent no less than €948m on transfer fees this season. Clubs that are firmly in the midst of a relegation fight, such as Sheffield United (-6) and Luton (-3) or threatened by the possibility, like Bournemouth (-7), Crystal Palace (-4) and Nottingham Forest (-3), also showcase how much money and luck is often needed to stay in the division.