In a welcome change from the norm, summer 2015 is shaping up to be the summer of the Englishman in the Premier League.
Time for some number crunching. Last summer, £158million was spent on acquiring 50 English players by Premier League clubs, equating to 2.5 English signings per side at an average cost of £3.16million – although exactly half of those deals involved no actual fee (loan or free transfer). That translates to just 11.25% of the Premier League’s record-breaking £835million spend.
Fast forward twelve months, and the Premier League has already coughed up £83million on just twelve English players with over six weeks of the transfer window yet to go, working out at £6.9million per player, despite five deals being free transfers. That represents 23% of the Premier League’s £358million spend thus far; although the fees of some smaller transfers, such as Swansea City’s swoops for Kristoffer Nordfelt and Ollie McBurnie, are yet to be confirmed.
Of course, a major factor has been Raheem Sterling’s £49million move to Manchester City – over half of the overall sum. Ruling him out of the equation, only £3.1million has been spent per English player, dropping the Premier League’s English spending bias to 9.4%.
But the majority of deals involving English players during summer 2014 came towards the end of the transfer window; Leicester City’s swoops for Tom Lawrence and Nick Powell or Arsenal’s deadline day capture of Danny Welbeck for example; and the real difference is at the top end of the division.
Last summer, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham – England’s resident top six, if you will – signed just seven English players for £94million. This year, they’ve already signed six at a cost of £72.5million – once again, with 47 days of the window remaining.
It’s impossible to ignore the rather anomalous Sterling deal, constituting the most lucrative English transfer of all time, but that didn’t happen in a vacuum – so why are English players undertaking such a crucial role in the transfer market this year?
First and foremost, are the FA’s plans to increase the home-grown quota over the course of the next few seasons. Chairman Greg Dyke wants to boost the number of home-grown players from eight to twelve per registered Premier League squad, whilst also moving the parameters of qualification from three years of training in England before the age of 21 to three years of training before the age of 18. In addition, two home-grown players would have to be trained by their current employers.
A drastic difference, considering the likes of Gael Clichy, Asmir Begovic, Morgan Schneiderlin, Alex Song and even former Manchester United youngster Paul Pogba currently qualify as home-grown. So there’s no more loopholes if Dyke’s proposals come into fruition and based upon their squads last season, all six of the aforementioned clubs would have to make significant changes – most particularly City – which has rendered English players a greater necessity than ever before.
An equal influence, however, is the chain reaction caused by the departures of two generation-defining former England internationals in Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard.
Obviously, Liverpool and City have both been obliged to source direct replacements, leading the former to snap up James Milner on a free transfer and the latter to fork out £49million for Sterling whilst also attempting to sign Aston Villa’s Fabian Delph through an £8million release clause. The Reds have already reinvested some of the Sterling fund in more home-grown talent; signings Joe Gomez, Danny Ings and Nathaniel Clyne; and have also been linked with Fulham’s Patrick Roberts, Spurs youngster Joshua Onomah and West Brom’s Saido Berahino in recent weeks.
But their retirement from the international scene after the 2014 World Cup and subsequent move to the MLS has also left a vacuum at the top end of the England squad that younger players have since attempted to fill. That doesn’t only correspond to the midfield duo – Glen Johnson, Rickie Lambert, Ashley Cole and Jermain Defoe have all taken a backward step (or officially retired) since the tournament in Brazil.
City target Delph is a particularly good example of a player who has directly benefited from Gerrard and Lampard stepping aside, whilst the likes of Sterling, Clyne, Jack Wilshere, Jordan Henderson and Ross Barkley have also undertaken more pivotal roles for the Three Lions in the last twelve months. Top clubs will always be keen to sign players likely to receive regular exposure to international football, as it can only enhance their development, so many of the aforementioned names have simply become more desirable due to the probability of long-term England involvement.
Therefore, it will be interesting to see what level the Premier League’s spending on English players reaches this summer, because there’s still plenty of deals to be had.
Everton duo John Stones and Barkley has long-been mooted as targets of Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea, the Baggies’ prolific England U21 Saido Berahino remains up for grabs, many top Premier League clubs have thrown flirtatious glances towards the likes of Nathan Redmond, Will Hughes and James Ward-Prowse in the past, Delph’s release clause is still set at £8million, whilst the rumours linking City and United with £40million bids for Wilshere and Harry Kane respectively just won’t go away. Likewise, as we’ve seen from the likes of Delph, Ings and Milner, most top clubs are willing to take a punt on virtually any Englishman available at a knockdown price.
With that in mind, this could turn out to be a defining summer window for both the Premier League and the England national team, with the opportunity to find new homegrown heroes at club and international level. And due to the self-perpetuating nature of homegrown players moving up the top flight food chain, a record-breaking spend on English players this summer is becoming increasingly likely.