Football finance expert Keiran Maguire has laid out where West Ham’s transfer spending has left them in the Premier League history books.
West Ham played their part in two pieces of football history during the summer transfer window.
First West Ham sold Declan Rice to Arsenal for £105m – which was a British record transfer fee at the time.
That was surpassed less than a month later when Brighton managed to sell Moises Caicedo to Chelsea for £10m more.
But then the Hammers helped the Premier League reach a staggering milestone.
UEFA FFP scrutiny saw West Ham live off the land this summer
Because the £38m signing of Mohammed Kudus took Prem spending over the £2bn mark for the first time ever in a single transfer window. And no other league across world football has ever come remotely close to those levels.
West Ham’s approach changed slightly this summer against the backdrop of having to meet FFP requirements after being placed – with 19 others – on a UEFA watchlist. West Ham had to live off the land with their spending.
So in many ways the Hammers were fortunate to have the big sale of Rice or investment in the team would have been difficult.
Football finance expert Keiran Maguire lays out where West Ham’s transfer spending has left them in Premier League history
It came after a big outlay of over £185m the season before.
Now football finance expert Keiran Maguire has laid out where West Ham’s transfer spending has left them in Premier League history.
Friend of Hammers News Maguire, the author of the excellent Price of Football books and co-host of the podcasts by the same name, has broken down total spending by club since the launch of the Premier League in 1992.
A total of 51 clubs have been in the Premier League since its inauguration. And by Maguire’s calculations, West Ham are the ninth biggest spenders in the 31 years since.
Hammers ninth with £1bn plus total spend
West Ham have spent just under £1.1bn (£1.092bn) since the Prem launched without them back in 1992.
That leaves the Hammers ninth on the 51-club list. They are ahead of Aston Villa (£1.07bn) but behind Newcastle (£1.199bn), Everton (£1.213bn) and Spurs (£1.648bn).
Chelsea, rather unsurprisingly given the free-spending tenures of Roman Abramovich and now Todd Boehly, lead the way with a total spend of over £3.4bn.
Man City are second (£2.643bn), Man United third (£2.460bn), Liverpool fourth with just over £2bn spent and Arsenal fifth on £1.931bn.
You can see the full graph in Maguire’s post below.
Speaking to Hammers News previously, Maguire explained what being on UEFA’s FFP watchlist actually means for West Ham.