The Premier league has been spending a lot of money on high-profile talent in this transfer window. They have spent in excess of £ 600 million, which is a record. This has primarily been spent on foreign talent rather than buying players from the local league. This has been criticised by Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp, who has been praised for his managerial abilities in recent years. He has managed to work with an unlimited budget at Dortmund, yet he has been hugely successful. Two high-profile transfers that have been criticised by Klopp are Mesut Ozil’s move to Arsenal and Gareth Bale’s move to Real Madrid.

Ozil was signed by Arsenal for £ 42 million in the final day of the transfer window, while Bale made his move to the Santiago Bernabeu a few days earlier for £ 85 million, which is a new world record. Even though Dortmund have also spent money in this transfer window, it has largely been because of the revenue generated from the sale of Mario Gotze. The sale of the 21-year-old to Bayern Munich fetched the club £ 35 million and all of it has been reinvested in new signings. Apart from that, Dortmund have spent very little money on new players.

“It’s insane what happens in England. 80% of the players, for whom the clubs spent €700m (£600m), I don’t even know. It doesn’t matter how much a player costs. The question is if you really want him and finally if you can pay. The amounts are crazy. The transfer of Ozil is incredible. That doesn’t happen often, €50m (£42.5m) on the last day. The story of this summer transfer window is of new records: a new record for Premier League spending as well as a new world transfer record fee,” said Klopp.