Less than a month to go before the winter football transfer window will open in Europe. We await a lot of transfers again, regardless of their costs. One thing that should not be underestimated is the fact of how much each club spent already in summer. Which clubs are even able to spend again in winter? To evaluate that, we take a look at the previous football transfer window in summer 2020.
As part of the COVID-19 pandemic, the football summer transfer window 2020/21 turned out as a particularly special one: The previous season ended late in most leagues and the transfer window in Europe was open until October. But the buying and selling behaviour of the clubs within the transfer market has also changed. This series takes a closer look at the transfer deals in the top leagues in Europe as we continue with the Italian Serie A.
Methodology
First of all, we will need to clarify which statistics we will focus on. We consider all relevant information in terms of departures, arrivals, income and expenditure of each club.
In this analysis, we will take a close look at the number of arrivals and departures from different clubs. In addition, the data analysis will show how much each individual club has spent on these arrivals and earned on departures (always in million euros). In the end, we will be able to take balance by comparing income and expenditure.
Arrivals & Departures
We start with a comparison between arrivals and departures at each club in Serie A. How many players are new at the club and how many players left the club? This also includes players who came back from a loan or who are currently on a loan.
It is quite interesting to see that financially weaker clubs like Atalanta Bergamo and Genoa, followed by Fiorentina and Internazionale, had the most arrivals during the summer transfer window.
Two of them are also the clubs with the most departures in terms of saving wages: Hellas Verona (51), Genoa (51) and Atalanta Bergamo (49).
Other financially strong clubs like Juventus (22 arrivals) and AC Milan (30 arrivals) were not as active as the smaller clubs but reinforced selectively. Most teams had more arrivals than departures.
Expenditure & Arrivals
In the second step, we take a look at how much each club spent in relation to the number of new arrivals.
It is outstanding that the two clubs Juventus (110 million euros) and Internazionale (97 million euros) followed by Parma Calcio (81 million euros) and SSC Napoli (74 million euros) spent the most money this summer. While Juventus only got 22 players for their expenditures. Inter and Parma Calcio got 63 and 62 new players.
That sounds quite a lot but in comparison to clubs like Atalanta Bergamo (49 million euros for 95 arrivals) and Genoa (37 million euros for 71 arrivals), they went for quality instead of quantity. There is no single club that spent nothing in transfers during the summer transfer window 2020/21.
Income & Departures
In the third step, we also take a look at how much each club earned in relation to the number of departures in 2020´s summer transfer window.
SSC Napoli earned the most income by far (110 million euros). The departure of midfielder Allan already brought 25 million euros. In this transfer window, Juventus did not buy lots of players but sold as they had an income of 97 million euros. With Bologna and Crotone, two clubs did not earn anything for their departures.
As already said before, Hellas Verona and Genoa had the most departures of 51 each followed by Atalanta Bergamo with 49 departures. Juventus (16) and Benevento (18) had the most reduced number of departures.
Balance
Now, we can take a balance in order to evaluate the summer transfer window in Germany´s Bundesliga. Therefore, we add the expenditure to the income of each club.
Three out of the six best clubs in Italy had the most income. Juventus earned 92 million euros, SSC Napoli earned 110 million euros. While Juventus have a balance of approximately -15 million euros, SSC Napoli provides a balance of 35 million euros.
Surprisingly, lots of clubs provide a smaller negative or even a positive balance for the transfer window in summer 2020/21.
Conclusion
The biggest clubs in Italy´s Serie A spent the most money. That is why they are unlikely to buy any new players in the winter transfer window if they do not sell any player from their current squad. Only Napoli or Milan could be a big player in winter if they do not want to save their money till summer. As they act smart in summer and now has the opportunity to buy additional players. Hellas Verona went in the season with lots of changes in their squad compared to last season. Therefore, they do not struggle to play at that high level.
