No surprise to see clubs reduce their outlay over the summer

The 92 league clubs combined to spend a whopping 380m since the last kick of the 2009-10 season, a campaign which had begun with clubs shelling out more than 470m.

Premier League clubs – led by Manchester City – spent 350m before yesterday's closing of the transfer window, a reduction of 100m on last year.

City accounted for 36 per cent, more than a third, of overall Premier League expenditure this summer with marquee signings like James Milner from Aston Villa and Mario Balotelli from Inter Milan among an overall outlay of 125m.

Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: "Premier League clubs' spending in this transfer window has been restrained at around 350m, after three years in which the clubs had spent 450-500m each summer.

"In general, an absence of new owners and clubs striving to improve their financial balance has diminished the vibrancy of the transfer market."

Reflecting on the level of net spending, being the net amount that flows from Premier League clubs to non-English clubs and Football League clubs, Jones added: "Whilst the headline figure for player transfer spending is 22 per cent down, the level of net spending by Premier League clubs of 190m is actually more than double that in summer 2009 and similar to the levels in each of 2008 and 2007.

"Last year's net transfer spending of 80m was lower, in particular due to Premier League clubs being in receipt of 110m in transfer fees from Real Madrid alone."

Despite new regulations on home-grown players, the value of player transfers between Premier League clubs and player transfers from Football League clubs was much reduced compared to three previous seasons.

The report also found that while the bottom three divisions spent 30m this summer – 10m more than the 2009 summer window – their expenditure outweighed their income with only 25m going back into the 72 clubs, which is significantly down on the 72m return of 12 months ago.

Stoke City were among the busiest of Premier League clubs yesterday, announcing after the window had closed that – in addition to bringing in former Leeds United midfielder Jermaine Pennant on loan from Real Zaragoza – they had also persuaded former Chelsea striker Eidur Gudjohnsen to switch on a season-long deal from Monaco.

They were also tying up a four-year deal to bring in defender Marc Wilson from cash-strapped Portsmouth.

Tottenham were last night sweating on clearance to make the signing of Rafael van der Vaart the biggest coup of transfer deadline day as the window closed in unexpected drama.

Spurs signed Real Madrid midfielder Van der Vaart for 8m.