Premier League clubs spent £665m more than they received for players during summer transfer window as English top flight further cements place as European football's cash king

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Premier League clubs spent a record £1.4billion on transfers this summer, with the net expenditure of £665million further cementing the English top flight's place at the top the European football money tree.

After a busy transfer deadline day, which saw an unprecedented £210m spent and a string of big-money deals fall through, the total spend across the league's 20 clubs is up more than 25 per cent compared to last summer.

That rise is 65 per cent when compared to the 2015 summer window, which was the last one before the league's blockbuster £5bn TV deal, which kicked in from the following year.

Jose Mourinho used his transfer nous to recruit early and signed Romelu Lukaku for £75m

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's £35m move to Liverpool was the biggest deal of deadline day

It was also a record year for player sales, with the figure of £748m brought in equating to a 55 per cent rise on the 2016 window. 

As a result the Premier League released a net figure of £665m, the transfer total once sales are deducted from overall spending, which was just £30m higher than last summer. This has differed slightly elsewhere, though. 

Clubs spent a little under 15 per cent of their overall revenue on transfers, estimated this season to be a combined £4.5bn.

Manchester City (£215m), Chelsea (£180m), Manchester United (£145m) and Everton (£145m) all spent nine figures in the transfer market, but the overall net spend averages out at each club committing £33.25m.

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While 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs broke their own transfer records only five - Arsenal, Burnley, Stoke City, Swansea and Tottenham, ended up in the black on their transfer dealings.

The Premier League also notes that its clubs will invest £443m in supporting wider English football and communities during the coming season. 

Despite Paris Saint-German splashing a world-record £200m on Neymar, the Premier League kept its position as Europe's biggest spender, investing almost twice as much as second-placed Serie A, which paid out £735m on playing talent.

Tottenham pipped Chelsea to land right back Serge Aurier from Paris Saint-Germain

In fact, the combined spend of clubs from Ligue 1, the Bundesliga and La Liga is only £170m more than the Premier League's, although the Spanish transfer window does not close until Friday night.

This summer also saw Premier League clubs return to their traditional position of being net importers of players after making a small profit on player trading with their overseas rivals in January. This summer, the league's net expenditure on foreign transfers was £585m, a decrease from 2016's record of £630m.