Premier League Net Spend Since City’s 115 Charges: Arsenal top while Spurs surge into second

Three years after Manchester City were hit with 115 charges, the noise hasn’t quietened and neither has the spending. Anyone expecting the champions to tighten the belt guessed wrong: the chequebook’s still smoking after moves like Antoine Semenyo (£65m) and Marc Guehi (£20m) in January, and a club-record £116m swoop for Elliot Anderson has left Manchester United grinding their teeth. So where does everyone stand? Here’s the net-spend pecking order across the Premier League since February 2023 — and yes, City are only fourth while Arsenal top the lot and Spurs sneak into second.

20–15: Smart sellers, shoestring masters

20) Leeds United: bottom — and proudly so. They’re the only club to bring in more than they’ve spent over this span, helped by Georginio Rutter’s £40m exit to Brighton and a £98m windfall from Archie Gray (Tottenham), Crysencio Summerville (West Ham), plus Tyler Adams and Luis Sinisterra (both Bournemouth). Bean-counters’ dream, that.

19) Coventry City: another side leaning into prudence. Minimal splurging, maximum sense — and a negative net spend to prove it.

18) Hull City: restrained business with a small positive outlay. No fireworks, just steady, sustainable steps.

17) Brentford: still wheeling and dealing with typical savvy. Missed Europe by a whisker last term, but unearthing value remains the playbook — see Igor Thiago, a £30m July 2024 arrival who fits their model to a tee.

16) Everton: life under the PSR microscope has been fraught — a £50m payment to Burnley didn’t help — but a December 2024 ownership change steadied the ship. Some of the spend has turned heads, mind, like £40m on Tyler Dibling. David Moyes’ return has at least dragged them back up the table.

15) Aston Villa: Unai Emery’s lot keep punching above their financial weight. A limited net spend and a Champions League habit — tidy work. Their biggest splash was Amadou Onana for £50m in July 2024, yet the project keeps humming.

14–11: Canny movers with an eye on the balance sheet

14) Bournemouth: finished sixth despite key exits — Dean Huijsen to Real Madrid for £50m and Semenyo to City in January. Not shy with the wallet either: Evanilson remains their record buy at £40m. Europa nights are calling, and so likely is more investment.

13) Brighton: the league’s blueprint for player trading. Moises Caicedo arrived for buttons (£4m) and left for a fortune (£115m). Carlos Baleba could be the next nine-figure headline. Rinse and repeat — and the Seagulls keep flying.

12) Fulham: a surprisingly punchy net spend for a club often accused by its own fans of frugality. They’ve sold smartly (Aleksandar Mitrovic for £50m, Joao Palhinha for £43.2m) but also broke their record to land winger Kevin for £34.6m.

11) Crystal Palace: Oliver Glasner presided over the club’s greatest era, bagging the FA Cup, Community Shield and a UEFA Conference League. Even after big-money departures — Guehi to City, Eberechi Eze to Arsenal, Michael Olise to Bayern for a combined £138.3m — they stayed competitive. That’s culture, not just cash.

10–6: Ambition meets PSR reality

10) Ipswich Town: back for a second season and spending to stay there. Joint-record signings Jaden Philogene and Omari Hutchinson at £20m apiece show intent. Liam Delap’s £30m move to Chelsea — aided by a relegation clause — underlined how quickly the market bites.

9) Sunderland: fifteen recruits for £161m last summer, with experience in Granit Xhaka and savvy in Omar Alderete. The payoff? A surge into the UEFA Conference League places on their Premier League return. That’s not survival; that’s swagger.

8) Nottingham Forest: the Tricky Trees don’t do quiet. From Omari Hutchinson (£37m) to Dan Ndoye (£35.5m) and Elliot Anderson (£35m), it’s been a rollercoaster of relegation scrapes and European nights. Evangelos Marinakis certainly doesn’t lack ambition.

7) Newcastle United: the wealth is vast, the PSR guardrails even bigger. Still, Sandro Tonali (£55m) and Nick Woltemade (£69m) arrived, but without Champions League football, convincing elite targets remains a battle. Losing Alexander Isak to Liverpool for £125m stung.

6) Chelsea: slapped with a £10.75m fine and a suspended transfer ban in March over historic issues, BlueCo have largely doubled down on youth — often parked at Strasbourg. The spend stays heavy, the direction of travel still up for debate.

5–1: Big beasts, bigger chequebooks

5) Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp once said they couldn’t compete — then came the record-breaking window. Roughly £449m in one go, smashing the British mark twice with Florian Wirtz (£116m) and the deadline-day capture of Isak. Say no more.

4) Manchester City: charges or not, the machine purrs. Over €800m out the door and, by gross spend, the second-highest of any Premier League club in this period. Elliot Anderson’s club-record £116m and January’s Semenyo/Guehi moves show zero appetite to slow down. If a verdict ever bites, they’ve built a squad to weather it.

3) Manchester United: the INEOS era brought clarity and clout. A £206m overhaul of the forward line — Benjamin Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha — powered a return to the Champions League. At last, the shopping list looks like a strategy.

2) Tottenham Hotspur: from flirting with the trapdoor on the final day to a 2025 Europa League triumph, Spurs have been peak soap opera. The net spend is enormous and the jury’s still out on some headline buys — Xavi Simons (£51m) and Dominic Solanke (£65m) — but the ambition is undeniable.

1) Arsenal: top of the net-spend tree and stocked for a title tilt at home and in Europe. Viktor Gyokeres (£54.8m), Martin Zubimendi (£60m), Noni Madueke (£48.5m) last summer, and the tone-setter Declan Rice at £105m in July 2023. That’s how you arm a contender.

The bigger picture

PSR has forced clubs to be cannier, but the arms race rumbles on. City’s legal cloud lingers; meanwhile, Arsenal and Spurs have gone full throttle, United look smarter under new leadership, and Brighton keep teaching everyone how to trade. However this story ends, the market’s message is clear: hesitate, and you’re left behind.

For fans tracking the transfer market alongside the odds, our best betting sites guide is a handy companion — figures are correct as of 30/06/2026 and net spends are since February 2023.

All data courtesy of Transfermarkt, correct as of 30/06/2026.