Record Spending v's The Academy

The activities of Huddersfield Town in the transfer market this summer are put into context by the latest figures from Deloitte's Sports Business Group.

English football transfer fees rose by a staggering two-thirds over the summer, setting a new record of more than £500m compared with the £300m spent in the summer of 2006 according to research.

Commitments made by new billionaire owners drove the budgets of leading clubs.

Average transfer fees rose from about £3.5m to £4m

Manchester United led the way with spending of £51m, followed by Liverpool with £50m and then Spurs (£40m) and Sunderland (£35m). In net spending terms, Manchester City are up there with the best of them, £35.2m as they recouped very little from the sale of players.

In 2003 and 2004, Chelsea accounted for nearly half the total spending but this time the figure of £17.45m is around four per cent. The £24.5m sale of Arjen Robben to Real Madrid means they actually made a profit in the transfer market.

Arsenal were also low net spenders, spending £16m but recouping this by selling Thierry Henry to Real Madrid for £16.1m.

Of course the sum received for Gary Taylor-Fletcher (undisclosed) and paid for Kamara and Cadamarteri (nothing), puts the gulf between FL1 Huddersfield Town and the Premiership elite in context.

But who needs all that cash and a foreign sugar daddy owner eroding the identity of the club, when you've got Gerry Murphy and the Academy !

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