Nottingham Forest and Sunderland are more generous than Real Madrid

The early transfer market for the 2025-2026 season officially closed on Tuesday (2/9/2025) in the early hours of WIB. The circulation of funds for player purchases remains the highest in the English League. In fact, Nottingham Forest and Sunderland were able to spend more on transfer fees than the currently richest football club, Real Madrid.

Undoubtedly, Forest and Sunderland recorded the largest transfer expenditures in their history. Forest, for instance, spent over 201 million euros, equivalent to approximately 3.87 trillion rupiah. This expenditure made them one of seven teams in the English League that spent at least 200 million euros in the summer of 2025.

The substantial funds were utilized by Forest to bring in 10 new players to strengthen the quality of the squad coached by Nuno Espirito Santo. Omari Hutchinson is the most expensive acquisition for Forest, having been signed for 43 million euros (approximately 829 billion IDR) from Ipswich Town.

Overall, Forest has spent 45 million euros (Rp 867 billion) specifically for the Brazilian club, Botafogo. The transfer value is to redeem four Brazilian players from Botafogo, namely Igor Jesus (forward), Jair Cunha (center-back), Cuiabano (left-back), and John Victor (goalkeeper).

"The club has made significant efforts to perfect the squad. I am very honest that (Evangelos) Marikanis (the owner of Forest) is perhaps one of the people who knows very well," said Espirito Santo regarding his team's transfer activities at the beginning of this season, as reported by Sky Sports.

Sunderland, one of the promoted teams in the English Premier League, has not hesitated to spend 185 million euros (approximately 3.57 trillion rupiah). This amount is allocated for bringing in 10 players through transfer fees.

Sunderland's largest expenditure was allocated for the recruitment of Strasbourg midfielder, Habib Diarra, amounting to 31.5 million euros (Rp 607 billion). One of Sunderland's notable purchases is Granit Xhaka, who was brought in from Bayer Leverkusen.

The transfer activity has had a positive impact at the beginning of this season for Sunderland. The team coached by Regis Le Bris has secured six points from their first three matches of the season.

The expenditure of the two mid-tier English teams exceeded the transfer funds spent by Real Madrid. The Spanish giant "only" spent 167.5 million euros (approximately Rp 3.23 trillion). "Los Blancos" brought in four players, namely Dean Huijsen, Alvaro Carreras, Franco Mastantuono, and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The English Premier League recorded the largest transfer spending in the summer transfer window, with a total value of 3.5 billion euros (Rp 67.5 trillion) for the purchase of 344 players.

For Real, the transfer money is not a significant amount for their financial balance. The reason is that the expenditure figure for the summer of 2025 is merely 16 percent of their revenue in 2024. Referring to the Money League 2025, Real is the wealthiest football team with revenues reaching 1.045 trillion euros (Rp 20.15 trillion).

Outside of England, two teams that surprisingly opened their financial vaults for new players are Leverkusen in Germany and Strasbourg in France. Both clubs have ended the dominance of powerhouse clubs in their respective countries.

Leverkusen, which spent 198 million euros (IDR 3.8 trillion), surpassed Bayern Munich's expenditure of 88 million euros (IDR 1.69 trillion). It is not surprising that the patience of Leverkusen's management is as thin as tissue due to the winless results in the first two matches of the German League this season.

Leverkusen became the first team to sack a manager by prematurely ending their partnership with Erik ten Hag.

"Parting ways at the beginning of the season is painful, but we feel it must be done. We remain committed to achieving our goals this season, so we need the best conditions at all levels and among all elements of the main team," said Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro regarding the dismissal of Ten Hag, as reported on the club's website.

Strasbourg has signaled its ambition to disrupt the hegemony of Paris Saint-Germain in the French League. They spent 127.5 million euros (approximately 2.46 trillion IDR), which is more than the 103 million euros (approximately 1.98 trillion IDR) spent by PSG.

Strasbourg has no financial constraints as they have been fully owned by BlueCo since June 2023. BlueCo is a sports investment consortium that also holds full ownership of Chelsea.

Meanwhile, the English Premier League recorded the largest transfer spending in the summer transfer window. A total of 20 top teams in the "Prince Charles' Country" collectively spent around 3.5 billion euros (Rp 67.5 trillion) for the acquisition of 344 players.

This marks the first time a league has spent over 3 billion euros on player purchases. The Premier League further highlights the financial gap with Europe's top four leagues.

In addition to the English Premier League, only the Italian League has managed to reach an accumulated expenditure of more than 1 billion euros. On the other hand, the German League spent only 847 million euros on player acquisitions, while the Spanish League and the French League merely allocated around 600 million euros to bring in players.

Another interesting aspect is that the circulation of transfer funds circulating solely among the 20 Premier League clubs has reached a new record of 1.19 billion euros (Rp 22.95 trillion). When combined with the Championship League, the second tier of English football, the transfer money circulation in the two top English competitions during this summer has exceeded 1.3 billion euros (Rp 25.1 trillion).

By examining the expenditures of the English Premier League teams, there are 15 out of 20 contestants with spending exceeding 100 million euros. Moreover, seven—potentially eight—clubs have spent more than 200 million euros on transfer fees.

Seven clubs that have already closed transfer activities exceeding 200 million euros are Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Newcastle United, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, and Forest.

Another club that has the potential to reach that fantastic figure is Manchester City. "The Citizens" have already spent 176 million euros (approximately Rp 3.4 trillion). This expenditure could exceed 200 million euros if they successfully complete the transfer of goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma from PSG for a fee of around 30 million euros (approximately Rp 578 billion).

Liverpool has reaffirmed their grand ambitions to succeed in England and Europe with the largest expenditure. A total of 483 million euros (Rp 9.3 trillion) has been spent by the team coached by Arne Slot to strengthen the squad with six new players, including Alexander Isak from Newcastle.

This marks the first time a club has spent over 400 million euros on player acquisitions in a single transfer window. In fact, "The Reds" nearly spent half a billion euros had Crystal Palace not canceled the 35 million euro (approximately 674 billion IDR) deal for center-back Marc Guehi.

"I think Liverpool are still the favorites to win the Premier League this season, having strengthened their squad after dominating last season. Isak's arrival will be a positive for the squad," former Liverpool player Stephen Warnock told the BBC.

Not only in England, Liverpool is also currently dominating the race to become the 2025-2026 Champions League champions.