While some clubs have had to fight the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, others have found significant cash to improve their squads.
And big money has been spent in the 2020 summer transfer window, especially by Chelsea.
The market opened the day after the season ended last term and has now closed with Arsenal and Manchester United both busy on deadline day.
There is still a domestic-only window running until later this month, but you can see all the confirmed transfers so far below.
All figures are taken from the wonderful transfermarkt.
10. Chelsea £68.40m
Players sold: Alvaro Morata (£50.4m, Atletico Madrid), Mario Pasalic (£13.5m, Atalanta), Nathan (£2.7m, Atletico Mineiro), Tiemoue Bakayoko (£1.8m loan, Napoli)
The deal to keep Morata on Atletico’s books was arranged last summer but only this year did his loan move become a permanent one. Atletico coughed up and promptly sent the striker on his merry way to make room for Luis Suarez. Chelsea would have liked to have shifted plenty of other players this summer but instead they will have the world’s most expensive keeper as a substitute and defensive ranks swelled by five centre-backs and three left-backs, none of whom could get a move on deadline day.
9. Benfica £68.78m
Players sold: Ruben Dias (£61.2m, Manchester City), Carlos Vinicius (£2.7m loan, Spurs), Cristian Lema (£1.8m, Damac FC), Florentino (£1.35m loan, Monaco), Ivan Zlobin (£900,000, Famalicao), Jhonder Cadiz (£450,000 loan, Nashville), Yony González (£378,000 loan, LA Galaxy)
Benfica still finished the summer almost £20million in the red despite Manchester City breaking their transfer record to bring Ruben Dias to the Premier League. They could still make £36million on Vinicius if the striker proves himself at Tottenham, and the Portuguese window remains open for a while yet.
8. Wolves £71.28m
Players sold: Diogo Jota (£40.23m, Liverpool), Helder Costa (£15.93, Leeds), Matt Doherty (£15.12m, Tottenham)
Wolves were operating on a tight budget this summer and the Molineux money men made back all but £2.34million of the cash they spent on new recruits. Also, new deals for Raul Jimenez and Adama Traore (when it is signed) don’t come cheap.
7. Inter Milan £75.33m
Players sold: Mauro Icardi (£45m, PSG), Andrea Pinamonti (£17.55m, Genoa), Yann Karamoh (£7.2m, Parma), Dalbert (£2.25m loan, Rennes), Andrea Palazzi (Monza, £1.8m), Valentino Lazaro (£1.8m loan, Borussia Monchengladbach), Felice D’Amico (£360, Sampdria), Matteo Rover(£90,000, Sudtirol)
Inter had to find some way funding Antonio Conte’s dream of fielding a Premier League team in Serie A, and the Italians were only £12million off breaking even, thanks in no small part to PSG’s decision to make Icardi a permanent member of their squad. Inter could have been a lot higher on this list but Spurs just would not cough up for Milan Skriniar.
6. Bayer Leverkusen £85.95m
Players sold: Kai Havertz (£72m, Chelsea), Kevin Volland (£13.95m, Monaco)
Even without selling Havertz, Leverkusen would have kept themselves in the black this summer but thanks to Chelsea’s money, the Germans can consider themselves kings of the European net spend league having clearing a £57.6million profit.
5. Juventus £86.85m
Players sold: Miralem Pjanic (£54m, Barcelona), Emre Can (£22.5m, Borussia Dortmund), Simone Muratore Simone Muratore (£6.3m, Atalanta), Cristian Romero (£1.8m loan, Atalanta), Daniele Rugani (£1.35m loan, Rennes), Matteo Stoppa (£900,000, Sampdoria)
Juve ‘made’ £54million on Pjanic – except they didn’t really. The part-exchange deal which brought Arthur to Italy saw the Old Lady send Pjanic on his way with a few euros to give to Barca, but according to the books, 30-year-old Pjanic was valued at around £54million and Arthur at £65million. Which is ludicrously creative.
4. Lille £89.10m
Players sold: Victor Osimhen (£63m, Napoli), Gabriel (£23.4m, Arsenal), Junior Alonso (2.7m, Atletico Mineiro)
Transfermarkt have the fee Napoli paid for Oshimen down as £63million but it depends on which report you read. L’Equipe claimed it was more like £73million – regardless, Lille made a fortune (around £50million) on the attacker they signed to replace Nicolas Pepe at the start of last season.
3. Ajax – £90.9m
Players sold: Hakim Ziyech (£36m, Chelsea), Donny van de Beek ££35.1m, Manchester United), Sergino Dest (£18.9m, Barcelona), Joel Veltman (£900,000, Brighton)
Ajax doing what Ajax do. Even with buying replacements for all those sold, the Amsterdammers cleared a £54.23million profit. Van de Beek might be regretting his part in it, though.
2. Napoli – £103.22m
Players sold: Allan (£22.5m, Everton), Simone Verdi (£18m, Torino), Roberto Inglese (£16.2, Parma), Marko Rog (£11.7m, Cagliari), Vlad Chiriches (£8.1m, Sassuolo), Alberto Grassi (£6.21m, Parma), Luigi Liguori (£4.5m, Lille), Claudio Manzi (£4.5m, Lille), Orestis Karnezis (£4.5m, Lille), Luigi Sepe (£4.12m, Parma), Lorenzo Tonelli (£2.25m, Sampdoria), Sebastiano Luperto (£450,000 loan, Crotone), Alfredo Bifulco (£189,000, Padova)
Napoli may have taken top spot had they sold Arkadiusz Milik for something like the £23million figure that was being thrown around last week.But much to the club’s annoyance, he rejected late interest from Fiorentina and Valencia and will spend the next few months training on his own until he can begin talking to other clubs in January. Even with the splurge on Osimhen, Napoli made a £37.7million profit this summer.
1. Barcelona – £113.85m
Players sold: Arthur (£64.8m, Juventus), Nelson Semedo (£27m, Wolves), Carles Pérez (£9.9m, Roma), Marc Cucurella (£9m, Getafe), Jean-Clair Todibo (£1.8m loan, Benfica), Ivan Rakitic (£1.35m, Sevilla)
Barcelona desperately needed to trim the fat from their bloated squad to fund a rebuild but like many clubs, they struggled to shift players like Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele who might have helped swell the coffers. Even with the accounting around the Arthur/Pjanic swap deal, they only cleared a profit of £2.25million and were unable to afford Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia on deadline day.