There will be plenty, then, who will see the drip-feed of small-beer deals and loans-with-an-option-to-buy that have populated this January transfer window and believe that it is just an exception, something cyclical, that come summer, the Premier League will be showering its largess on Europe once more. As unlikely as it sounds, the possibility has to be considered that the Premier League has finally managed to shake its reflex reaction to spend its way out of any problem, to break free of its shopaholism, to overcome its addiction to the short-term high of a lavish transfer. It would be reductive to attribute that to one cause; it is the result, in all likelihood, of a confluence of factors. Then there is the assumption in the Premier League that English soccer’s television boom might have plateaued, and that the next broadcast deal will not deliver the exponential rise in income to which the clubs have grown accustomed. That, too, may have persuaded clubs to become just a little more frugal.

Source: New York Times February 01, 2019 09:00 UTC