The 2026 summer window is shut, and honestly it tells us more about the state of football's money problem than any summer in recent memory. The Premier League is eating itself alive with cash, Ligue 1 is basically a finishing school for Europe's elite, and somewhere in Seville there is a 22-year-old from Glasgow who was playing in Sweden six months ago. Let's get into it.
The World Cup window inside the window
The tournament was barely a week old before clubs started moving. Real Madrid announced Marc Cucurella for £52m while he was warming up for Spain's opener, then went back in for Bernardo Silva before Portugal had even kicked a ball. Liverpool signed Víctor Muñoz for £34.5m in mid-June and had their £60m deal for Jérémy Jacquet wrapped up by early July. Tottenham somehow spent nearly £230m on Jan Paul van Hecke, Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali before the last 16 was done, then added Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi for free on top of that.
The smart clubs used the tournament as cover. Bayer Leverkusen quietly picked up Kennet Eichhorn and Afonso Moreira for a combined £32.8m while everyone else was watching group stage football. Brighton spent just over £50m on Zadok Yohanna, Costinha and Pascal Struijk before the competition even reached the last 32. And then there were the World Cup breakouts: Yan Diomande went from RB Leipzig rising star to Real Madrid's £115.7m signing after shining for Côte d'Ivoire; Johan Manzambi had Aston Villa pipping Newcastle for his signature; Kerim Alajbegovic landed at Juventus; Caleb Yirenkyi is now at Coventry in the Premier League; and Morocco's Ismael Saibari fetched up at Bayern. The tournament does what it always does. It makes prices go up and clubs panic. See the full picture of who went where in our [men's transfer window summer 2026 tracker](/uprise/football/mens-transfer-window-summer-2026-all-deals-from-europes-top).
The haves, the have-nots, and Hull's volcano
Three promoted clubs spent a combined £473.6m this summer. Hull's owner Acun Ilicali called the club a volcano back in July, and he was not wrong, with 18 players signed for £156.5m. Ipswich went even further at £194.7m across 15 signings. Coventry spent £122.4m on 11. Compare that to 2021, when Norwich, Watford and Brentford collectively spent £98.8m, with Kristoffer Ajer from Celtic the headline move at £13m. The gap between the Premier League and everything else is no longer a gap. It is a canyon.
In France, the picture is the mirror image. Fifteen of eighteen Ligue 1 clubs turned a profit this window. PSG made north of £150m net, largely thanks to the £123m sale of Bradley Barcola to Liverpool. Lille cashed in on Ayyoub Bouaddi and Matias Fernandez-Pardo, who joined Manchester City and Newcastle for £85.7m and £51m. Strasbourg alone brought in nearly £90m through a series of departures. Five of the fifteen biggest fees ever received by French clubs came in this single window.
Meanwhile, Fiorentina moved on 34 players in a rebuild from scratch, [which has had a long time coming](/uprise/football/fiorentinas-serie-a-renaissance-feels-a-way-off-after-chastening). Chelsea shifted 33. And then there is Robbie Ure: 22 years old, Glasgow-born, 15 goals in 15 Swedish league games, now Sevilla's number nine. Football, you strange and beautiful mess.
The verdict: the Premier League is financially untouchable and it is making the rest of European football increasingly weird. Whether that is sustainable or a slow-motion disaster is a question nobody at the top wants to answer.