Winter spending in Primera stands at €20.55 million
Valencia last January spent more than the 20 Liga clubs combined this year on Enzo Pérez. The biggest move was Celta's €7.5 million Claudio Beauveu.
Winter spending in Primera División closed on Monday with a total of 20.55 million euros splashed out among the 20 clubs, with 18.05 million recouped in sales. Last January, a single signing cost 25 million euros: Enzo Pérez from Benfica to Valencia.
Levante, Málaga and Granada were the three busiest sides, with five new players arriving at each club. Levante paid 3.2 million for Mauricio Cuero, making the Colombian forward the club record signing. Málaga’s outlay was just 200,000 euros while Granada spent absolutely nothing on their new faces, including former Barcelona winger Isaac Cuenca. It is no coincidence that two of the three teams are in the relegation zone.
The team that spent the most ahead of the second half of the season was Celta Vigo, with 9.5 million euros going out on players. The Galicians spent 7.5 million euros on Lyon striker Claudio Beauveu and two million on Chile international Marcelo Díaz in order to compensate for the loss of Augusto Fernández to Atlético and the constant rumours of Nolito leaving for Barcelona, which in the end came to nothing.
Real Madrid, Villarreal, Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad all avoided the winter market but only Barcelona avoided any departures in the window. Denis Cheryshev left the Bernabéu for Valencia on loan, while Villarreal allowed left back Bojan Jokic to go on loan to Nottingham Forest. Athletic striker Kike Sola left for Aitor Karanka’s Middlesbrough and Sociedad lost Chory Castro (Málaga), Alfred Finnbogason (Augsburg) and Ion Ansotegi (Eibar). Barcelona were content with their “new” signings Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal, who joined last summer but were prevented from playing until January because of the Fifa embargo on Barça registering players.
Málaga bade farewell to more players than any other Primera side (Nordin Amrabat, Fabio Espinho, Marcos Angeleri, Adnane Tighadouini, Ferreira and Roberto Chen). Only Amrabat commanded a fee; eight million euros from Watford.
Of the 39 signings made in the winter window, 10 came on the final day. Málaga tied up deals for Ikechukwu Uche and Federico Ricca at the 11th hour while other moves, such as Leandro Damiao’s arrival at Betis, were frustrated.