Can the unprecedented capital hegemony bring the Premier League to the European Cup hegemony?

Written by Hanbing The total amount of Premier League signing investment in the summer window (3.588 billion euros), exceeding the total of the four major European leagues (3.379 billion yuan), making the five major European leagues officially become the "one super and four semi-finals" in the investment level of recruitment investment. Moreover, the dimensionality reduction of the Premier League market investment on the four major European leagues is all-round. Regardless of the total investment in the league, the investment in a single club, the amount and number of players with high transfer fees, they are far ahead. In the sense of market capital, European football has entered the era of "unipolar" hegemony of the Premier League.

So the question is, can the unprecedented investment hegemony in the market bring about unprecedented competitive hegemony on the court?

In other words, the "one super and four" pattern is currently only established at the football investment level, but the combat effectiveness on the field is not a simple comparison of transfer fees and team value. The huge investment of the Premier League in terms of the benefits of improving combat power is still needed to know before playing in the Champions League.

This is the third time that the Premier League has hit the summer window after the summer window in 2022 and 2023. The investment amount exceeds the total of the four major European leagues. With the sharp increase in broadcast revenue in the new season, it was the first to exceed the total of the four major European leagues. The Premier League finally became a real "unipolar" league in market investment.

In addition to the total investment of the league, 30 clubs with investments of over 100 million euros account for 14 of the Premier League, and only 11 of the four major European leagues, and the Premier League also ranked in the top 8 club investment list. The eight clubs that invested more than 200 million euros this summer all come from the Premier League. Even the clubs that entered the "100 million+" group like Strasbourg are just Chelsea's sub-clubs in Ligue 1, and have become a "tool club" for the capital flow of the Blues to a large extent.

The Premier League's monopoly investment in top stars is also unprecedented. The 25 top stars with transfer fees of more than 50 million euros this summer have 18 players in the Premier League and only 4 players in the four major leagues. All the top five stars in the transfer fee list have joined the Premier League team. The four "50 million+" stars in the four major European leagues actually come from Bournemouth, a small Premier League club. The Premier League giants not only swept away elite Bundesliga players such as Wilz, Ekitic, Waltermad, Sheshko, Simmons, and Gittens, but also attracted top players from La Liga, Serie A and Portuguese Super League. At the same time, the Premier League has further integrated internal resources. Nine of the 18 "50 million+" stars have been transferred from small and medium-sized Premier League clubs to Premier League giants, making the resource advantages of the top Premier League clubs even more huge.

After the flow of top stars in this summer, the advantage of Premier League clubs in the net worth list continues to rise. The top 10 clubs have 6 exclusively in the Premier League, and only four major European leagues include Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern. The investment in the summer window is second only to the Premier League, and no club has entered the top 10 of its value list. The 16 clubs have a net worth of over 500 million euros, 9 of the Premier League and 7 of the four European leagues, which is in line with the total investment in the summer window exceeding the total of the four European leagues.

Although the capital hegemony of the Premier League market is beyond the reach of the four major European leagues, the essence of the professional league is still football competition, not a pure capital transaction. Whether the monopoly hegemony of the Premier League market can ultimately be reflected in the European competition results is the core suspense. Six teams with record-breaking UEFA Champions League in the new season participated. Based on the situation of hoarding stars due to the dimensionality reduction of the Premier League summer market, by strict standards, the Premier League must at least reproduce the grand occasion of "three of the semi-finals" in the Champions League for three consecutive seasons from 2006 to 2009, which is probably worthy of the cliff-like investment leadership.

But the more investment in the market, the better the stadium results will be? The Premier League was the investment champion for three consecutive summer windows from 2006 to 2008. The Premier League achieved a monopoly on the "three of the four quarters" of the Champions League, and entered the Champions League final for three consecutive years, but only won one Champions League trophy. The summer windows of 2022 and 2023 are the two previous investments in the Premier League closest to the sum of the four major European leagues. But except for Manchester City winning the championship in the 2022/23 season, only Manchester City has reached the semi-finals once in the 8 Champions League and Premier League teams in those two seasons. Previously, the highest investment in the Premier League summer window in the 2023/24 season, none of the four Champions League teams entered the semi-finals. In the 2022/23 season when Manchester City won the championship, the Blue Moon Army ranked only 8th in the summer window investment in 2022. Chelsea, which ranked first in the summer window during the same period, only participated in the Champions League once and ended in the quarterfinals.

Since 2003, the Premier League has been the summer window investment champion for 23 consecutive years, and has only won 5 Champions League titles in total, which is not as good as Real Madrid (6 times). In the previous 22 seasons, Premier League teams have reached the Champions League quarterfinals 45 times, the semi-finals 25 times, the finals 15 times, and the championship has won 5 times. In the past three seasons with the greatest investment advantage in summer window, the 12 teams have only entered the quarterfinals of 8 times, entered the quarterfinals of 4 times, and won the championship once. In sharp contrast, La Liga, the investment in the summer market was less than 42% of the Premier League during the same period, but it entered the Champions League quarterfinals 44 times, reached the semi-finals 27 times, reached the semi-finals 12 times, won the championship 10 times, and achieved even better results. In the past three seasons, the investment in La Liga summer has even been only 21.3% of the Premier League, and has also entered the quarterfinals for 6 times, entered the quarterfinals for 4 times, and won the championship once.

The changes in the odds of winning the Champions League seem to prove the tendency of the outside world. After the Champions League draw ended 5 days ago, the odds for winning the Champions League were Liverpool tied for first place with Barcelona (7.00), Paris Saint-Germain (7.50), Arsenal (8.00), Real Madrid (9.00) and Manchester City (10.00). After Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City all won strong aids on the summer window, Barcelona ranked first in the championship odds (6.00), Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool tied for second (6.50), Real Madrid, Arsenal (7.50), and Manchester City (10.00) followed closely.

Barcelona and Real Madrid, whose market has long been over, are even more optimistic. Obviously, European football does not believe that the Premier League market hegemony will definitely bring about the hegemony of the stadium like 15 years ago.