While it may continue to build the narrative that the top Premier League sides bully the smaller English clubs, in reality, the transfer ecosystem that has been re-established in England is only good for parity in the league. Thanks to incredible scouting and larger revenue being brought to smaller teams, the Premier League is back to having top to bottom quality that surpasses any other league across Europe.
You may think that having the ‘Big 6’ snatch up mid-table talents is bad for the league, but it’s a cash injection to the smaller teams that they can’t get anywhere else besides broadcast rights, that also happen to benefit the big clubs.
The money clubs receive from the Premier League’s domestic broadcast deal doesn’t all directly go to them. They receive 50 percent, while the other half is allotted through prize money. On the other hand, clubs receive 100 percent of the money from the International broadcast agreement, which in 2022 surpassed the amount brought in domestically.
But with the £2 billion NBC deal, the bigger clubs receive the majority of the money awarded to clubs because their games are shown far more often on NBCSN and Peacock.
What this means is that the biggest income stream for smaller clubs is taxed (And eventually goes to the bigger clubs for finishing higher in the table) while the biggest income stream for the larger clubs goes directly to them.
While every club still receives a lot more money than ones outside of England, it isn’t enough to tip the balance for smaller teams to compete domestically with the European giants. So the reality is that mid-table Premier League teams who don’t have the quality or structure to constantly qualify for Europe must look elsewhere for large sources of revenue, and thankfully it can come through player trading.
In the previous decade, the title winners were supplied by talents from abroad. Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, Mohamed Salah were brought in from abroad and hit the ground running. Even back to the days of Sergio Aguero and Luis Suarez, who were South American talents scouted by smaller European teams and bought by Manchester City and Liverpool. Because of this, players who play in England but for the smaller teams, like Wilfried Zaha, would never get the big moves they hoped for and Crystal Palace would never be able to get the best deal out of their star and re-invest it into their squad.
But last season, Palace were able to sell Michael Olise for upwards of 50 million euros and turned it into a collection of key players like Ismalia Sarr, who scored two goals in the FA Cup Semi-Finals (A competition Palace would go on to win) and Maxence Lacroix who completed the sixth-most interceptions in the Premier League last season.
Chelsea have made a habit out of bringing in both players and staff from Brighton and Hove Albion. Recently signed Joao Pedro will be the 14th player/staff to be brought in from Brighton, bringing in a total of £257 million through player and staff compensation alone. In 2023-24 (the season after Caicedo and Cucurella departed) Brighton only received £136 million in total through broadcast money.
A team like Brighton, who has only recently become an established Premier League club, don’t have the international relevance to make that money outside of their association with the Premier League. Teams in the Champions League earn a base fee of 18 million euros per season. Caicedo or not, Brighton don’t have the quality to be a consistent Champions League contender just yet. In fact, you could say perennial mid-table teams, like Brighton recently, end up better off after selling their best player for as much money as they can.
After Bournemouth sold Dominik Solanke for 64 million euros to Tottenham, they brought in Dean Huijsen for 20 million and flipped him to Real Madrid for 62 million within the year. Not before finishing ninth in the Premier League, an improvement on their 12th place finish from the season prior.
Premier League fans were concerned about Brentford’s reliance on Ivan Toney’s goal scoring, and some thought they might struggle to stay up after the 42 million euro sale to Al-Ahli. But Bryan Mbuemo and Yoann Wissa filled in for the departing striker, and Brentford went from sixteenth to tenth in the Premier League.
Everton have been one of the most hectic clubs in the Premier League the last few seasons, through points deductions and relegation battles. Many thought that after selling defensive midfielder Amadou Onana to Aston Villa for 60 million euros, it would be the final nail in the coffin for the English old boys. But Everton finished thirteenth with the fourth-best defensive record, with a big contribution from new centre back Jake O’Brien from Lyon.
Even Fulham, a constant mid table side thanks to midfield general Joao Palinha managed to improve after parting ways with their star. The London side improved from 13th to 11th and was able to invest the money in Emile Smith-Rowe, still a bright young player at just 24.
This could be down to the Ewing theory, a suggestion that a team improves as a collective after the departure of their star player. But the most important factor with inter-division trading is the unparalleled financial income teams receive from the big six teams. Everyone knows the Premier League spends the most money as a collective, with a near two billion pound difference between them and the second-highest spending league. But the rise in trading within the league means the Premier League net transfer spending (income - expenditure) has shrunk from 2.1 billion to 1 billion in the last two years.
With smaller teams bulking up their biggest source of revenue, they’re able to improve their infrastructure and academy to one day become a self-sustaining team like the big clubs are.
Outside of Chelsea and Newcastle, the teams who generate the most money are the clubs who finish high up in the table consistently. And while it's always great to see a big talent constantly be the thorn in the side of the big six, it’s not the smartest decision to keep these players long-term and miss out on income that can change the trajectory of a club.
Receiving large sums of money from the Chelsea and Manchester Uniteds of the league allows teams to re-invest money all over their club. From investing in their youth academy that allows them to bring in cost-free quality to the first team (and possibly sell them for pure-profit) to improving their scouting network to purchase cheap young gems from abroad that the bigger clubs may ignore. The reality of the situation is that smaller teams will always lose the players that deserve to be at the bigger ones. Those players aren’t happy not playing consistent Champions League soccer. The solution is to build the club up from the inside to become one of those clubs that can offer the money, popularity, and training quality that make the big clubs so alluring.