Chelsea fifth
©TM/IMAGO
The new English Premier League season is approaching quickly on the horizon with excitement levels growing on a daily basis. The 2024/25 campaign gets underway this weekend with clubs frantically trying to add new signings to their squad before then. Premier League clubs have already spent over €1 billion this summer with five clubs – Aston Villa, West Ham, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United – surpassing the €100 million mark.
Premier League spending last summer surpassed the €2bn mark with Chelsea the biggest spenders after splurging €464m on new signings, with Tottenham ranking second as Ange Postecoglou was backed with €247m worth of new arrivals. But which clubs’ new arrivals had the biggest impact in their first season based on how many minutes they played? We’ve crunched the data to see which clubs handed most gametime to their summer signings in the Premier League last season – loan deals were not included.
Which Premier League clubs gave the most minutes to summer signings last season?
Tottenham handed more minutes to their summer signings than any other Premier League club last season. Spurs embarked on a rebuild last summer with club captain Harry Kane departing for Bayern Munich as Postecoglou began to shape the squad in his image after arriving from Celtic. The Australian handed nine summer arrivals a combined total of 16,085 minutes with new goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario playing ever league minutes (3,420) while Micky van de Ven (2,343), James Maddison (2,154) and Brennan Johnson (2,093) all played over 2,000 minutes.
As the graphic above illustrates, all three promoted teams – Burnley (15,951), Luton Town (15,486) and Sheffield United (10,970) – feature in the top six as they tried to improve their squads for the top-flight but it ultimately proved unsuccessful as they were all relegated. Nottingham Forest (15,848) and Chelsea (15,048) are notorious for signing an abundance of players each season and they both feature in the top five. Manchester City and Arsenal battled to win the league but Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta both had built strong squads and didn’t require an overhaul last summer and they rank 16th and 17th. Newcastle United rank bottom with just 2,509 minutes handed to new summer signings last summer but this figure was majorly impacted by marquee arrival Sandro Tonali’s ban for betting offences.