The British transfer record was smashed on deadline day as an unprecedented January transfer window ended with Premier League clubs having spent £2.8bn during the 2022-23 season.
Chelsea's 121m euro (£107m) deal for Benfica's Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez - once confirmed - will take the total expenditure by top-flight clubs in January to a record-breaking £815m.
More than £275m was spent on deadline day alone before the window closed for English clubs on Tuesday.
The deadline day outlay was an increase of 83% on the previous January record of £150m, set in 2018.
And, while an all-time high season expenditure across both the summer and winter windows was guaranteed after a record of £1.9bn was set in September, the final total is double the previous record of £1.4bn in 2017.
The gross spend for 2023’s window was 90 per cent higher than the previous record of £430m in 2018 and almost triple the previous January window (£295m).
The Premier League's financial dominance in Europe increased to the highest proportion ever reported, as the spending by English top-flight clubs accounted for 79% of the total across Europe's 'big five' football leagues, where January spending fell by 35% from 2022 to €255m (£225m).
Indeed, Chelsea spent more in January - around £288m - than the combined total of all clubs in the Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1.
Among English Football League clubs, spending rose to £25m, up from £20m in the previous winter window.
However just 3% of Premier League clubs' total outlay (£25m) was spent on acquiring players from the EFL, with a record 85% spent on talent playing outside the UK.
