Usually January is the quick-fix month of transfers left over from the summer, a number of bad deals, and a few life-saving ones.
A British-record deal to bring in Enzo Fernández for more than £105 million will take Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s spending past £500 million in just two windows. In the January window alone, Chelsea spent £288m, compared to the £190m spent by the 78 clubs in France, Spain, Germany and Italy combined.
It was a soundbite that stopped journalists in their tracks. Anyone looking down at a notepad or keyboard glanced upwards immediately, wondering what Eddie Jones had just said out loud.
The gross spend was 90 per cent higher than the previous record of £430m in 2018 and almost triple the previous January window (£295m).