MANCHESTER City are at it again, this time their latest spend has taken their defence budget ahead of 52 different countries, while the record for the highest deadline day in Premier League history was broken in a huge last 24 hours of the January transfer window!
It’s Deadline Day Extra Time!
CITY’S DEFENCE BUDGET
When Manchester City completed their £57m (AU$100m) acquisition of Aymeric Laporte, they took their back line spending to £225m (AU$397m).
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READ NOWThat means that the Citizens have now spent more on defence than 52 countries, according to SIPRI data!
Laporte joins Benjamin Mendy (£52m, AU$91m), Kyle Walker (£54m, AU$95m), Danilo (£27m, AU$47m) and Ederson (£35m, AU$61m) in making up the world’s most expensive back four.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published data on every country’s military spending, and in 2016 (the most recent data available), City would have outranked over 50 of the world’s nations.
The 52 countries City’s defence budget tops:
Manchester City – £225m
Guatemala – £191m
Chad – £188.4m
Senegal – £179m
Trinidad & Tobago – £166.4m
El Salvador – £163.9m
Kyrgyzstan – £145.5m
Gabon – £142.9m
Afghanistan – £122.3m
Niger – £117.1m
Bosnia-Herzegovina – £115.9m
Guinea – £114m
Ghana – £114m
Burkina Faso – £105.3m
Albania – £103.3m
South Sudan – £96.9m
Mauritania – £95.9m
Jamaica – £83.4m
Cuba – £83.4m
Mozambique – £79m
Macedonia, FYR – £74.7m
Mongolia – £71.8m
Rwanda – £71.2m
Benin – £69.1m
Tajikistan – £67.5m
Togo – £57.8m
Papua New Guinea – £57.7m
Nicaragua – £51.2m
Swaziland – £47.4m
Montenegro – £47.3m
Burundi – £46.9m
Madagascar – £41.8m
Malta – £40.5m
Kosovo – £36.5m
Central African Rep. – £36.4m
Guyana – £34.5m
Fiji – £31.9m
Lesotho – £28.7m
Djibouti –£25.6m
Malawi – £23.7m
Moldova – £21m
Sierra Leone – £18.8m
Timor Leste – £18.5m
Mauritius – £16.2m
Laos – £16m
Belize – £14.5m
Seychelles – £13m
Equatorial Guinea – £12.8m
Iceland – £12.2m
Guinea-Bissau – £12m
Gambia – £10.1m
Liberia – £8.7m
Cape Verde – £7.2m
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HIGHEST EVER DEADLINE DAY SPEND
As the transfer window slammed shut, a frenetic last 24 hours of business came into focus.
On deadline day, Premier League clubs spent roughly £150m (AU$264m) on transfers – marginally breaking the previous record for highest deadline day spend in history, which was set in 2011.
That spending took the total spend for the window to over £400m, nearly doubling the previous record of £225m (AU$397m), which was also achieved in 2011.
Arsenal’s £56m (AU$98m) outlay on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was the biggest spend on the last day of the window.
FIRST EVER TRANSFER IN CRYPTOCURRENCY
A Turkish club have completed the first ever transfer deal executed in cryptocurrency.
Harunustaspor, who compete in Sakarya First Division Group B, used bitcoin to sign Omer Faruk Kiroglu for 0.0524BTC (AU$657) plus 2500 Turkish Lira. One Bitcoin is worth AU$12550.13, at time of writing and club president Haldun Sehit has revealed his pride at being part of the historic transaction.
“We did it to make a name for ourselves in the country and the world. We are proud of this,” Sehit told Turkish newspaper Hurriyet.
Twenty-two-year-old Kiroglu added: “This is a first for me and for the world. As the chairman said, we are doing something new. I am open to new things.”
TWITTER LAUGHS AT CITY’S MAHREZ PURSUIT
Amid the fanfare of Manchester City’s attempts to sign Riyad Mahrez, Twitter was abuzz with opinions, rumours and even the occasional joke!
Even Bristol Rugby Club got in on the act!
The club tweeted a picture of Mahrez in their jersey with the caption “According to reports, @Mahrez22 wants a move to a highly ambitious club at the top of the league. Heard it here first...”
The tweet has received over 160 retweets and over 560 likes.
Meanwhile, Twitter users were bemused by City’s Mahrez pursuit, considering their already star studded attack.
ARSENAL FANS LOVE SPURS TWEET
As Arsenal sealed the signing of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, they successfully reunited two players who proved rather prolific alongside one another at Borussia Dortmund.
Gunners fans were pretty pleased and, as it usually does, their elation was channelled into taunting cross-town rivals Spurs.
Cue a tracked down tweet from 2016 on Spurs official account which garnered thousands of retweets by overjoyed Arsenal fans.
The tweet, which came during a Champions League clash between Spurs and Dortmund, describes the moment Mkhitaryan assisted Aubameyang in to put BVB up 2-0 over the Londoners.
It’s now received over 2000 retweets.
KONYASPOR’S EPIC ETO’O ANNOUNCEMENT
Regardless of who you follow, it’s hard to argue anyone other than Turkish side Konyaspor won the transfer window.
After sealing a deal to sign former Real Madrid, Barcelona and Chelsea striker Samuel Eto’o, the club took to Twitter to announce his arrival in a delightfully creative way.
The Turkish side channelled TV show Game of Thrones as they announced the signing of ‘Samuel Stormborn of the House Eto’o.”
That’s one way to keep fans interested.
OZIL TEASES GUNNERS FANS
Amidst the Gunners completion of deals for Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang, the real winner was actually Mesut Ozil.
Unwilling to lose both of their big name stars in the same window after Alexis Sanchez’s departure, Arsenal were at the mercy of Ozil as he renegotiated a new contract at the Emirates.
And the German made the most of his advantage,
Ozil re-signed at Arsenal on deadline day, on a mammoth £350,000 (AU$617,000) a week deal which makes him the club’s highest ever earned but not before teasing Gunners fans with a hilarious tweet.
Clever on the field, brilliant off it.
BATSHUAYI IS DORTMUND’S NEW BATMAN
Aubameyang’s Dortmund departure left a hole at Dormund which was filled by Chelsea marksman Michy Batshuayi.
Upon arriving in Germany, Batshuayi joked that he was the man to take over from the Gabonese international as ‘Batman.’
In 2015, Aubameyang famously donned a batman mask as he celebrated a goal with sidekick Marco Reus for Dortmund.
The Belgian took to Twitter to put forward his resume for the role, “Heard the Batman job was vacant BVB so I decided to take over.”