Has the January transfer window always felt flat?

It might seem a long time ago now but the winter transfer window has produced some iconic deadline day moments over the years.

Think of Andrey Arshavin jetting into a snow-bound London in 2008 to sign for Arsenal. The weather conditions were so bad the deadline had to be postponed for 24 hours.

Remember 2013, when West Brom striker Peter Odemwingie got in his car and drove 120 miles from Birmingham to London in the forlorn hope he would sign for Queens Park Rangers.

And 2011 produced the greatest winter deadline day of all. Liverpool made the shock signing of Andy Carroll from Newcastle, alongside Luis Suarez from Ajax.

Since then the window has had its moments, but the final day itself has been something of a damp squib.

The Premier League had its quietest ever winter transfer deadline day on Monday, with just seven deals completed.

Yet deadline day has not been packed for a while. In 2024 we saw 13 deals done, then 16 in 2023 and in 2022 it was 14.

The drama of deadline day has always been something of a quiet affair across the other top leagues. Maybe English football had just been spoiled.

In recent years, the only notable signing as the clocked ticked down has been Enzo Fernandez.

Fernandez was fresh from being named the best young player at the 2022 World Cup with winners Argentina.

The midfielder joined Chelsea from Benfica weeks later in what was, at the time, the British record transfer fee of £106.8m.

It was Chelsea's spending which shaped the window and helped set a new Premier League record.

In total, £815m was splashed out, of which Chelsea were responsible for £284.1m - 34.86%.

It was the early delays of BlueCo's investment in the squad after completing a takeover the previous summer. It created an outlier in total spending, especially across the post-Covid years.

The Fernandez deal rumbled on throughout the evening. It was a real on-off saga but eventually went through as the seconds ticked down.

This season's equivalent was probably Dwight McNeil's move from Everton to Crystal Palace. And that didn't even go through.

It is rare for the big clubs to spend in January unless they have a specific need.

Arsenal and Liverpool have not signed a player since 2023. Chelsea (£13.5m) and Manchester United (£27.5m) had modest outlays only in 2025.

Manchester City have bucked the trends across the past two seasons as Pep Guardiola has tried to shake up his squad.

In 2025, he spent £188m on Nico Gonzalez, Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis.

This winter saw an £84m spend, this time on ready-made Premier League talent in Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi.

You have to go back to 2018 to find a winter window when the big six collectively spent a lot of money.

Deals included Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joining Arsenal on deadline day from Borussia Dortmund, while Liverpool snapped up Virgil van Dijk from Southampton.

Of a total Premier League outlay of £500m, the big six clubs were responsible for £322m of it. It was spread out, too. Arsenal, at £86m, were the biggest contributors (26.71%).

To compare with the 2023 window, Chelsea were responsible for 73.39% of the big six's £387.1m spend.

Maybe it should be no surprise that there was a correction in 2024 when only £95m was spent.

That is the lowest amount in the last 10 years, even £2.1m below the Covid window of 2021.

After a bumper 98 transfers were made in the 2023 window, the number of deals has been fairly static - 75, 77 and 78 in the respective windows.

The total spend in this winter window was £390m. That is slightly down from the £421m spent last summer, but way up from 2024.

Perhaps deadline day has actually created a misleading picture?

Because in terms of spending alone, this window was by no means frugal.

Across the last 10 winter windows, only three - 2018, 2023 and 2025 - have seen more money spent than this year.

Deadline day is not too much different either. Across the same timespan those are the only three years where the spend exceeded £100m in the winter.

So is the January transfer window getting boring?

Perhaps it is more the case that, other than a few exceptions, it has never really been anything special.