Premier League clubs have shelled out a record 1.4 billion pounds in transfers this season, according to a report yesterday that warned of over-reliance on big Chinese spending.

The Deloitte consultancy study said top-tier English sides made 40 million pounds ($50 million) in profit from the January transfer window, the first time they have come out of the football horse-trading in the black. The market closed on Tuesday night with Southampton swooping for Napoli's Italy forward Manolo Gabbiadini for at least 14 million pounds while Burnley completing the reported club-record 13 million pounds signing of Norwich winger Robbie Brady. Deloitte said total gross spending by Premier League clubs for the 2016/17 season is now almost 1.4 billion pounds ($1.76 billion/1.6 billion euros) smashing the previous record of 1 billion pounds set last season.

The latest eye-watering outlay was "far in excess of any other league in world football", said Dan Jones of Deloitte's sports business department. In all, the 20 Premier League clubs spent 215 million pounds on new players during the market from January 1 until Tuesday, Deloitte said, the second-highest amount for this window since 2011.