I assume the £400m spent on players since the stadium opened includes some complex amortisation and wages calculation for players from several years before on long deals.
I also assume we will see Levy, Paratici, Ndombele and Doherty taking turns on reception at the new hotel, to cut costs and ensure it is seen as a footballing investment.
I looked into this a little further and I think the £400m is total gross cost that also includes monies potentially owing for players purchased this window.
A majority of transfers are shown as post balance sheet events.
The 2019, 2020 and 2021 accounts show these and the details the total net expenditure including levies. The following amounts were stated:
2019: £74,500,000
2020: £97,600,000
2021: £46,800,000 (this one also includes the costs of disposing of Aurier).
= ~£219m
These numbers do not include any January business (i.e. purchase of Bergwijn) or any players signed/sold towards the start of the window (I could only notice Jack Clarke not being named) So misses about £40m of gross costs.
In that same period we have sold about £120m worth of players (Trippier, Dembele, Eriksen, Alderweireld, Lamela, Sissoko, Foyth, Janssen, Nkoudou, Onomah, Walker Peters, Hart)
It does evidence though that over the past 3 years we have spent £80m net per year on transfers, which I feel is a decent amount and if we continue that sort of net spend as a minimum we should keep ourselves in the top 6 or 7 in the PL (providing it is spent by the right recruitment team).
The above numbers are taken directly from the accounts. That 2020 number looks very strange to me though.... Here is the excerpt from the accounts:
Since the balance sheet date the following events have occurred:
G Lo Celso joined permanently from Real Betis
P Hojbjerg was purchased from Southampton
K Walker-Peters was sold to Southampton
J Hart joined from Burnley
M Doherty was purchased from Wolverhampton Wanderers.
S Reguliion was purchased from Real Madrid
G Bale was loaned from Real Madrid
C Vinicius was loaned from Benfica
J Foyth was loaned to Villareal
R Sessegnon was loaned to Hoffenheim
I really don't see how that lot above nets out to over £97m..... Suggests some big agents fees to me or perhaps even Gareth Bale's wage costs included in the number where Madrid continued to pay his wages while we made a contribution to Madrid in lieu of those?