GM football fans. Route One here, we’re like Tetris - piecing together all the football news in one compact email every day.

Results and fixtures are at the bottom (click here).

Today’s briefing is a ~3 min read:

1. FIFA release the Global Transfer Report 2023 💰

2. R1 Transfer Index 📉

3. Extra time: when Zola floored Carragher twice 🤭

HEY… BIG SPENDERS 😰

Yesterday, FIFA released their Global Transfer Report 2023.

What is it? A bunch’a data on transfers last year’s transfers.

For whatever reason, Rasmus Hojlund made the front cover of the report. I mean, he has potential, but this is the year that…

• Bellingham moved to Real Madrid.

• Kane went to Bayern Munich.

• Enzo signed for Chelsea.

… so his agent is working overtime.

Anyway, it’s a 60-page document. So here’s a summary of the most interesting findings…

1/ A record $9.63 billion transfers in 2023

Yup. The number keeps going up and up and up.

Fun fact: last year’s total spending increased 48.1% compared to 2022…

A few takeaways:

• That’s $2 billion more than the previous record in 2019.

• The Premier League led the way. A light $2.96 billion…

• … which is 3x as much as France, ranked second on the list.

Interesting. There has been a dramatic rise in transfer costs since the recovery from Covid, but one thing’s clear…

The moolah is still very much in England.

2/ 12.4% of transfers made up 79% of total spending

The below graph shows the small proportion of transfers which were more than $ 5 million (in green), and generated a majority of total fees in 2023.

To be specific:

• The top ten transfers in 2023 made up 10% of all transfer fees generated.

• The top 100 transfers were responsible for more than 45% of transfer fees.

Oddly… FIFA’s report didn’t include Declan Rice’s move to Arsenal ($138 million) or Moises Caicedo's ($146 million) move to Chelsea in their top ten biggest transfers of 2023…

… so we suspect the top 10 transfers make up an even higher proportion of the total transfer spend.

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And…just like that, the R1 January Transfer Index has slid back down.

It has been a boring transfer window. R1 mascot is yawning. Fans throughout the league are disappointed.

But, we do have hope. Today is Deadline Day.

Yes, it’s a time for panic-buying but that’s not all. Some teams might be able to pick up a bargain before the window closes.

Let’s not forget…

• Luis Suarez from Ajax to Liverpool for £22.8m.

• Wayne Rooney from Everton to Man United for £20m.

• Ashley Cole from Arsenal to Chelsea for £5m.

Ok, granted, they’re exceptions to the rule. That doesn’t mean fans shouldn't be excited for what’s to come.

Here are the transfers we could see before the end of the day…

• Chelsea could put a bid in for Alphonso Davies at around £60m.

• Spurs are still keen on Conor Gallagher.

• Newcastle could offload Bruno Guimaraes to…?

• Nottingham Forest could pick up Gio Reyna from Borussia Dortmund.

Honestly, that’s all we have.

We tried our best to make this window exciting - heck, there’s always the summer window to look forward to.

EXTRA-TIME ⏱️

Gianfranco Zola was something else when he played for Chelsea. Jamie Carragher learnt this first-hand when he was floored not once, but twice, by the Italian.

Rio Ferdinand provides his take on Marcus Rashford’s Belfast nightclub saga. He thinks that Ten Haag can’t trust his players to stay out of the headlines…

It’s important not to take yourself too seriously. And that was Thuram's approach on his Instagram after missing a sitter.

We all know how skilful Allan Saint-Maximin is. But sometimes it doesn’t pay off… like when his attempt at a rainbow flick went horribly wrong.

MEME 😆