To continue the financial comparison between football and e-learning in this country (see

‘E-learning versus football’ below), Sky has revealed that English Premier League clubs spent £485m during the recent summer transfer window. Spending by the 20 English top-flight clubs was up £120m, or 33%, on last summer’s outlay. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United each topped £50m of transfer spending this summer. Moreover, Manchester United reported a record annual operating profit of £110.9m on revenues of £334.1m.

Oddly enough, Learning Light’s report on the UK e-learning industry, published at the end of last year, reported that, at most, the UK e-learning industry was turning over some £472m a year. Moreover, the sector had only grown by eight per cent over the previous year.

So the Premier League clubs – by themselves – have spent slightly more money in buying and selling players this summer than the whole of the UK e-learning sector is turning over in a year. It sort of ‘puts it all into perspective’, doesn’t it?