Player transfer spending by Premier League clubs in the January transfer window is more than double the amount spent in any previous January period.
Analysis by business advisory firm Deloitte shows total spend was around £150m, outstripping 2007's £60m spend.

Top spenders were Chelsea, forking out £27m, and Tottenham Hotspur, at £20m.

Premier League clubs are investing some of the additional TV money received in 2007/08 to strengthen their squads in the pursuit of success.

The spree comes on the back of a £1.7bn, three-season, deal for domestic and overseas television rights coming into effect.

Great expectations

The spending was not confined to teams in the top half of the table, with spending throughout the league as clubs look to challenge for top spot, qualify for European club competitions, or retain Premier League status.

Middlesbrough for example, in the lower reaches of the league paid out a record transfer fee - which was officially undisclosed - but reported at being around £12m.

At the other end of the table, the biggest fee paid was by Chelsea, who snapped up Nicolas Anelka early in January from Bolton Wanderers for £15m.

The spending spree follows a record outlay of more than £530m on players in the transfer window last summer, and according to Deloitte the factors behind the recent outlays remains the same.

Paul Rawnsley, director in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: "We had the record spending last summer which was fuelled by expectations that the clubs had on the back of money from television, and spending by new club owners.

"The same factors have been seen in the January window, except that now clubs have actually got their hands on the broadcasting money."

World players

Spending between Premier League clubs - of about £55m - accounts for around 40% of all Premier League clubs' transfer spending.

The rest was spent with lower league clubs, or overseas teams.

"The Premier League can obviously pull in top players from around the world," says Mr Rawnsley.

"There may be a debate about whether this is a good thing for the English game, but the way they are spending can be seen as a gauge of the financial strength of the Premier League."

CRISTIANO RONALDO will become the highest paid player in Premier League history with Manchester United ready to offer him a £44million contract.

The Portuguese star, 22, will be presented with a deal worth £140,000 a week that would tie him to Old Trafford until 2014.

That would see him leapfrog Chelsea skipper John Terry, who has a contract worth £130,000 a week. Ronaldo, who has scored 27 goals already this season, would earn an incredible £7million a year with his new deal.

And that would send Ronaldo soaring to the top of the Old Trafford pay stakes ahead of Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand.

Manager Sir Alex Ferguson has only just been given the go-ahead by the Glazer family to break United's wage structure but Old Trafford sources are confident Ronaldo will put pen to paper in the summer.

The winger only signed a five-year deal last season which takes him through to 2012 but Ferguson is keen to reward him for his scintillating form and stunning strike rate that have taken him within reach of George Best's record for a winger of 33 goals in a season.

And United also want to ‘ring fence' the player to keep him out of reach of Real Madrid. Fergie is convinced Real are trying to unsettle his player through ‘leaked' stories in a Spanish sports paper but insists Ronaldo is happy to stay put.

United have also been alerted to the risk that they might lose Ronaldo in two years after a landmark ruling this week by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The decision means that Ronaldo could break his contract with two years remaining by handing over the remaining value of his wages.

That would see him become available in 2010 for a mere £10m as he is currently on £100,000 a week. The ruling means all top clubs will be forced to review the contracts of their stars long before they expire.