Manchester City smashed the British transfer record to bring Real Madrid's Brazil international Robinho to Eastlands for 40 million euros, while neighbours United snared long-time target Dimitar Berbatov for 37.8 million euros from Tottenham. This meant the total summer outlay of Premier League clubs stood at 615 million euros, 36.9 million euros more than in 2007.

On the back of new investment, City topped the spending table, but Aston Villa, Sunderland and Tottenham all spent more than 35 million euros - a sign that the latest lucrative television deal has spread wealth beyond the traditional Premier League 'big four'.

"This level of transfer spending is far in excess of spending by other European leagues," said Paul Rawnsley, director of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte.

"With the majority of their revenue streams already contractually secured, English football clubs are proving resilient to the current challenging economic environment. While football is not recession-proof, it is recession-resistant," he added.

According to Deloitte's research, Premier League clubs have spent around 264 million euros on players from other top-flight clubs - a 40% increase on last summer.

Overseas clubs received 307 million euros from the Premier League, while the amount splashed out on lower-league players came in at just 43 million euros - less than half the amount recorded in 2007.

Behind the Premier League in second place for European spending was Serie A.

Italy's top clubs spent 500 million euros on new players over the summer months, with champions Internazionale unsurprisingly leading the way thanks to an outlay of 66.9 million euros.

New Inter boss Jose Mourinho made a big splash with the captures of Mancini from rivals Roma and Portugal winger Ricardo Quaresma from Porto.

Genoa undoubtedly caused a stir with an unprecedented transfer bill of 57 million euros, including 10 million euros to bring in highly-coveted Real Zaragoza targetman Diego Milito.

Alberto Gilardino, a 15million-euros acquisition from AC Milan, was one of 10 new faces to arrive at Fiorentina for a total of 48 million euros.

At a cost of 22.5 million euros, Ronaldinho represented AC Milan's only significant outlay, while Juventus prepared for a title challenge by shelling out 36.6 million euros - 22.8 million of which went on Palermo striker Amauri.

Business in the Primera Liga dropped significantly from 541 million euros in summer 2007 to 285 million euros. Real Madrid made just one significant purchase, in the form of Rafael Van der Vaart, after missing out on Manchester United's Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo.

Arch rivals Barcelona made the biggest moves in Spain, as Sevilla full-back Dani Alves and Arsenal playmaker Alexander Hleb joined for 32 million and 15 million euros respectively.