THE 2024-25 Saudi Pro League season kicks off on Thursday, 22 August. A year ago, it seemed there was a star player arriving in Riyadh, Jeddah and elsewhere on a daily basis.
In all, more than £700m was spent on the likes of Neymar, Karim Benzema and Riyad Mahrez among others who joined Cristiano Ronaldo in the Middle East.
If there were expectations that this summer would be as free-spending as the last, they have not yet been met, though there has been a general downturn in the wider transfer market.
“It has been a relatively quiet summer across global football,” Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economy at Skema Business School in Paris, told BBC Sport.
Chadwick attributes it to “a combination of harsh economic conditions, the late finishing of continental national team tournaments, and clubs across various territories trying to navigate local financial regulations”.
While there have been links to Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr, there has yet to be an earth-shattering transfer deal in Saudi Arabia this summer.
Brentford and England striker Ivan Toney is the latest name of interest, with the Bees rejecting a £35m bid for the 28-year-old from Al-Ahli last week.
“The problem with spending big on expensive imported talent is that sustaining it means continuing to do so in perpetuity,” added Chadwick.