With around £490m spent by Premier League clubs as a whole and around £73m for Arsenal, the Magic Circle firm advised Arsenal on the transfer of Dutch striker Robin van Persie to Manchester United for a reported fee of £24m.

The Slaughters team was led by corporate partners Andrew Jolly and Nigel Boardman, while northwest law firm Brabners Chaffe Street acted for the Manchester club.

Expensive acquisitions

The magic circle firm also handled the arrival of two expensive acquisitions by the North London club, with Spanish midfielder Santi Cazorla arriving from Malaga for £16.5m and German striker Lukas Podolski making an £11m switch from Cologne. The £15m sale of Cameroonian midfielder Alex Song to Barcelona was also handled by Slaughters’ lawyers.

Meanwhile, Brabners Chaffe advised clubs on over 50 deals this summer, according to Mancunian Matters including moves by Japanese international Shinji Kagawa from Borussia Dortmund, Angelo Henriquez from Chile, Alexander Buttner from Vitesse Arnhem, and Nick Powell from Crewe Alexandra.