The Premier League’s big-spending heyday doesn’t look like returning any time soon…

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Roberto Mancini must be feeling pretty smug about his situation at Manchester City. Whilst the cash-rich mob continue to splash the cash at Eastlands, the rest of the Premier League seems to be enduring another summer of belt-tightening and penny-pinching.

Chelsea are the latest club to rule out a summer spending spree, and when even Roman Abramovich’s chequebook is closed, you know times are tight. Chairman Bruce Buck has told the press that Chelsea are “very happy with the squad we have now,” before going on to state that “if there are any more additions, it will be fine-tuning.”

The announcement comes hot on the heels of Alex Ferguson’s claim that Javier Martinez will be his only major import this summer. Meanwhile, outside of City’s lavish spending, the summer’s biggest transfer so far has been Liverpool’s capture of Joe Cole on a free.

Gone are the days where each new day would bring another multi-million pound signing. These days, nearly every club in the Premier League has to think very carefully about where they spend their money, with several having to sell before they can buy.

In some cases, that may be no bad thing. Roy Hodgson, for example, will probably be fairly content with having to sell players at Liverpool, given how much dead wood Rafa Benitez accumulated over the years. But for us football-starved fans, it’s a frustratingly cagey damp squib, in place of what is usually one of the more light-hearted phases in the football calendar.

Instead of exciting new deals, what we’re left with is a string of interminable will he-won’t he transfer sagas that get less interesting by the day. This year’s edition is Barca’s relentless pursuit of Cesc Fabregas, which has become more of a weird, stalkerish obsession than a transfer saga, with various Barca players and officials making increasingly proprietary comments about the Arsenal captain. The fact that this one looks like rumbling on for another year at least, says it all about how unsatisfying this transfer window has been.

Just in case anyone was in doubt how much they really, really want him…

We’re hoping there are still a few Premier League managers playing their cards close to their chests, and that there could yet be some exciting new players lining up come mid-August. Fergie is notoriously unreliable when it comes to talking about signings, Hodgson will have his eye on a few and Ancelotti will be hoping Roman was only kidding about closing his wallet. Fingers crossed!