The aftermath

Yesterday ended the January transfer window across Europe and England the big teams broke out their wallets for one more record day of spending -- $362 million in all -- as these Premier League teams get ready for the new UEFA financial rules to begin being strictly enforced beginning this summer.

Essentially the gist of the new guidelines stipulate that teams must at least balance their books. Teams that do not face harsh penalties including being barred from the Champions League or other European competitions.

With that in mind Chelsea cashed in the two biggest signings of the transfer market breaking the record spent by an English team on one player with a 50-million-pound purchase of 26-year-old Fernando Torres from Liverpool and solidifying their back line with a 21.3-million-pound purchase of David Luiz from Benfica.

Liverpool were also a very active team in Tom Henry's first opportunity to buy players since taking over the club last fall. In my opinion they got the bargain-basement deal of the winter swooping in to sign rising star Luis Suarez from Ajax for 22.5 million pounds, again you'll remember him from his terrific tournament at the World Cup last summer for Uruguay. They also plundered Newcastle for rising star 22-year-old Andrew Carroll, who ranks third in the EPL with 11 goals this campaign.

I can honestly say I don't know much about Carroll except for the fact that his transfer fee was the eighth highest ever in the history of the sport, so that should tell you about how highly Liverpool think of the young man. And together with Suarez they should form a nice striking partnership that should be able to replace the production of Torres.

Here's the complete list by the way of top 10 purchases: 1. Cristiano Ronaldo

(Man Utd to Real Madrid, 2009, £80 million)

2. Zlatan Ibrahimovic
(Inter Milan to Barcelona, 2009, £56.5 million)

3. Kaka
(AC Milan to Real Madrid, 2009, £56 million)

4. Fernando Torres
(Liverpool to Chelsea, 2011, £50 million)

5. Zinedine Zidane
(Juventus to Real Madrid, 2001, £46.5 million)

6. Luis Figo
(Barcelona to Real Madrid, 2000, £37 million)

7. Hernan Crespo
(Parma to Lazio, 2000, £35.5 million)

8. Andy Carroll
(Newcastle to Liverpool, 2011, £35 million)

9. David Villa
(Valencia to Barcelona, 2010, £34 million)

10. Gianluigi Buffon
(Parma to Juventus, 2001, £32.6 million)

As for the rest of the transfer market there were plenty of interesting moves. U.S. MNT players Robbie Findley and Eddie Johnson moved the Championship. Findley joined Nottingham Forest, while Johnson switched from Fulham to Preston North End. As previously mentioned Michael Bradley joined Aston Villa, who play Manchester United at 3. Emmanuel Adebayor joined Real Madrid. Steven Ireland joined Newcastle. El-Hadji Diouf joined Rangers. Demba Ba joined West Ham. Carlos Vela switched from Arsenal to West Brom. Ryan Babel joined Hoffenheim (Bundesliga). John Carew moved to Stoke City. Steven Pienaar joined Tottenham. Jermaine Jones is at Blackburn along with Roque Santa Cruz. Edin Dzeko was Man City's big buy and Brad Guzan went to Hull City.

Here's a list of the rest of the Premier League moves.

Around the rest of Europe there was not a lot of movement. Juventus were denied a loan bid for Real Madrid striker Benzema. Cun Aguero re-signed at Atletico Madrid rebuffing a move made by Tottenham. In the Italian Serie A, a couple of minor moves were made, but nothing to write home about. Most teams stood pat.