While there have been a series of high-profile moves – Tottenham’s investment of £31.6m in Luka Modric and David Bentley, Manchester City’s successful £18m pursuit of Jo and Chelsea’s £8m swoop for Deco among them – the market has generally been slower than it was 12 months ago.

Bedi, Newcastle-based divisional director for Brewin Dolphin, is convinced the prevailing economic conditions have taken their toll.

He said: “Even allowing for a late splurge of transfers, undoubtedly, it is down in terms of monetary value.

“There is no doubt that the impact of broader worldwide ownership and the various forms of financing that change of ownership of many of the clubs in recent years has started to lead to a squeeze of the availability of cash for transfers.

“The credit crunch has caused some of the owners major cash-flow problems.”

The influx of foreign owners in particular had raised hopes for some clubs that there would be major investment in new players, but for those who cannot compete with the spending power of Russian magnate Roman Abramovich, that has simply not been an option.

Bedi said: “The difficulty you have here is with putting someone as unusual as Roman Abramovich into the same bracket as some of the others.

“There is no doubt that he is an exceptionally wealthy individual and most of the others have not got quite that level of wealth.

“Indeed, several of them are relying on borrowings to finance the purchase of their clubs or for ongoing expenditure, and people relying on borrowings are facing the biggest difficulties.

“It is not surprising that the transfer market has slowed down.”

While there have been major moves this summer, some of the longest-running sagas have involved the biggest targets of all, with Real Madrid’s pursuit of Cristiano Ronaldo and his club Manchester United’s interest in Dimitar Berbatov making for yards of newspaper copy.

That has resulted in a series of tense stand-offs with buyers and sellers alike holding out for the right deal.

Mr Bedi said: “The reality is that the clubs who want to buy are shopping in a small pool of quality players who are available and at the right sort of price.

“Invariably, you get these stand-offs like we have seen in particular with Tottenham, who have been really, really pushing.

“The Berbatov example is the most high profile, but there have been any number of others for very much the same reason that have resulted in stand-offs, and that is more to do with financial constraints than anything else.”

The problem for the promoted clubs is to decide just how much they can afford to spend in a bid to retain their top-flight status, something which is becoming increasingly difficult.

West Brom, Stoke and Hull will need no reminding that Sunderland, through Niall Quinn’s Drumaville consortium, invested a total of £44m last season to help them secure 15th place, although Bedi believes the conditions were different then.

He said: “Sunderland were fortunate in the timing of that promotion and the fact they managed to get in there with relatively new owners before the credit crunch and the downturn in the Irish economy started to impact.

“Whether you are promoted or not, but particularly the promoted clubs, the evidence is that you have got to spend your money and spend it wisely to stay up.

“If you do a Derby County and don’t spend the money, you are going to be embarrassed.

“But the reality is that the timing of that from Sunderland’s point of view was fortuitous in terms of the world economy.

“You would have been surprised if it had been repeated again this summer had they been in the same situation.”