Arsène Wenger has warned English football that it risks “suffocating” itself amid a two-tiered transfer market where fees for Premier League clubs are as much as 10 times more than the rest of Europe.

The Daily Telegraph can also reveal that Premier League spending for one transfer window is now poised to reach £1 billion for the first time after Deloitte confirmed that the total outlay this summer had already passed £800 million.

A series of major deals is still expected in the remaining fortnight of the window and it is forecast that gross spending will smash all previous records.