The English Premier League again provided the late-night drama at the end of the transfer window on Monday with Dimitar Berbatov and Robinho joining Manchester United and Manchester City respectively.
The 27-year-old Berbatov finally sealed his switch to United from Tottenham Hotspur for 30.75 million pounds, agreeing a four-year contract with the English and European champions.
City made an audacious late bid to sign the Bulgarian but having failed with that they did pull off the shock purchase of Brazilian striker Robinho from Real Madrid.
The fee was believed to be a British record 32.5 million pounds. City's sudden spending power came after the club confirmed they had signed a memorandum of understanding with an Abu Dhabi investment company about a takeover.
In other major deadline day deals, Manchester United sold forward Louis Saha to Everton, while Tottenham signed Russia striker Roman Pavlyuchenko from Spartak Moscow for 17 million euros ($24.92 million) and Manchester City defender Vedran Corluka for 8.5 million pounds.
Liverpool added Spanish winger Albert Riera to their ranks, the 26-year-old signing from Espanyol with Ireland defender Steve Finnan moving in the opposite direction.
Trading in Spain was quiet on Monday with the big deals already done.
Barcelona have been the biggest spenders in the Primera Liga as new coach Pep Guardiola aims to prevent arch-rivals Real Madrid from claiming a third successive league title.
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They splashed 36 million euros to lure Brazil full back Daniel Alves from Sevilla and recruited midfielder Aleksandr Hleb from Arsenal, defender Martin Caceres from Villarreal and midfielder Seydou Keita from Sevilla.
Real's one major signing was Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart who joined for 15 million euros from Hamburg.
In Italy, new Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho got his way on deadline day, signing Porto winger Ricardo Quaresma for 18.6 million euros.
Mourinho has also bought Brazilian winger Mancini from AS Roma for 13 million euros and signed Ghana midfielder Sulley Muntari from Portsmouth.
AC Milan made Serie A's most eye-catching moves, landing Brazil forward Ronaldinho from Barcelona and bringing back Andriy Shevchenko from Chelsea as they bid to make amends after a fifth-place finish last season.
Juventus spent 22.8 million euros on reinforcing their attack with Palermo's Brazilian striker Amauri and just under 10 million on bringing Denmark midfielder Christian Poulsen to Turin.
Julio Baptista joined last year's runners-up AS Roma from Real Madrid for nine million euros.
There have been few high-profile signings in Germany with even Bayern Munich relatively quiet.
New coach Juergen Klinsmann brought in Germany midfielder Tim Borowski from Werder Bremen and Italian defender Massimo Oddo on loan from AC Milan but the champions have made no signings to match those of Franck Ribery and Luca Toni 12 months ago.
Werder Bremen brought former Bayern striker Claudio Pizarro back to the Bundesliga, on loan from Chelsea, while Hamburg SV replaced Van der Vaart with Brazilian Thiago Neves from Fluminense.
There was no late flurry of transfers in France with the main summer deal being Hatem Ben Arfa's move to Olympique Marseille for 13 million euros from Olympique Lyon.
(Editing by Ed Osmond)