The Premier League transfer window shut yesterday afternoon after a potentially frenzied last 48 hours which promised so many big-name moves but delivered relatively few. Many clubs, and their fans, appeared unfulfilled by their summer business.

But while the European leagues can continue to fill gaps until the beginning of September, English sides must now embark on their new seasons knowing that they cannot recruit again until January. Any mistakes could be paid for as soon as this weekend.

It raises questions about this transfer window and why so many clubs have been left frustrated by their lack of signings. Was it a good idea to close the window before the start of the Premier League? Why can’t clubs keep trading until the end of August like they used to? Why has the market been so slow?

The answer is that there is now too much money in Premier League football.

A figure who works with England’s biggest clubs says that having the Premier League window ending more than three weeks before those of other major European leagues is “ill-conceived, self-defeating and as dumb as Brexit”.

Another industry insider told The Athletic that Premier League clubs are reluctant to do business early in the summer and  “just embark on a mad scramble at the end depending on who is available”. This explains the buzz in the last few days, especially towards the top end of the market.

This summer’s Premier League transfer window, and the stodginess in the English market in particular, does point to the increasing divergence between football here and in continental Europe in terms of clubs’ timings, approach, regulation and finance. But it is the Premier League’s immense wealth that has been the real sticking point.

Traditionally, the flow of players between Premier League teams rested on the fact that the lesser teams needed to sell to survive. Good mid-table teams would always be picked off, like Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa, Mauricio Pochettino’s Southampton or the last great early-2000s West Ham side. It was hard work just to stay afloat.

But things have changed. One Premier League chief executive remarked recently how difficult it now is to buy from other Premier League sides. They simply do not need the money to exist in the top flight so they feel empowered to stick with what they have.

Crystal Palace were able to turn down offers in excess of £70 million for Wilfried Zaha, knowing that their best player — even though he might have wanted to leave — was still of more use to them than the transfer fee. Just a few years ago it would have been unimaginable for a team who spends every year fighting to stay up to turn down that much money. But when everyone is this rich, how useful is cash?

Even though Leicester City did eventually sell Harry Maguire to Manchester United, they did so from a position of strength and entirely on their terms. As revealed in The Athletic earlier this week, Leicester wanted a world-record fee for a defender for Maguire and eventually got it. Like the £60 million they got for Riyad Mahrez from Manchester City last summer, it was a generous sum and not one for which they were desperate. They have never been bullied out of a player.

Even when Maguire joined United, it did not set off the chain reaction that some expected. The teams beneath them in the food chain were in no rush to sell either, and could raise their prices after seeing Maguire’s fee.

Leicester wanted Lewis Dunk from Brighton, but Brighton did not want to lose their best defender. Graham Potter wanted to play three at the back this season, so he insisted on keeping Dunk — and signed Adam Webster from Bristol City for £20 million as well. James Tarkowski and Nathan Ake were priced at £40 million and £75 million respectively. Burnley and Bournemouth did not want to lose their best defenders, either. It is hard to force a Premier League club to do anything any more.

Then look at Wolves. In their first Premier League season after a six-year absence, they finished seventh. Ten years ago you might have expected such a team to get picked apart by the top club. But Wolves are owned by a huge Chinese conglomerate and have millions of pounds of TV revenue, too. They have absolutely no reason to sell any of their good players, so they have all stayed put.

And while Premier League clubs have struggled to replace players, it has not helped that they have been so unimaginative in trying to bring others in. Another aspect of this window has been Premier League teams primarily looking at established players. They have so much money they do not feel like they have to cast the net wide. And their vision is so short-term that they only want footballers who can perform straight away.

“They don’t do a lot of homework,” one industry insider told The Athletic. “They still have the English mentality of being perfectly happy to wait for a player to go to Germany or France or Spain, waiting for the player to go and prove themselves. And then spend £40 million to get him.

“England is now a different market from the rest of world football. The model of every other club is to buy low and sell high. In England it is just: buy high. Here the money is irrelevant. All they want is the finished product straight away and they pay the premium for it. Everyone is now thinking that they are cleverer than they are.”

Outside the Premier League the picture is different and the teams are less wealthy. Even the richest teams outside England are struggling with improving their sides while also adhering to Financial Fair Play. This, ultimately, is why there is pressure from Italian clubs to reform the Champions League, because they need more revenues to keep pace with the English teams.

Juventus were pushing Paulo Dybala to Tottenham because they needed the money. They sold 19-year-old Moise Kean to Everton for an initial £25.1 million and downgraded their right back from Joao Cancelo to Danilo to make some more cash. Barcelona and Real Madrid are struggling with their own wage bills, too.

There is another blockage at the top end of the market. Another theme of this summer has been the failure of the very biggest players to move. Some of football’s biggest names will be feeling slightly out of place at their clubs now.

Zinedine Zidane no longer wants Gareth Bale at Real Madrid. Neymar wants out of Paris Saint-Germain. Paul Pogba has never looked truly at home at Manchester United. And yet none of them got their expected move. Dybala did not end up at Tottenham, even though all parties wanted it to happen.

The problem is that wage and fee inflation has served to make these mega-deals harder than ever to pull off. The top players are so well paid that potential suitors are scarce. Bale’s £600,000 per week salary at Madrid has priced him out of any other European club, which is why Chinese side Jiangsu Suning was his only option and even that move collapsed. There are only two clubs Neymar could conceivably go to, while Dybala’s complex, expensive image rights stopped him from going to Spurs. Real have not been able to move on James Rodriguez, either.

“This reflects some clubs’ unwillingness to pay the inflated transfer fees and wages,” Jonas Ankersen, of Transfer Room, told The Athletic. “It has become very expensive to do the big transfers. Clubs think, ‘Is this player really that much better than what we got?’ And so far many have ended up doing nothing significant. That also leads to an absence of the domino effect where one big transfers leads to many others.”

Lower down the international market, clubs have become increasingly frustrated with the changes brought about by the deregulation of agents, and the ability of almost anyone to be a registered intermediary and try to move players. The problem is when agents come to clubs offering a player without having the necessary paperwork — a mandate or a representation contract — to do it. Only when they have the club interested do they go back for the mandate.

There is one story of an agent approaching one of Europe’s most respected sporting directors at the start of the window and offering him a very talented young player, but without having the mandate.

“We love the player,” the sporting director said. “But please don’t talk to me about him. I am sick of hearing about him.”

That sporting director had been approached by a dozen agents already claiming to represent the player, but without the required paperwork. And this is a typical story. There is another about an agency being approached by 20 different agents all trying to move the same player to the same country, and often to the same club. That particular move has still not happened.

“The mandate thing is a clown’s game, nobody serious is bothering with them anymore,” one senior agent told The Athletic. “Too many bullshitters.”

This is eventually expected to lead to a return to the old dominance of the big agencies, who have the connections and clients and expertise to get the big deals done. But for now, at least, there is still a Wild West element to much of the transfer market. English clubs are working hard to figure it out but they have still not found all the solutions. The difference is they have not always needed to.