London, Aug 5 (IANS): Transfer spending in the English Premier League reached 500 million pounds ($4.5 million) this summer with four weeks still left to go until the window closes.

Raheem Sterling's move to Manchester City for an initial fee of 44 million pounds has been the highest so far. Football finance expert Rob Wilson said: "A new record is likely as clubs look to benefit from the new TV deal," reports Efe.

Starting from the 2016-2017 season, deals for Premier League television rights will increase from 3.02 billion pounds to 5.14 billion pounds over the next three seasons.

Meanwhile, Manchester United's boss hinted at a "surprise" signing, despite having already spent 83 million pounds.

The champions of the Premier league will earn more than 150 million pounds in prize money while the bottom club will pocket 99 million pounds per season.

"Manchester United have spent 83 million pounds this summer which is fairly reasonable after spending 59.7 million pounds on Angel di Maria last season," Wilson said.

"If they recoup about 45 million pounds for selling di Maria to Paris Saint-Germain, they could sign Pedro from Barcelona and their net transfer spend would still be pretty modest."

He also noted that Liverpool has funded the transfer deal of Christian Benteke through Sterling's move which he considered as "a good move for football in general".