Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger believes this season's January transfer window shows clubs are finally balancing their finances.
The Frenchman compared this window to last year when more than 100 million pounds was spent on Fernando Torres, Andy Carroll and David Luiz alone.
The window shut on Tuesday with nothing like the same level of spending.
Relegation-threatened QPR did the most business, bringing in a number of players such as Djibril Cisse and Bobby Zamora.
Arsenal's only signing was 19-year-old Thomas Eisfeld from Borussia Dortmund who arrived on deadline day for a nominal fee, and Wenger believes that this current trend of spending will continue with clubs no longer able to rack up the same level of debt as before.
"The figures show you (that there is more caution)," he told the club's official website.
"You must say as well that you had big transfers last year with Torres, Carroll and David Luiz. This package alone was about 100m pounds, but still there is a significant difference because we are in a recession period and everybody suffers."
"I don't know if you have seen the numbers in Europe but (according to a UEFA report on football clubs) there are 1.6 billion euros (1.34 billion pounds) losses, that's not debt but losses."
"That is absolutely amazing. That means tomorrow if you had to stop your activity, half of Europe would be bankrupt."
"It means that football has to respond and I don't know if financial fair play will come in, but it looks like economically the whole of Europe is becoming a bit more cautious."
One player whose value continues to rise is Robin van Persie after his two penalties on Sunday in the 3-2 comeback win over Aston Villa pushed him level with fellow Dutchman and club legend Dennis Bergkamp in club's all-time goalscorers list.
"What is amazing is that you look at the number of games Robin has played and the number of goals scored, and [his record] becomes absolutely top, top class," he said.
"You have national class, international class and world class, and Robin is world class."
The Frenchman also confirmed that Marouane Chamakh would return to the club by the end of the week after Morocco were knocked out of the African Cup of Nations at the group stage.
"He played in the first game, and for the second game he was in hospital because he had a stomach bug."