Unsurprisingly, Premier League heavyweights like Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester City lead the list of teams with the greatest net expenditure over the last ten years. But how do they compare to some of the top-spending teams in Europe?
Manchester United – €1.39bn
They’ve had more managers than major awards in the ten seasons since Sir Alex Ferguson resigned, and they’ve never really shown a meaningful threat to win the Premier League.
To be in this situation, they have spent an unbelievable amount of money.
Chelsea FC – €1.033bn
Under former owner Roman Abramovich, the Blues were never short of a bob or two, but under Todd Boehly, they’ve to previously unheard-of heights.
In only three transfer windows, Boehly’s Chelsea have spent nearly £1 billion on acquisitions. Not even the government-backed teams City, PSG, or Newcastle have ever spent so much money so quickly in the history of football.
Paris Saint-Germain – €1.01bn
PSG has blown through a tremendous amount of cash pursuing Champions League title with the weight of Qatar behind them. Not everything has gone as planned.
PSG paid €100 million for Neymar in the summer. When you consider that they paid nearly twice as much for him in a world record move back in 2017, it doesn’t seem like a bad deal.
Even with that enormous transfer cost, PSG’s summer 2023 net spend was the third highest behind Neymar’s Al-Ahli
Arsenal FC – €872m
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Over the past ten years, Arsenal has continuously made large purchases—though more prudently recently, under Mikel Arteta and Edu, to be sure.
Their net cost was always going to be enormous given that they were unable to recover anything from the acquisitions of players like Nicolas Pepe, Hector Bellerin, Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, and Mesut Ozil, who set a club record at the time.
Granit Xhaka and Folarin Balogun are two players the Gunners have started to sell for money, although for a long while the money they gained from player departures was insignificant.
Manchester City – €856m
Pep Guardiola’s juggernaut is always going to feature towards the top end of these lists, such is the backing from the Abu Dhabi-backed City Football Group.
Building a squad capable of conquering the world doesn’t come cheap, with the likes of Jack Grealish, Josko Gvardiol, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri and Ruben Dias towards the top end of their transfer spending. No arguing with that hit rate.
In recent times City have had plenty of money coming in the other direction, having raised considerable funds through the sales of Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus, Ferran Torres and Leroy Sane.
The sale of Cole Palmer means they’ve also raised over £400million in selling academy graduates during Guardiola’s reign.