Man Utd are only club with transfer net spend of £1BILLION in 10 years but have little to show for it as top 20 revealed
MANCHESTER United are the ONLY club in the global game to have spent more than £1BILLION net over the past decade.
Since the appointment of Louis Van Gaal in the summer of 2014, United’s net outlay, taking sales into account, stands at a staggering £1.2bn, with £524million of that having been splashed out SINCE the Covid pandemic of 2020.
The arrivals of Rasmus Hojlund, Mason Mount and Andre Onana this summer for a total of £164m has only extended United’s stratospheric spending policy over the past decade.
But Chelsea’s astonishing three transfer windows since the arrival of Todd Boehly, with a net spend of £558m in 2023 ALONE and £880m over the period, means the Blues are now second in the global list.
According to statisticians at the Swiss-based International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES), the remarkable excesses of the Prem over the past 10 seasons have been laid bare.
Of the top 10 net spenders, seven are Prem sides – with Arsenal, whose capture of Declan Rice from West Ham has taken their net outlay to £747m in fourth, Manchester City (£733m) fifth, Newcastle (£575m) sixth, Spurs (£522m) eighth and West Ham (£451) 10th.
The Prem sides – Liverpool, in 12th with a net spend of £426m are actually behind Aston Villa) are only rivalled by third-placed PSG (£870m), Barcelona (£568m) and AC Milan (£467m).
It stands in stark contrast with Portuguese giants Benfica, who have MADE £655m from their transfer dealings, or Ajax, £372m to the good.
United don’t seem to have got much for that £1.2bn, mind you.
Five managers, 54 players – in addition to the pay-outs for sacked bosses – have all added up to the Europa league, one FA Cup and two League Cup wins.
FREE BETS – BEST BETTING OFFERS AND BONUSES NEW CUSTOMERS
It is an astonishing, almost inconceivable sum, further evidence that normal ideas of business sense DO go out of the window when football is the business.
The worry is that United are not the odd one out in the spend, spend, spend Prem.
They are just the top of a very big pile.
Just look, briefly, at some of the players who cost United in excess of £50m.
Angel Di Maria. Huge flop.
Anthony Martial. Loaned out once, now back but set for a bench role.
Paul Pogba. An expensive disaster.
Romelu Lukaku. Nightmare.
Fred. Yes, Fred. Really.
Harry Maguire. Only there under sufferance.
Jadon Sancho. On the naughty step and seemingly on his way out.
Antony. Facing huge questions over off-field allegations.
And that’s before there has been time to judge Hojlund, Mount and Onana.
Of course, there have been some successes, too. New skipper Bruno Fernandes, Casemiro and Raphael Varane among them.
But far, far, too many who have failed. And we have not even touched on Alexis Sanchez, Donny van der Beek or Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Prem clubs are wealthier than the vast majority of their European counterparts.
According to financiers Deloitte, the Prem’s Big Six were ALL in the top 10 global wealth-generators in 2022, with West Ham, the now-relegated duo of Leicester and Leeds, cash-strapped Everton and Newcastle in the next ten.
Toon’s spending spree since the arrival of their Saudi overlords has certainly paid off with Champions League qualification.
Arsenal fans are not complaining at the net spend of £464m since the Covid pandemic, especially after record £105m signing Rice scored that late winner against United on Sunday.
Likewise, basking in last season’s Treble, there will not be too many Manchester City supporters decrying the club’s Abu Dhabi leadership for splashing out a net sum of £733m in the past decade – although interestingly, as their rivals have dug deeper and deeper, “only” £104m over the past four years.
But Chelsea supporters may look at the remarkable past three windows since the arrival of Boehly at the helm to replace Roman Abramovich and question whether it has actually left them with a better squad than the US tycoon inherited.
They have now allowed Romelu Lukaku to leave the club on FIVE different occasions across two contracted spells, for a paper loss of £86m before his wages are even added to the equation.
It is not asking Prem sides to be Benfica, Ajax, Salzburg or Monaco, all more than £350m in the black over the same decade.
But surely, surely, something must start to change, and change quickly. It cannot go on.
Club’s net spending over last 10 years
- Manchester United – £1.19bn
- Chelsea – £883m
- PSG – £866m
- Arsenal – £745m
- Man City – £732m
- Newcastle – £573m
- Barcelona – £568m
- Tottenham – £521m
- AC Milan – £468m
- West Ham – £452m
- Aston Villa – £413m
- Liverpool – £395m
- Al-Hilal – £392m
- Juventus – £385m
- Everton – £336m
- Crystal Palace – £322m
- Bournemouth – £294m
- Bayern Munich – £294m
- Real Madrid – £279m
- Nottingham Forest – £265m