United squad is third-costliest in Europe
Manchester United’s summer spending has given them the third most expensive squad in Europe, behind only neighbours Manchester City and Real Madrid.
United spent £389.1 million compiling Louis van Gaal’s squad, with their newest signing, Anthony Martial, arriving for a fee that could rise to €80m.
According to the CIES Football Observatory, only Real (£428.5m) and City (£408.1m) paid more in transfer fees to acquire their current group of players.
What current squads around Europe cost to assemble, in euros, by @sportCIES http://t.co/I1hHfpHk6B pic.twitter.com/mDM8Q7vXOR
– sportingintelligence (@sportingintel) September 2, 2015
United’s squad cost over than £100m more than Champions League winners Barcelona’s, bought for £287m, and more than 50 percent more than Bayern Munich’s, who arrived for £246m.
The Old Trafford club have spent more than £260m under Van Gaal, a fee that could rise to almost £290m if the add-ons for former Monaco forward Martial are triggered.
Van Gaal has spent £25m each on Morgan Schneiderlin and Memphis Depay, £27m on Luke Shaw and £28.8m on Ander Herrera.
Other expensive signings include Juan Mata (£37.1m) and Marouane Fellaini (£27.5m), who both arrived under David Moyes, and Wayne Rooney, who cost £27m when Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge.
City broke their own transfer record twice this summer, paying £49m for Raheem Sterling and £54m for Kevin De Bruyne as they committed almost £160 million on new players.
Real’s squad includes Gareth Bale, who cost £85.3m, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who commanded an £80m fee when he joined in 2009.
Premier League teams have five of the nine costliest squads, with Chelsea (fourth), Liverpool (seventh) and Arsenal (ninth) all with a more expensive group of players than Champions League finalists Juventus.
Bournemouth have the cheapest squad of players in the English top flight, costing £26.3m, with Norwich and Watford, the other promoted clubs, the next lowest spenders.
However, there are 15 other squads in Europe’s top five leagues that cost under €5m to assemble, and only five Ligue 1 clubs paid more for their players than Bournemouth did to assemble their squad.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
