The 20 teams with the highest net transfer spend
Robin Bairner
- 8 Feb 2022 02:56 CST
- 3 min read
Manchester United’s net transfer spend over the course of the last 10 years is by some measure the greatest in European football, topping €1 billion.
Despite this lavish spending on players, they have managed to secure only three major trophies since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013.
The Old Trafford club finds itself out in front of Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, two clubs with wealthy owners who have been accused of buying their success.
Neither of these sides, though, has a net spent as big as Man Utd’s €1.075bn, according to a study conducted by the CIES Football Observatory. Indeed, the Old Trafford side are the only team in Europe’s ‘Big Five’ leagues to break that benchmark figure.
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Manchester City, who have spent €984m, are certainly flirting with the mark, while PSG have the third highest net spend of €941m.
These three clubs are well ahead of the pack, with Barcelona fourth with a transfer deficit of €650m and Arsenal fifth with €583m.
Premier League clubs dominate the Top 20 of this chart, with 14 clubs in this bracket. Indeed, it is telling that the likes of Everton, Aston Villa and West Ham have a greater net spend than Bayern Munich.
Biggest Net Spends (2012-2022)
| Team | Spend (€m) | Sales (€m) | Net spend (€m) |
| Man Utd | 1545 | 470 | 1075 |
| Man City | 1699 | 715 | 984 |
| PSG | 1445 | 504 | 941 |
| Barcelona | 1630 | 980 | 650 |
| Arsenal | 1029 | 446 | 583 |
| Juventus | 1542 | 981 | 561 |
| Milan | 884 | 452 | 432 |
| Everton | 911 | 482 | 429 |
| Aston Villa | 701 | 277 | 424 |
| Chelsea | 1614 | 1201 | 413 |
| Inter | 1058 | 673 | 385 |
| West Ham | 676 | 302 | 374 |
| Bayern Munich | 815 | 452 | 363 |
| Liverpool | 1128 | 781 | 347 |
| Newcastle | 648 | 309 | 339 |
| Tottenham | 1013 | 677 | 336 |
| Crystal Palace | 449 | 157 | 292 |
| Leicester | 661 | 386 | 275 |
| Brighton | 398 | 150 | 248 |
| Wolves | 482 | 235 | 247 |
In terms of raw spending figures, Man City are Europe’s leaders on €1.7bn, though they are closely followed by Barcelona (€1.63bn) and Chelsea (€1.61bn).
Man Utd are only fourth in this regard on €1.55bn, highlighting that they have typically bought high and sold low.
What clubs have made a transfer profit?
French and Italian clubs dominate the leaders in terms of making money from their transfer dealings. Lille, for example, are top of the tree with a transfer profit of €349 million followed by Lyon on €247m. Montpellier and Saint-Etienne are also in the Top 10 from Ligue 1.
From Serie A, meanwhile, Genoa, Udinese, Atalanta and Empoli are all in the Top 10.
Incidentally, the only Premier League side to run at a transfer surplus over the past 10 years is Brentford, who post a €43m profit.
