Of the top 10 biggest spending clubs in Europe this summer, only one team (AS Roma) come from the Italian Serie A. Three are Spanish Clubs (Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid) and the other six, as you might expect, are from the Premier League (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and even Southampton).
Borussia Dortmund were the biggest spenders in Germany, just a bit more than Bayern Munich who came out with a positive net spending thanks to big sales. PSG had a quiet summer, only 13th overall. Al-Arabi Sports Club from Qatar are 18th on the list, while Benfica just edge out Porto for biggest spenders in Portugal, although both teams made a lot more then they spent this summer thanks to their usual sales, although it is a question how much goes to third-party ownership.
10th: AS Roma, £50 Million
By far the biggest spending club among Italian teams, Roma were quite busy adding to their squad, hoping it’d be enough to finish one place higher this season after a second place finish in 2014. Who did they sign? Juan Iturbe of Verona for just under £20 million was their biggest addition, but Konstantions Manolas from Olympiacos cost £11 million, Radja Nainggolan from Cagliari came for £5.3 million and Antonio Sanabria of Sassuolo arrived for £4.5 million.
9th: Manchester City, £57.6 Million
For Manchester City, who also sold Javi Garcia and Jack Rodwell for a total of £25 million, this might be called a conservative summer. Eliaquim Mangala arrived from Porto for £35 million and his teammate Fernando also joined for a more reasonable £13 million. Willy Caballero at goal for £7 million came from Malaga and Bruno Zuculini was signed from Racing in Argentina for £2.2 million.
8th: Southampton, £64.4 Million
Surprised to see Southampton on the list? You shouldn’t when you’ll realize they sold players for the sum of £105.2 million this summer, giving them enough of a cushion to splurge big in the transfer window. Sadio Mane of Salzburg came for £13 million, followed by Shane Long of Hull for the same fee. Dusan Tadic arrived from Twente for £12 million, Fraser Forster came from Celtic for £11 million, Graziano Pelle from Feyenoord for £8.8 million and Florin Gardos of Steaua for £6 million.
7th: Arsenal, £85.4 Million
Another summer of big spending for Arsenal, highlighted by the addition of Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona for £33.2 million. They also went young with Calum Chambers of Southampton, buying him for £17.8 million and the same amount on Danny Welbeck of Manchester United in a deadline day deal. More arrivals? Mathieu Debuchy of Newcastle for £13.2 million and David Ospina from Nice for £3.5 million.
6th: Chelsea, £93.9 Million
Unlike Arsenal or any other of their rivals in the top of the Premier League (except for maybe Liverpool) Chelsea sold just as much as they spent, taking out only £10 million more than they received. Diego Costa from Atletico Madrid, coming for £33.4 million, was the biggest addition. Cesc Fabregas joined from Barcelona for £29 million, Filipe Luis came from Atletico as well for £17 million, Loic Remy from QPR for £11 million and Mario Pasalic of Hajduk Split came for £2.2 million.
5th: Atletico Madrid, £97.8 Million
To remain on top in Spain, you need to spend big, and after selling quite a few key players, Atletico Madrid had enough cash to bolster up in the transfer market. Antoine Griezmann of Sociedad was the biggest addition, coming for £26.4 million, followed by Mario Mandzukic of Bayern for £19.3 million, Alessio Cerci of Torino for £14 million, goalkeeper Jan Oblak of Benfica for the same amount, Raul Gimenez of Club America for £9 million, Guilherme Siqueria from Granda for £8.8 and a few more minor additions.
4th: Real Madrid, £107.8 Million
It’s not surprising to see Real Madrid this high up, but it is surprising to check out how much Real Madrid gained through selling players: £100 million, most of it coming from Angel di Maria going to Manchester United. As for arrivals, James Rodriguez came from Monaco for £70 million; Toni Kroos from Bayern Munich for £26.4 Million; Keylor Navas from Levante for £8.8 million and there’s also the loanee Chicharito, coming for £2.2 million from Manchester United.
3rd: Liverpool, £133.3 Million
The sale of Luis Suarez and going to the Champions League allows Liverpool to be so high up the charts of expenditure, although this wasn’t about signing stars – more of improving the team all over. Adam Lallana came from Southampton for £27.3 million, and Dejan Lovren came from the same club for £22 million. Lazar Markovic arrived from Benfica for the same fee, Mario Balotelli came from Milan for £17.6 million, Alberto Moreno from Sevilla for £15.8 million, Divock Origi (out on loan now) for £11.1 million, Emre Can from Leverkusen for just over £10 million and Rickie Lambert is another Southampton player, signed for £4.8 million.
2nd: Barcelona, £138.2 Million
Barcelona went all out this summer, although not everyone agrees about the quality of players they signed, which includes stars and attempting to improve in about every area of the pitch, helped by selling Fabregas and Sanchez to Premier League clubs. Luis Suarez joined from Liverpool for £71.3 million, joined by Jeremy Mathieu of Valencia for £17.6 million, Ivan Rakitic from Sevilla for £15.8 million, ter Stegen from Monchengladbach for £10.5 million, Claudio Bravo from Sociedad for the same amount (and the same position!!!), Thomas Vermaelen from Arsenal for £8.8 million and Douglas from Sao Paulo for £3.5 million.
1st: Manchester United, £170 Million
A net spending of -£151.8 million doesn’t sound like Manchester United, right? Selling Welbck, Kagawa and others doesn’t come close to what they’ve spent on new players, some of them feeling like panic buys: Angel di Maria from Real Madrid for £66 million, Luke Shaw from Southampton for £33 million, Ander Herrera from Bilbao for £31.7 million, Marcos Rojo from Sporting for £17.6 million, Daley Blind from Ajax for £15.4 million and loaning Falcao from Monaco for £6.7 million.