The FIVE Premier League Clubs With The Worst Net Spends Over the Past Ten Years

David Tully

2 years ago

Categories: Galleries, Manchester City News, Transfer News

Tags: Arsenal, aston villa, Chelsea, Everton, leeds, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Sheffield United, Southampton, spurs, West Ham, wolves

Transfer spending first became a big topic of discussion 20 years ago, when Roman Abramovich became the owner of Chelsea. The Blues’ substantial investment in the market destabilised the traditional hierarchy at the top of the English game and, initially, other teams had to play catch up.

Since then, there have been high-profile takeovers of the majority of clubs in the top flight (most notably at Manchester City) and, along with television revenue, it has fueled the signing of players for ever-larger sums over the past decade.

Today, we will be looking at the net spend of every current Premier League side since 2012. Using figures from the CIES Football Observatory, there are some surprising teams that don’t make the top five.

Press the next page as we count down the five Premier League clubs with the worst net spend in the transfer market over the last ten years.

5) Aston Villa (€-424m)

Some may be surprised to see the Midlands club make the top five but they have been big spenders since Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens (two multi-billionaires) took over the club in the summer of 2018.

They have overseen promotion to the Premier League, and significant investment in the playing squad during the last three and a half years to cement themselves once again in the top flight of English football.

4) Everton (€-429m)

The Toffees’ inclusion on the list pretty much sums up the series of poor decisions that Farhad Moshiri has made since becoming owner of the Merseyside club.

Chasing high-profile managers and big signings, rather than putting a competent recruitment team in place, has resulted in their current situation, where they are struggling near the foot of the table.

3) Arsenal (€-583m)

This is more of a damning indictment of the Gunners’ failure to recoup a great deal of money from sales. Over the past ten years, they have been the fifth-highest spenders but even Southampton have brought in more revenue from selling players than Arsenal.

The huge turnover in players since the departure of Arsene Wenger has not helped matters either and their poor recruitment has played a major role in their failure to qualify for the Champions League in recent seasons.

2) Manchester City (€-984m)

The fact that the Citizens are near the top of this list won’t come as a surprise to anyone. The arrival of Sheikh Mansour has led to an era of lavish spending but, for the most part, it hasn’t been squandered.

City had a low base to build from so heavy investment was required initially but, in recent years, they have been able to sell on players for good money too (leading to them raising €715m since 2012).

1) Manchester United (€-1075m)

While the Glazers are often criticised as owners, they have spent over €1.5bn on players over the last decade. However, the money has been pretty much wasted and that is down to how poorly they have run the club.

High-profile failures like Angel Di Maria were down to the club chasing big names, rather than signing players based on a playing philosophy; something that has been absent since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure. The lack of people with footballing knowledge in positions of power has been their main downfall.