Who has made the most money in world football? The Top 10 in the last five years is missing Man City

The CIES Football Observatory research group has compiled a ranking of the ten teams from the top 5 European football leagues that have lost the most money over the last five seasons due to the difference between the amount spent and earned on players. Many will be surprised that some expected clubs, such as Manchester City, do not even feature in the top ten.

10. Liverpool – £278 million

The Anfield Road club were, although it doesn’t look like it when looking at the current Premier League table, among the absolute world leaders for virtually the entire defined period. With this in mind, finishing as high as tenth is a sign of a very sound approach to finances at Liverpool.

In this period, Liverpool have strengthened with the addition of goalkeeper Alisson, or midfielders Fabinho and Thiago. However, some personnel losses, such as Sadio Mané, have plagued Klopp’s squad very noticeably.

9. Juventus – £299 million

At the Old Lady, the biggest expenditure was understandably on the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. Also worth mentioning is Cancelo, one of the best right and left backs of the moment.

The stopper De Ligt and the midfielder Arthur also moved to Turin. However, all of them were also gradually sold by Pavel Nedved’s club and replaced by Vlahovic, Chiesa or Pogba.

8. Wolverhampton – £315 million

Wolves, in particular, strengthened considerably in the summer of 2018, bringing in the pumped-up Traoré, striker Jota or goalkeeper Ruy Patricio, and a year later, the combative Jimenez.

Thanks to this, they also enjoyed a final seventh place in the Premier League table in the 18/19 and 19/20 seasons. However, Jota soon left for Liverpool and they have to do without long-time defensive stalwarts Boly, Saiss or Dendoncker since this summer.

7. Aston Villa – £329 million

Like Wolves, perhaps not the club you expected. The Birmingham side strengthened mightily in the summer of 2019, paying 159 million for reinforcements, mainly for Moraes, Mings or Douglas Luiz.

The arrival of goalkeeper Emi Martinez a year later is definitely worth mentioning. The big financial injection was the departure of captain Jack Grealish to Man City and Chukwuemeka or Ings also left Villa Park.

6. Newcastle United – £375 million

Magpies didn’t even know what a gem they had acquired in Almirón in the summer of 2018. A year after that, Joelinton and the chic Saint-Maximin also arrived at St James’ Park. A considerable sum had to be sacrificed by the stripes for the engine of the current midfield Guimaraes or the striker Isak, who is the most expensive reinforcement in the club’s history.

A noticeable loss for Newcastle was the departure of Mitrovic or Perez. However, other sales have been in such low amounts that only just over 2.5 million has flowed into the club’s account over the last three seasons.

5. West Ham – £386 million

“The ‘elite’ five is rounded off for us by, surprisingly, West Ham, who sent just under 40 million for Anderson in July 2018. For Haller a year later, even ten “balls” more. They also spent considerable funds on the arrival of Zouma, Vlasic and the talented Paqueta.

They only got over the fifty million earned mark in the defined period in the 19/20 season, half of which was helped by the transfer of Arnautovic to China. The departure of Ayew, or the aforementioned playmaker Haller, is also certainly worth mentioning.

4. Tottenham – £424m

They had to slap themselves in the pocket in north London for Ndombele, for example, or winger Bergwijn. Romero and Richarlison also cost over fifty million, for whom such a sum seems truly ridiculous on current form.

As far as departures are concerned, parting with the architect of offensive actions Eriksen, the back Trippier or even Bergwijn helped the most monetarily, but in neither season did they avoid an unflattering financial loss.

3. Arsenal – £483 million

The Canaries were also not afraid to dip into the coffers for a hefty sum, dropping 80 million for Pépé in the summer of 2019. A year later, 50 for Partey and then just under 60 for White. They also had to shell out over 50 million to buy Jesus.

In sales, on the other hand, the club’s directive didn’t shine through much, although the 30 million for Iwobi was actually solid. But if you make a little over 74 million in sales in the last three seasons combined, you probably won’t be in the positive numbers, on the other hand you might lead the league.

2. Manchester United – £595 million

Traditionally, the Red Devils have not held back when visiting the transfer market in recent years. Less than 60 million for midfielder Fred, they had to put over 85 on the table for stopper Maguire and over 60 for the productive Fernandes.

Even Sancho had a price tag with a sum in excess of 80 million and last time the Red Devils reinforced for Antony for 95 and Casemiro for 70. By contrast, the departures from Old Trafford mostly didn’t even seem to match such price tags, with perhaps the exception of Lukaku, who was bought by Inter for 74 million. But apart from him, only James has come close to the 30 million mark, leaving United boasting just under 600 million in the red.

1. Chelsea – £665 million

The unflattering ranking is dominated by the Stamford Bridge club. Indeed, as of summer 2018, it paid 80 million for Kepa, 64 for Pulisic, 57 for Jorginho, 80 for Havertz, 113 for Lukaku, 80 for Fofana, 70 for Mudryk, 65 for Cucurella and most recently 121 for Fernandez.

And we’ve only pulled out purchases over 55 million. It doesn’t look good at all in relation to the money raised by the sale though. Not that they didn’t let Hazard go for a tidy sum (115m), but apart from Abraham no other deal has meant more than 35m plus for Chelsea, which just a cursory glance at the sums written above indicates to anyone, shall we say, an unhealthy economic situation.

Just to fully illustrate how much is being spent in London, in the current season The Blues didn’t hesitate to spend 611 million on reinforcements, earning just 67 million. So, they managed to accumulate the difference of 544 million, which by the way is bigger than the third-placed Arsenal on the list, in just the last 7 months.

Sources: CIES, Transfermarkt