The big spenders

Chelsea were no slouches in the transfer market under Roman Abramovich, but the Blues have gone to another level since the arrival of Todd Boehly’s consortium, splashing out almost a billion in just 18 months. This is an unprecedented level of spending, exacerbated by lengthy player contracts, which has committed the club to significant future payments.

Their recruitment has included two purchases costing more than £100m, namely Enzo Fernandez and Moisés Caicedo, while other big money signings included Wesley Fofana, Mykhaylo Mudryk, Marc Cucurella, Roméo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku and Raheem Sterling (plus many others). It’s fair to say that the jury is still out for a number of these buys.

Boehly has so far shown little sign of slowing down, but the gross spend has been partly mitigated by high player sales, including Kai Havertz, Mason Mount, Mateo Kovacic, Kalidou Koulibaly, Christian Pulisic, Edouard Mendy and Ruben Loftus-Cheek this summer alone.

The Manchester clubs

The other notable big spenders in the Premier League have been the two Manchester clubs, who actually have a very similar gross spend of around £1.7 bn in the last ten years.

Both clubs are spending less than they once did with their expenditure peaking back in 2017/18 (City £328m, United £243m). Nevertheless, in the last five years they have still spent more than almost all other clubs in the top flight with City averaging £173m and United £168m.

However, there are two important differences between the clubs.  First, City have sold much better than United, generating almost twice as much from player sales in the last 10 years (£825m vs. £427m), partly due to a flourishing academy.

City made £139m from player sales this summer, mainly Cole Palmer to Chelsea and two sales to Saudi clubs (Riyad Mahrez to Al-Ahli and Aymeric  Laporte to Al-Nassr).

In contrast, United made only £49m, mainly from Anthony Elanga to Nottingham Forest, Dean Henderson to Crystal Palace and Fred to Fenerbahce.

Secondly, most observers would agree that City have spent rather better than their local rivals.  Time will tell whether this is also the case this summer, but their £210m recruitment looks promising on paper: Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig, Matheus Nunes from Wolves, Jérémy Doku from Rennes and Mateo Kovacic from Chelsea.

United splashed out £180m, mainly on Rasmus Hojlund from Atalanta, Mason Mount from Chelsea and André Onana from Inter.

United fans would say that they have suffered under the ownership of the Glazers, while critics of City would say that they have at least tweaked the rules to splash out, although they have become more self-sustaining over time.  Both clubs recognise the importance of academies in identifying and developing talent, although only a small proportion of those recruited end up with a club contract.