City squad is the 15th costliest in Europe
LEICESTER City have the 15th most expensively assembled squad in European football, according to new data, writes Jordan Blackwell.
Following the closure of the transfer window, football statistics company CIES has calculated the money that clubs in the top flights of Europe’s leading five leagues have spent on building their teams, with City coming in at 411 million euros (£352 million).
That figure is a rise of 41 million euros on last year and sees City jump up one spot compared with the rankings from 12 months ago, the club overtaking Italian champions Inter Milan, whose financial issues prompted a summer firesale.
Although City are only 10 million euros below German giants and regular Champions League contenders Bayern Munich, the chart also shows how smartly they have invested their money, and how well they are performing on the pitch, given the gulf in finances at the top.
While ranking 15th in Europe, City are eighth among Premier League sides, with the squads at Arsenal, Tottenham and Everton costing more to build. City have finished above the trio in each of the past three seasons.
At the very top, Manchester City and Manchester United both have squads that cost more than 1 billion euros, and so more than double what City have spent on transfer fees. These figures do not even bring wage budgets into consideration.
Last season, City finished just one point behind Chelsea in the Premier League table, even though the Champions League winners’ current squad cost 369 million euros more to build.
In their next two matches, City face sides above them in the chart, with Man City at the top, and with their first Europa League opponents Napoli ranking one place above them, on 417 million euros.
City spent £55 million on their squad in the summer, with Patson Daka (£23 million), Boubakary Soumare (£17 million) and Jannik Vestergaard (£15 million) the three players on which fees were paid.
They loaned out Dennis Praet to Torino, the Belgian having cost them £18 million to recruit in 2019.