With the January transfer window now long gone, teams across Europe have finished their business for the 2019/20 campaign.
For some teams, like Chelsea and Ajax, it has been a year of raking in the money, whereas others have been more focused on spending to improve. With a record-breaking €1.2bn spent across the top five leagues in January, there was certainly lots of business to track.
Record broken! Big-5 league clubs spent > € 1⃣.2⃣ billion during last transfer window; never-ending inflation? #PremierLeague #SerieA #Liga #Ligue1 #Bundesliga pic.twitter.com/cxklgfTQgK
— CIES Football Obs (@CIES_Football) February 5, 2020
CIES Football Observatory took a look at the dealings from clubs around the world during the summer 2019 and winter 2020 windows, and it is Chelsea who (unsurprisingly) ended up with the most positive transfer balance.
They were unable to do any business in summer because of their transfer ban, although they were allowed to make
In the meantime, they sold a whopping €250m worth of players, leaving them with a balance of €205m, so you can understand why fans want to see 1,000 new signings at the end of the season.
Behind Chelsea, the likes of Benfica (€166m) and Ajax (€137m) enjoyed successful selling years, and they were the only three teams to finish with a positive balance of over €100m.
However, some of the most interesting business is actually at the other side of the table. The club with the biggest net spend was Real Madrid, who spent a huge €330m while raising €149m from sales, leaving them with a balance of -€181m.
Surprisingly, second on the list is Aston Villa. Dean Smith's newly promoted side have been splashing the cash this year, spending €172m and earning just €3m in return.
Their reward? A one-point cushion ahead of the relegation zone. Yikes.
Their balance of -€169m is even worse than Barcelona (-€166m), Manchester United (-€151m) and Tottenham Hotspur (-€141m).
Monaco are next up with a balance of -€121m, and then you come to the battle for the Serie A title. Inter and Juventus both coincidentally finished with a total spend of €235m, but Inter's sales of €124m came up just short of Juventus' €141m.
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Source : 90min