Leicester City: The chart that shows how the champions' transfer budget was dwarfed by their Premier League rivals

Leicester's squad cost just a quarter of what Manchester City paid for their current players

Claudio Ranieri has had significantly less funds to work with than his rivals (Getty)

Leicester’s Premier League triumph has been heralded as one of the greatest stories in sporting history, with their title success undoubtedly the most remarkable top-flight success in the British game.

But their victory, which comes with two matches to spare, is all the more impressive given how their squad shapes up financially compared to the Premier League’s heavyweights of Manchester City, United and Chelsea among others.

Both City and Chelsea have splashed the cash since their respective takeovers by Sheikh Mansour and Roman Abramovich, while United have demonstrated their firepower in the transfer market other the last two seasons with Louis van Gaal spending £250m in the transfer market – with little success.

Taking into account City’s current squad, which features big-money signings such as Kevin De Bruyne [£58m], Raheem Sterling [£44m] and Sergio Aguero (£38m], the club boasts an incredible £411m worth of players on their books, and if the reports are to be believed that could increase by some margin next season when Manuel Pellegrini departs and Pep Guardiola arrives.

United are a relatively close second, with the likes of Anthony Martial [£36m] and Juan Mata [£37.1] seeing their squad total £391.1m, while Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal trail some way behind.

Leicester's squad, of course, doesn’t compare to the Premier League heavyweights, but it’s when you look at the size of the gap and the number of clubs in-between the Foxes and the most expensive squads.


 Chart: Statista
 (Statista Charts)

The current Leicester squad totals just £52.8m, according to CIES Football Observatory, and it puts them 17th on the list of most expensive clubs with only the promoted teams this season below them in the chart.

The figure is helped by some remarkable scouting and transfer business by the staff at Leicester, with N’Golo Kante joining for a reported £5.6m, Jamie Vardy for a non-league record of £1m and Riyad Mahrez arriving from Le Havre for a cut-price £400,000.