Manchester United overpaid transfer fees by £209m in a decade, claim CIES

No other club across the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, LaLiga or Ligue 1 overpaid by as much

(Manchester United via Getty Imag)

Manchester United have racked up the biggest overspend on transfer fees in the last decade among clubs in Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues, according to a new study.

The Red Devils’ outlay on 33 transfers between July 2012 and November 2021 was 238 million euro (£209m) greater than the estimated total value of those players prior to their transfer under a statistical model developed by the CIES Football Observatory.

Juventus and Paris St Germain were found to be the two clubs with the next highest overspends, at 234m and 162m euro (£205m and £142m) respectively.

Aston Villa registered the second-highest overspend among English clubs at €149m (£130m), followed by Chelsea on €135m (£118m).

Only three Premier League sides were among the 36 clubs that invested less money than expected to conclude the deals assessed, highlighting the role of English top-flight clubs in driving up transfer inflation.

Wolves were found to have underpaid by €7m, Tottenham by €6m and Brighton by €1m.