Football
Richard Jolly, ESPN.com writer 10y

Report: Manchester United in second highest-ever summer spending spree

Manchester United embarked on the second most expensive summer spending spree in football history but financial fair play (FFP) forced other clubs to sell, the Soccerex Transfer Review by Prime Time Sport has revealed.

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United paid out 196 million euros as they brought in Angel Di Maria, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo, Daley Blind and Radamel Falcao.

That total was topped only in the summer of 2009, when Real Madrid paid 265 million euros for new signings including Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka.

This summer, Real (113 million euros), Atletico Madrid (77 million euros), Barcelona (79 million euros), Chelsea (94 million euros), Liverpool (92 million euros) and Manchester City (62 million euros) all brought in club record sums for the sale of players.

City and Paris Saint-Germain were fined by UEFA for breaching FFP regulations, and spending dried up in France as PSG and Monaco cut costs.

The Transfer Review, produced by Esteve Calzada, a former chief commercial and marketing officer at Barcelona, concluded: "Despite having wealthy owners, PSG and Monaco have been forced to decrease investment in new players due to the limited revenue generation potential of Ligue 1."

Barcelona were the second biggest spenders behind United, with Luis Suarez their costliest arrival in a 157 million-euro spending spree, followed by Liverpool (149 million) and Real Madrid (120 million).

Seven European clubs paid more than 100 million euros, while the top 10 spenders were all either English (six clubs) or Spanish (four).

Louis van Gaal's United also had the biggest net spend this summer -- 157 million euros -- with Arsenal (86 million) and Barcelona (78 million) a distant second and third.

However, United are still only the sixth-highest spenders over the last six years, with Real (731 million euros) topping that list ahead of Manchester City (615 million) although, for the first time since Sheikh Mansour bought the club, City were not in England's top five spenders in a summer.

Southampton brought in more money than any club in Europe, with the sales of Shaw, Calum Chambers, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Rickie Lambert helping them bank 120 million euros, seven million more than Real received as players including Di Maria and Xabi Alonso left the Bernabeu.

Suarez, at 81 million euros, was the most expensive player sold in the summer, followed by James Rodriguez (80 million) and Di Maria (75 million).

While Real Madrid and Barcelona were involved in the biggest deals, the 20 Premier League clubs spent more than one billion euros in the summer transfer window, more than twice as much as the Spanish league (500 million euros), in which the second-highest total was spent.

The English clubs' spending was attributed to the lucrative television deal, reinvesting the proceeds of major sales of players such as Suarez and David Luiz and what the report termed "Man United bad squad renovation" -- an overdue need to invest after failing to strengthen in previous seasons.

More than 80 percent of the amount Premier League clubs spent went on foreign players, and although 206 million euros was spent on English players, just 33 percent of players in the division are English.

Despite the departures of Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley, United still have the highest number of homegrown players in their squad -- seven -- while Hull, QPR and Sunderland have produced none of their first-team players.

While spending went up 41 percent in England's top flight and 26 percent in its Spanish counterpart, it dropped by 25 percent in Italy's Serie A and 64 percent in the French top flight.

However, Premier League clubs banked the most in sales, bringing in 563 million euros, 51 million more than Spanish clubs received.

Spending in Spain was dominated by the four wealthiest clubs, with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Valencia accounting for 88.5 percent of the fees paid. That figure was only 58 percent for their counterparts in Germany, 53.3 percent for their English equivalents and 45 percent for Italy's four top spenders.

The Premier League's net spend of 465 million euros was five million lower than last summer, but still far bigger than those in Germany (82 million) and Italy (30 million), while the French clubs were in the black by 87 million euros and the Spanish top-flight clubs recorded a 12 million-euro transfer market profit between them.

Italian clubs signed the most players, although 79 of the 324 arrivals were on loan, but they also parted company with the most, with 385 of the 643 departures on loan. Premier League clubs sent 117 players out on loan, a record for the division.

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