Manchester City's defence spending and clubs shattering records: Seven deadly stats about the 2017 summer transfer window

Aditya Devavrat 15:48 01/09/2017
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  • MAN CITY SPEND MORE ON DEFENCE THAN ENTIRE COUNTRIES

    Much has been made of Manchester City’s spending on defenders and goalkeepers since Pep Guardiola took over last summer. In that time period, he’s brought in goalkeepers Ederson and Claudio Bravo as well as defenders John Stones, Benjamin Mendy, Danilo and Kyle Walker, among others, with the total amount spent on defence exceeding £200m.

    That’s more than the defence spending of 27 countries.

    RENNES PROFIT FROM SECOND DEMBELE TRANSFER

    Rennes sold Ousmane Dembele to Borussia Dortmund last summer for a €15m transfer fee. But that was far from the last time they would profit from a Dembele transfer, thanks to a sell-on clause.

    When Barcelona agreed to buy Dembele from Dortmund for an initial €105m price tag last week, a fee that could rise to €145m, the amount of money Rennes received actually broke the club’s transfer record for most money received for a player. The French club pocketed around €25m this time around, more than the €20m Monaco paid for Shabani Nonda in 2000.

    In total, Rennes have received around €40m for the 20-year-old who rose through their academy.

    PSG SET TO WIN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE THIS SEASON?

    Only twice before have the two most expensive players in the world at the time been on the same team. In 2001, Real Madrid signed Zinedine Zidane from Juventus for €77.5m, breaking the transfer record they had set when purchasing Luis Figo from Barcelona for €60m the previous summer. And in 2013, Real Madrid again broke their own record, buying Gareth Bale for €100m and pairing him with the previous record-holder, Cristiano Ronaldo (€94m).

    A coincidence for both purchases: in the ensuing season, Real Madrid won the Champions League, both times.

    This summer, Kylian Mbappe has joined PSG in a deal said to be worth €180m, the second-most expensive transfer ever (although it’s technically a loan with a compulsory purchase option next summer). This comes just weeks after the Parisian club set the new record with the €222m capture of Neymar.

    Will the duo continue the trend and hold the famous Champions League trophy aloft at the end of the season?

    CLUB TRANSFER RECORDS FALL BY THE WAYSIDE

    Making a club-record signing is the ultimate statement of intent in the transfer window. But in the Premier League this summer, doing so almost became run-of-the-mill – a whopping 13 out of 20 clubs broke their transfer records in the summer window.

    This included all of last year’s top five with Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal all making club-record buys. Incidentally, it’s last year’s sixth-placed team, Manchester United, which set the mark for the most expensive signing in the Premier League this summer, £75m for Romelu Lukaku. With add-ons, that fee could rise to £90million, which would also be a club record.

    Outside of England, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, and of course PSG were among the clubs in the top five European leagues to break their transfer records, as were Nice and Sevilla.

    AC Milan actually broke their record twice – first for Andre Silva, who arrived on a €38m transfer from Porto, and then in the stunning €42m capture of Leonardo Bonucci from Juventus.

    Speaking of breaking your club record multiple times within a short time span, back to the Premier League for one last stat:

    NOBODY SPENDS LIKE THE PREMIER LEAGUE

    The number of times summer spending across a league has crossed more than £1bn? If you’re not counting the Premier League, the answer is 0.

    If you are…the Premier League crossed £1bn last year, finishing at £1.18bn, then topped that mark with nine days to spare this summer. This summer’s total will end up around £1.5bn.

    A PERFECT 10 FOR THE WORLD TRANSFER RECORD

    PSG became the 10th different club to hold the football transfer record over a timeframe of 25 years since Milan’s £10m purchase of Jean-Pierre Papin from Marseille in 1992. The record had switched between Italy, Spain and England in the ensuing years before PSG’s capture of Neymar this summer.

    However, after Lazio spent a then-record fee of £35.5million for Hernan Crespo in 2000, only three clubs have held the record: Real Madrid, Manchester United, and now PSG.

    REAL MADRID, MODEL OF SENSIBILITY

    Only two players purchased, less than €50m spent. At any other top club in Europe, this would be cause for a crisis, so it’s a mark of how well Real Madrid have done in recent years and how much stability manager Zinedine Zidane has brought to his squad.

    Despite letting James Rodriguez and Alvaro Morata go, Madrid resisted the urge to make a big-money buy in an attempt to find a replacement. They looked like the frontrunners for Mbappe, but ended up pulling out of running for the young Frenchman. Instead, Lucas Vazquez and Marco Asensio will get more minutes, and the latter looks like an explosive talent.

    Madrid were quite content with only getting left-back Theo Hernandez for €27m from cross-town rivals Atletico and midfielder Dani Ceballos for €14.85m from Real Betis, part of their new strategy of identifying young talent and using them to add depth to their squad.

    Who would have thought it would be one of the original Galacticos to put a pause on the Galactico policy?

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