The sporting media and rival fans will have you believe that Newcastle United are buying their way to success but the reality is there are far worse offenders.
Let’s get this cleared up straight away, yes, Newcastle United have spent a lot of money since the PIF took over the reins almost two years ago, but it hasn’t been wild spending like everybody expected.
While links were abound to Newcastle going for the likes of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe when the takeover went through, the reality has been that Newcastle have aimed lower, looking for younger players with star potential that they can scoop up for a sensible fee.
Newcastle have spent wisely since the takeover
To say that Newcastle have opted for a quantity over quality approach would completely undermine the business they have done as they’ve brought in the likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Alexander Isak, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon who all have potential to be world class if not already considered so.
Meanwhile other teams are making £100million purchases and adding big names to their already expensive squad, yet it’s still Newcastle who catches the flack for spending.
Well now we know where we stand with the CIES Football Observatory publishing a table of the 50 most expensive squads in World football based on transfer spend. While Newcastle do appear in the top ten of that list, higher than Barcelona and Bayern Munich, they’re not even close to the top-placed Premier League side.
Eight Premier League sides make up the largest part of the top ten with only Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain making an appearance from outside of Blighty.
Manchester United top the list with a squad which cost £1.15bn
Shockingly it’s not Chelsea who top the list despite Todd Boehly’s £1bn expenditure since taking over, perhaps due to the recent selling of a bunch of players. It’s actually Manchester United whose £1.15bn squad who tops the list ahead of Chelsea.
Newcastle come in at ninth spot just ahead of tenth placed West Ham. The other Premier League sides between two and nine are Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool only broke up by PSG in fourth spot and Real Madrid in eighth.
With Manchester United topping the table it shows that you can spend a billion pounds but it still won’t buy you the league.
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