CIES have posted their latest study of the football transfer market, and this time The Football Observatory have tried to figure out who the biggest overspenders in the transfer market have been in the past decade.
This study’s conclusions were drawn from a peer-reviewed scientific method.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Manchester United are the biggest overspenders in Europe.
It’s not hard to believe that a club that spent £85m on Harry Maguire and £89m on Paul Pogba are the worst transfer operators in England, but worryingly, the second-biggest overspenders in the Premier League are Aston Villa.
The Villans are found to have overspent by a staggering €149m (£130m) on transfers over the past 10 years, and, sadly, it’s not hard to pick holes in the Midlands club’s transfer business.
The summer of 2019 transfer window was an absolute shocker, the likes of Wesley, Bjorn Engels and Trezeguet were just a selection of the poor signings made by Villa at that time.
While Villa’s recent signings have been more impactful, it’s hard to label any of Emi Buendia, Danny Ings or Leon Bailey as bargains at more than £25m a piece, so even when Villa make what look like good signings, they often find themselves overspending.
Their transfer business in the Championship surely didn’t help either, Ross McCormack for £12m must go down as one of the worst signings in football history, While Jonathan Kodjia for a similar fee didn’t prove to be worthwhile either.
Luckily for Villa, their homegrown talents have helped them balance the books to a huge extent. Jack Grealish was sold for £100m, Carney Chukwuemeka fetched a further £20m, while we can’t even begin to imagine how much Jacob Ramsey would cost if he were to be sold at any point in the near future.
Villa do need to buck their ideas up in the transfer market and sniff out a few bargains, because while they’re not the biggest spenders in England, they are amongst the biggest overspenders.
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