Manchester United, Barcelona Emerge Biggest Spending Clubs Of The Summer Transfer Window

It was a record-breaking few months for the Red Devils and a frantic
rebuild in Catalunya before their transfer ban - but who else splashed
the most cash?

Manchester United have emerged as the biggest-spending club of the
summer, leaving the rest of football's giants trailing in their wake
when it comes to investment.

Having recognised the need to overhaul a squad which finished a lowly
seventh in the Premier League last season, Louis van Gaal invested
£157.7m million to bring Angel Di Maria, Marcos Rojo, Ander Herrera,
Luke Shaw, Daley Blind and Radamel Falcao (on a loan deal) to the
club.

Barcelonaare second to United when it comes to spending after
splashing the cash on Luis Suarez and Co.

The Blaugrana have had a busy close season, signing Claudio Bravo and
Marc-Andre ter Stegen in goal, Jeremy Mathieu, Douglas and Thomas
Vermaelen in defence, Ivan Rakitic in midfield and the Uruguayan up
front.

Their total summer spending is EURO 174.8 million [£138.5m], placing them
just ahead ofLiverpool. The Reds got a big £70m pay-off from the sale
of Suarez and their return to the Champions League and have been
ambitious throughout the summer.

Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Rickie Lambert all joined from
Southampton, Lazar Markovic was a big-money acquisition from Benfica
and Emre Can arrived from Bayer Leverkusen, all before the £16m
signing of Mario Balotelli.

Their spree totalled £133.6m, comfortably putting them second in
Premier League spending behind United.

Real Madrid are fourth in the list after spending EURO 136.4m [£108m]. The
Spanish giants have had a reasonably busy summer, signing Keylor
Navas, Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez - the latter for a whopping EURO 80m
[£63m] - as well as Javier Hernandez on loan.

Hot on their heels are city rivalsAtletico Madrid. The Liga champions
lost key members of their squad this summer but have been ambitious in
the market, signing Mario Mandzukic, Antoine Griezmann, Alessio Cerci
and more for a combined EURO 123.7m [£98m].

SUMMER SALES | Top 10 clubs by expenditure Gross outlay
Net outlay

1 Manche ster United
£157.7m£128.3m

2 Barcelona£138.5m£68m

3 Liverpo ol£133.6m£51.5m

4 Real Madrid
£108m£7.5m

5 Atletico Madrid
£98m£20.8m

6 Chelsea£94.1m£8.6m

7 Arsenal£85m£71.7m

8 Southa mpton
£64.5m+£40.9m

9 Manche ster City
£57.7m£31.7m

10 Roma
£50m£21.8m

One of the teams to have raided the Vicente Calderon for new talent
wasChelsea, who signed Diego Costa and Filipe Luis from the Spanish
capital, along with Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona and Loic Remy from
QPR to take their summer spending to £94.1m.

Staying in London,Arsenalare sixth after buying the likes of Alexis
Sanchez, Calum Chambers, Mathieu Debuchy, David Ospina and, at the
last minute, Danny Welbeck for just over a total of £85m.

Southampton have seen many players leave this summer, but have been
active themselves by signing Dusan Tadic, Shane Long, Graziano Pelle,
Toby Alderweireld, Sadio Mane and more for more than £67m, but they
are the only side in our table to have recorded a profit thanks to
their sales.

Manchester City have had their spending curtailed by Financial Fair
Play but have still splashed out £57.7m on new players, the majority
of it going on Eliaquim Mangala and Fernando from Porto.

The final name in the top 10 is Roma, who spent big on Juan Iturbe and
Kostas Manolas among others to take their total over the £50m mark -
the highest by far in Italy.

Interestingly, all but one of the top 10 are English and Spanish
sides, with Germany's Borussia Dortmund the 11th highest spenders,
just ahead of Bayern Munich.

Goal.com