UEFA Report Shows Man City Overtakes Real Madrid as World's Most Expensive Squad
UEFA have released their annual benchmarking report, and it yields some interesting results - one of which being that Pep Guardiola's Manchester City now have the most expensive squad in the world.
Guardiola's revolution has seen City spend close to £500m on transfer fees, including a £60m move for Riyad Mahrez in the summer, meaning the total cost of their squad sits at £705m, surpassing the £696m of Real Madrid's Champions League winners.
The ninth edition of the report, which has been available to download from the UEFA website from Thursday, also reveals that Manchester United have the third most expensive squad in the world, with huge moves for Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba factoring in, while Chelsea come in at a distant fourth.
Arsenal, meanwhile, have become one of two clubs - the other being Bayern Munich - to record a profit in each of the last 10 seasons, while all 20 Premier League clubs netted operating profits for the first time ever.
The big news for Liverpool is that they look set to record the biggest net profit ever from a Premier League club, as player sales and unexpected Champions League revenue have them poised to break Leicester's record of £86m.
Remarkably, of the 20 highest wage bills in Europe, nine of them belong to Premier League sides, with Crystal Palace making a surprise appearance.
Spending 79% of their total revenue on wages, they were one of two sides - AS Roma being the other - to exceed 70% on that front.
