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Premier League spending power in a different stratosphere to Serie A

Premier League spending power in a different stratosphere to Serie A

  • Jordan Russell (@JordRuss96)
Never was the economic gulf between English and Italian football as clear as what we have witnessed over the course of the past month. La Repubblica has undertaken a study of transfer spending, comparing Premier League sides with their Serie A counterparts. In total, EPL sides invested €470 million in new players while the Italians spent a measly €20 million.
 
Liverpool, having received €160 million from Barcelona for Philippe Coutinho, spent €85 million on Virgil van Dijk. Manchester City spent €65 million on Aymeric Laporte. Manchester United signed Alexis Sánchez, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan went to Arsenal in exchange for the Chilean hotshot. The Gunners also invested €65.7 million to bring Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund.
 
Meanwhile, Serie A’s leading clubs must be content with Lisandro López, Rafinha and Martín Cáceres: a Benfica reserve (32 appearances in four years), a former Barcelona prospect who has not played for eight months and a veteran defender who spent the last six months at Hellas Verona while he got himself match fit following his own lengthy spell on the sidelines. Meanwhile, one of the country’s most promising youngsters Pietro Pellegri was sold to French champions Monaco for €24 million.
 
Fans of Roma, Napoli and Inter were left the most underwhelmed. Partenopei supporters had expected a new forward to arrive; either Simone Verdi or Matteo Politano. Neither did, with the former now expected to join the Nerazzurri in the summer. Luciano Spalletti was made to do without both Ramires and Javier Pastore, at least one of whom were supposed to arrive before last night’s deadline.
 
The fact Sassuolo made the biggest outlay of any Italian club when they agreed to pay €10 million for Khouma Babacar in the summer very much tells its own story. Right now, there is no comparison between the spending power of English and Italian clubs: the Premier League’s figures are blowing Serie A’s out of the water.