Despite Mike Ashley blocking realistic investment this summer, Newcastle are still the 25th most expensive squad in the big five leagues, the current squad costing €162m – which is the equivalent of around £147m at today’s exchange rates.
Much of that spending of course came before Rafa Benitez’ arrival, with Mitrovic, Mbemba and Shelvey all costing £10m ore more, then Rafa Benitez adding the likes of Ritchie, Gayle and Murphy who also cost double figures.
CIES Football Observatory most expensively assembled squads in big 5 European leagues (values in euros):
€853m Man City
€850m PSG
€784m Man Utd
€644m Chelsea
€628m Barcelona
€497m Real Madrid
€470m Juventus
€437m Liverpool
€416m Arsenal
€361m Tottenham
€350m Bayern Munich
€348m Everton
€316m AC Milan
€293m Monaco
€276m Roma
€275m Borussia Dortmund
€268m Inter Milan
€240m Napoli
€231m Atletico Madrid
€223m Crystal Palace
€223m Southampton
€213m Crystal Palace
€200m West Ham
€165m Bayer Leverkusen
€162m Newcastle United (25th)
€161m Wolfsburg
€160m Valencia
€156m Watford (28th)
€154m Sevilla
€144m Lazio
The other English clubs had values of:
€126m West Brom (32nd)
€126m Stoke (32nd)
€124m Swansea (34th)
€112m Bournemouth (40th)
€101m Burnley (42nd)
€77m Brighton (49th)
€62m Huddersfield (53rd)