Every Premier League Club’s Purchase Value and Their Current Value

The table showing the purchase value – and total market value – of every Premier League club makes for rather interesting reading. It shows how much money each club has spent to assemble their squad while also showing how much their squad is worth now. And then it’s ranked by the difference between the two figures.

Essentially, have clubs overpaid to assemble their squad – or are their players now worth more than what they bought them for? It’s the difference between a well-run club and one that’s poorly operated. The ability to spot talented players and sign them for cheap – or bring a youngster through your academy – is crucial in modern football, with the transfer fees for Premier League stars extortionate.

One of the biggest spenders in the last few transfer windows has been Todd Boehly’s Chelsea. Since the Blues were taken over by the American two summers ago, they have shelled out more than £1 billion on new players to try and rise up the league table – a tactic which backfired in the 22/23 season as the Blues slumped to a 12th-place finish, before missing out on Champions League football again last term.

That has not deterred them from splashing the cash once again this summer. But going off the difference between their squad value and total spent, it might be best to refrain from further heavy spending in the immediate future.

Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City Make Most Profit

Their squad building effectiveness is reflected in the league standings

Liverpool, Manchester City, and Arsenal have been the three best performing teams in the last decade, and this is something reflected both in the league table and in the way they have run the business side of the clubs. Liverpool have been hailed for their fiscal discipline in recent years, so there’s no surprise that they sneak their way inside the top three.

With the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Harvey Elliott, and Curtis Jones helping boost the squad value after rising through the youth ranks at a low budget, other shrewd pieces of business such as signing Mohamed Salah for £36.5m back in 2017 go a long way in helping the Reds maintain their stable financial footing.

Meanwhile, while Pep Guardiola’s team have never been afraid to pay huge sums of money, as proven last summer with the signing of Josko Gvardiol, it’s also very rare that they get a signing wrong, and even rarer to see a player fail to get better under the Spanish coach. Because of that, nearly every player on Manchester City’s books has risen in value since joining. Erling Haaland’s value of £156m is the highest by some way, while Phil Foden follows in second place at £126m, helping the Cityzens shock rival fans by notching a differential which is second best behind only Arsenal.

The Gunners are doing all the right things to pip City to the Premier League title next season, as shown by their effective business model. Arsenal are miles ahead of the rest of the pack when it comes to difference between total market value and purchase price. Sure, there have been some big arrivals over previous summers, like Declan Rice, Kai Havertz, and newly-targeted Riccardo Calafiori will add even more money to the pile – but that barely reduces the difference.

A major reason why they are so far ahead is because of how Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli have developed under Mikel Arteta. The trio are three of the best players in the league and are valued at £119m, £92m and £58m respectively. That’s quite a rise considering the former was an academy graduate who cost nothing, while the other two cost a combined total of £35.3m.

Brighton, Crystal Palace, Brentford and Aston Villa Complete Top Seven

Quarter also have a differential of +£100m or more

Of those operating on a much smaller scale than the three aforementioned title contenders, it is Brighton, Crystal Palace, Brentford, and Aston Villa who have emerged as the best-run clubs outside the usual candidates. And, of course, in terms of the Seagulls’ success in this area, this has already been well-documented.

Buy low, sell high. That is the motto that probably fits Brighton the best. The south coast team are no strangers to selling on players for extortionate values, having bought them on the cheap, with Moises Caicedo, Marc Cucurella, and Alexis Mac Allister good examples of that. Not many would argue against them being the best business-makers in the league, with their excellent scouting team also playing a key role in forging this reputation.

While other sides might get praised more for signing incredible players on the cheap, Palace are no stranger to a bargain either. That is highlighted by the £148m difference between total squad cost and total squad market value, making them one of only seven teams to hit triple digits. The two jewels in the crown were obviously Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise before the latter left for Bayern Munich, but other young prodigies include EURO 2024 star Marc Guehi and 23/24 breakthrough talent Adam Wharton.

Certainly, it’s no surprise that Aston Villa made it into the top clubs here. Under Unai Emery, the club has really ramped up their efforts to take the Villans back to their past high points. Last season, they made significant strides in these ambitions by qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since the early-80s, and prices paid for the likes of Ollie Watkins look like peanuts nowadays.

On the other hand, Brentford’s inclusion might come somewhat as a surprise. Although they have overperformed in the past, they finished 16th last season, and this might now actually point towards them underachieving. They’re supposedly the fifth-best run club in the country, but are undoubtedly expected to be in and around the relegation scrap next term unless they can get a tune out of Bryan Mbuemo and Ivan Toney again.

Chelsea and Man Utd Suffer Heaviest Losses

No team has spent more assembling their team than the Blues

Chelsea’s financial feast has hardly done anything to steady the post-Abramovich era. Under Boehly, the Blues have spent more than anyone else since the new American ownership came in. And last season, Gary Neville summed up their precarious business strategy better than anyone else when he called them the ‘blue billion pound bottlejobs.’

It was a jibe towards how they let the Carabao Cup slip from their grasp against Liverpool’s youthful lineup at Wembley, but the root cause of such a label being brandished stems far deeper. Last summer, Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia cost the west Londoners £170m alone, and as they operate dangerously close to the Financial Fair Play boundaries, they are currently the worst culprits of overspending.

Joining them fairly closely behind in 19th-place is Manchester United. The Red Devils have always had a reputation for not being afraid to spend big in the transfer market, but they have frequently paid over the odds for players, often leaving them red-faced in recent times. Recent transfers which exacerbate their difference include Antony and Casemiro, while spending such large sums on an 18-year-old in the form of Leny Yoro will continue to exacerbate their total for now, even if he does have the potential to grow.

Five clubs operate worse than the Tractor Boys

Usually, the teams that spend the most in the Championship are the ones that get promoted. This is certainly the case with Southampton and Leicester City who, despite going down two terms ago, made sure they invested enough so that they could climb straight back up.

Such was their desperation to reach the promised land straight away, only Man United and Chelsea have spent more outside their rights than the two yo-yo clubs. Of course, this also takes into consideration how many players were still earning a topflight wage whilst in the second division, but that shouldn’t take away from the success story of Ipswich Town.

The Tractor Boys are operating just inside the green zone and weren’t expected to reach the pinnacle of English football any time soon. Omari Hutchinson recently became the club’s record signing when he arrived for £22m, while their two promoted rivals have both spent way more than that in the past. What’s more, Ipswich have a better differential than West Ham, too, although Nottingham Forest, Wolves, and Bournemouth – Kieran McKenna’s closest other rivals – are all much healthier.