Be under no illusion, Paul Pogba was a rip-off, but statistically there were eight bigger rip-offs in the summer transfer window.
The
CIES Football Observatory team of academics estimates transfer values based on deals involving the big five European leagues and they've some pretty interesting findings from the recent summer transfer window.
They've collated all the statistics together from the window to work out which signings were the worst value for money based on the difference between the fee paid and the estimated value of the player using their transfer calculator.
These calculations are undertaken using a special algorithm which is updated after every window and created from more than 1,500 fee transfers over the previous five seasons. It calculates a player's worth based on their statistics in six key areas - age, position, contract, international status, experience and performance. while taking into account the "inflammatory trend" of the market.
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One might suspect that Paul Pogba, the world's most expensive footballer, may have been the biggest rip-off of the summer, but the €105 million man wasn't the worst-value signing United made, nor was he in the top five overpriced deals made by Premier League clubs.
The study shows that the Red Devils paid Juventus €15.2 m over the odds for the French man, seeing him come in ninth place overall. Meanwhile, they found that the club overspent for centre-back Eric Bailly by €23.5 m, which earned him second place, just trailing Gonzalo Higuain, who made the move from Napoli to Juventus for a reported fee of €90 m.
Premier League clubs dominated the top 10 with Yannick Bolasie, Granit Xhaka, John Stones, David Luiz and Marcos Alonso taking spots four through eight respectively. Man City's acquisition of Leroy Sane (remember him?) rounded off the top 10.
Check out the top 20 in the image (courtesy of
CIES Football Observatory) below.
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