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Tuesday 04 October 2016 9:53 am

Manchester United’s £630m squad named the most expensive in football history, costing £90m more than rivals Manchester City

By: Joe Hall

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Manchester United's current squad is the most expensive in history after a record-breaking summer spending spree took its total cost to €718m (£628m), according to research from the CIES Football Observatory.

The academic group based in Switzerland found that no club has ever invested more in its roster than United who ploughed €185m into the team this summer including the record €110m purchase Paul Pogba from Juventus.

United's current squad cost more than €80m than any other with Real Madrid's €634m collection of players and Manchester City's €611m team the next most expensively assembled.

The report will do little to improve the picture for new manager Jose Mourinho, whose team have struggled to live up to their billing so far this season and currently sit in sixth place in the Premier League, five points off leaders Manchester City.

Read more: Is Manchester United's business model a busted flush?

In contrast, the squads belonging to last season's Premier League champions and runners-up, Leicester City and Arsenal, are worth less than United's put together at €130m and €381m respectively. 

Read more: Manchester United net half a billion pounds of revenue, breaking Premier League records and expectations along the way

As well as smashing the international transfer record on Pogba, United spent over £25m on both midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Dortmund and defender Eric Bailly from Villarreal.

The club is well positioned to possess such an expensive squad. Last month they became the first Premier League club to generate more than £500m in revenue while according to KPMG they are the joint-most valuable football club in the world.

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