Paris Saint-Germain outspend all other European football clubs in the summer 2017 transfer window. Adding both Kylian Mbappé and Neymar accounts for a large chuck of their 343 million euro net spend. Milan had the second highest net spend at 189 million euros. Both teams seem to be attempting to buy their way back to the tops of their respective leagues. Seven of the top 10 net spenders were English Premier League Clubs. Four top teams–Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool–were all trying to stay at or near the top of the EPL. Two newcomers–Brighton & Hove and Huddersfield–are just trying to put together EPL-worthy squads. The German powerhouse, Bayern Munich, rounds out the top ten net spenders. The total spend on players transferred to the club, income on players transferred from the club and net spending for the ten biggest net spenders are presented in this Mekko Graphics chart below:
The stacked bar chart with net line is my go-to chart to summarize revenue, expenses and net income. I used this template to create the transfer window chart. I entered the data from the Football Observatory report, converted the spending series from positive to negative, added a net income series and displayed it as a net line. I also added a data row for the team’s league. To make the chart clearer for non-European football aficionados, I changed by series names to contain explanations of what data make up each bar. These names are displayed in the legend that appears at the top of the chart. I hid the Y axis, moved the axis title to vertical, and placed the legend on top of the chart. Finally, I changed the way the negative numbers are shown in the chart. They are displayed without a minus sign in front of them. Click here to access the chart in SlideShare.