A new survery has revealed that West Ham United have the tenth most expensively-assembled squad in world football.
Valued at an estimated £435.5million, David Moyes' current roster ranks eighth in the Premier League alone, with just Paris St Germain (4th) and Real Madrid (8th) from outside of the domestic game troubling the top ten.Although the Hammers enjoyed a net profit on transfers this summer, having sold Declan Rice, Gianluca Scamacca and Niko Vlasic for a combined fee in excess of £135million, the purchases of James Ward-Prowse, Mo Kudus, Edson Alvarez and Konstantinos Mavropanos have ensured the club remains alongside the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool in terms of finances provided for player acquisitions.
Only one Premier League club failed to rank in the top 100 - that being newly-promoted Luton Town. The vast finances availble to Premier League ensure even those teams recently relegated to the Championship - they being Leicester City, Southampton and Leeds United - remain in the top 35 of global squad investment, placing 26th, 34th and 35th respectively.
With 19 of the Premier League's 20 clubs making the top 100, their nearest rivals come from Italy's Serie A, which enjoys 15 teams in the full list. Next is Spain's La Liga with 12 teams, while Feance and Germany both provide 11 clubs.
While the English Championship claims the next highest number of entires in the top 100 with four clubs (Norwich City added to the aforementioned trio of relegated sides), they are level with the rapidly-growing Saudi Pro League, which makes its first appearance in the listing.
The top ten most expensively assembled squads, according to football-observatory.com are as follows:
1. Manchester United (£992m)
2. Chelsea (£978m)
3. Manchester City (£899m)
4. Paris St Germain (£862m)
5. Arsenal (£721m)
6. Tottenham (£715m)
7. Liverpool (£664m)
8. Real Madrid (£611m)
9. Newcastle United (£570m)
10. West Ham United (£436m)
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