Man United’s transfer policy – data analysis

Turn back time to a decade ago, when time seemed to stand still for Manchester United. Winning trophies was an insatiable habit, adored by the fans and hated by everyone else; these were the golden years. 

Alex Ferguson had cultivated world-class players across multiple generations, through the use of a sublime academy programme and a first-tier recruitment strategy. It was this policy overseen by Ferguson that allowed the squad to transition seamlessly, inexpensively and most importantly not become so brittle that one bad signing would imbalance the starting eleven. 

So when Fergie signed off with his final Premier League trophy on 19 May 2013, what was to follow? An inevitable dip in form was expected, but a half-decade decline was incomprehensible for even the most hardened sceptics.

Manager choice, passion, fear are all words that have haunted Man United since the departure of their zeitgeist, but what is really to blame for the huge jump-off the 20 times league champions faced?

In this data analysis, we look back across the past decade at Man United’s transfer policy and how this has altered through the bad times and under the new Ole Gunnar Solskjær revolution. 

A global overview

Firstly we take a look at the recruitment strategy Man United have implemented over the past decade, starting from the 2010/11 season. Below is a map displaying each country Man United have purchased a player from, with the colour shade dictated by the level of spending from each country. Note this shows the nationality of the team purchased from not of the player.

What immediately jumps out is United’s preference to purchase from clubs in Europe. Out of a total £1.1billion spent since the 2010/11 season, £991million has been spent on the continent. Of that amount, £549million has been spent on transfers from teams in the United Kingdom.

This shows us that Man United have always preferred to buy established players playing in more competitive leagues. This is to reduce the risk of the player failing to adapt to the Premier League standard but as we can see, this comes at a cost. This is reinforced by their average spend per player reaching a whopping £26million. Both signings outside of Europe totalled just £11.7million in comparison.

An interesting analysis of this data shows that in the Ferguson era, United’s average spend per player was £13.7million, compared to his predecessors who average £32million per player. Obviously, the transfer market has exploded in recent seasons skewing the figures slightly, and this data doesn’t include Ferguson’s entire tenure makes a difference. However, as an indicator, it shows United have been less able to find great value in the market following the 2012/13 season.