Manchester United Signings vs Manchester City in a Spending Bout Updated for May 2025

Updated: 21st May 2025

The arrival of Everton striker Romelu Lukaku at the Old Trafford for £75 million means that Manchester United signings have totalled more in the last four years than what Sir Alex Ferguson did in his entire 27 years at the iconic English club.

Manchester United Signings

While Fergie ensured that United stay in the title hunt in each of his seasons without fail, the high-spending Mourinho's tenure has seen the vaunted club not even make it to the Top Four. The huge amounts doled out for supposedly top-rated players like Angel Di Maria (£59.7m in 2014/15), Anthony Martial (£36m in 2015/16) and Paul Pogba (£89m in 2016/17) have all come a cropper with any of them hardly making an impact at the club. Fans are fervently hoping that the £75m invested in Lukaku doesn't go the same way.

Manchester City Signings

United's city rivals are no less in the spending department. Since the time Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi took over ownership reins at the Etihad in 2008, it's been a saga of big spending.

The summer of 2016/17 saw City manager Pep Guardiola splash as much as £170 million (a record for a single season). It was for acquiring the likes of Leroy Sane, John Stones, Claudio Bravo, Nolito and Gabriel Jesus. The season before that saw massive Manchester City signings in the form of Kevin De Bruyne from Wolsburg (£54 million) and Raheem Sterling from Liverpool (£49 million).

Which Team has seen better performance from Spendings?

For Man City it's been money well spent compared to the Manchester United signings. City were Premier League winners and runners-up in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons respectively. They were placed 4th and 3rd in the last two seasons.

Mediocre performances on the pitch hasn't been a deterrent as far as spending at the Old Trafford goes. Jose Mourinho breaking the world transfer record by signing Paul Pogba for an unheard-of £89m. A total of £143m was spent in the 2016-17 season to buy Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly.

While Abu Dhabi's spending spree has borne some fruit on the domestic front for City, they are still to make their mark on the European scene (their advent to the Round of 8 in the UEFA Champions League last season being one of their best performances ever!!!).

For Mourinho, the Europa League title was the saving grace in an otherwise dismal 2016-17 season.

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