Aston Villa owner Dr Tony Xia wasted little time in putting his hands in his pockets this summer in a bid to make sure the club's exile from the Premier League is as short as possible. But what few might have predicted is that Villa would outspend Real Madrid in the process.
The third worst team in the history of the Premier League outspent the European champions.
The new boys...😀 pic.twitter.com/Q137oyB0Ct
Until Manchester United signed Paul Pogba in August, the last five world transfer records belonged to Real. Bernabeu president Florentino Perez is known for going big in the market, he was the man responsible for building the Galacticos after all.
But the summer of 2016 was a very quiet one for Los Blancos.Rather than chasing huge marqueedeals for the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Robert Lewandowski, Real and Perez simplysettled for re-signing Alvaro Morata from Juventus for the fixed price of€30m.
They were in the race for Pogba until the eye watering figuresled to their withdrawal, while there were no other signings at all. Only players returning from loan spells arrived at the Bernabeu, with a handful of younger individualspromoted from the Castilla squad.
Villa, on the other hand, bought nine new players in June,July and August. Even excluding the unknown fee paid for ex-Middlesbrough wingerAlbert Adomah, their overall spend came to £53.1m. That's more than double the cash Real parted with, the equivalent of just£25m.
Aston Villa Summer Spending 2016:
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