The Biggest Spending Football Managers of 2008 – 2018

We all know that football clubs are spending millions on new players and there seems to be no slowing down in the increase in amounts spent. However, do you know which managers manage to persuade their clubs to spend the most? If you have ever wondered then take a look at the list below, which contains all the information you need.

10. Massimiliano Allegri

Juventus’ manager Massimiliano Allegri is certainly one of football’s big spenders. In the past he has managed Sassuolo, Cagliari and AC Milan before moving to Juventus. However, it was at AC Milan and Juventus that he has spent the most money in the last ten years, a total of £494 million! With those funds he has managed to win a number of trophies and his biggest ever signing was Gonzalo Higuain who he bought from Napoli for Juventus for around £76 million.

9. Louis van Gal

Louis Van Gaal, who is one of Manchester United’s former managers, is next on the list of biggest spending managers. When he joined Manchester United he managed to persuade the team to spend a huge amount of money to try to strengthen the team.

The most he spent was on Angel Di Maria who he brought from Real Madrid for a whopping £57.9 million, which at the time was the British transfer record. However, Di Maria only survived one season in the Premier League, which he found too physically demanding, as was soon sold on to Paris Saint-Germain.

Van Gaal also signed Morgan Schneiderlin for €34 million, Memphis Depay for €27 million and Anthony Martial for €50 million in recent years. In total, since 2008 Van Gaal has spent a massive £542 million on players.

8. Rafael Benitez

While Newcastle United may not be having the best of seasons, their manager Rafael Benitez still makes it on to the list of big spenders. Over the past ten years Benitez has been in charge of some of Europe’s richest clubs including Real Madrid, Napoli, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Liverpool. His most expensive ever signing was Fernando Torres when he was at Liverpool. He brought the player over from Atletico Madrid and paid €38 million to do so.

While at Napoli he signed Gonzalo Higuain from Real Madrid for €37 million and then at Real Madrid he signed Danilo from Porto for €31.5 million. In total, over the last decade Benitez has spent £567 million on players.

7. Roberto Mancini

The current manager of Russian side Zenit Saint Petersburg, Roberto Mancini used to be in charge at Manchester City. Prior to that, he managed teams including Galatasaray, Inter Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina.

Mancini moved to Manchester City in December 2009 when he took over from the fired Mark Hughes. Not long afterwards he signed David Silva from Valencia and Yaya Toure from Barcelona for £24 million. He also signed Sergio Aguero for £38 million, and Edit Dzeko and Mario Balotelli for a total fee of £170 million.

After Manchester City he moved to Inter Milan where he spent €31 million for the midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia and then €15 million on Ivan Perisic. In total, over the last ten years Mancini has spent an impressive £580 million on players.

6. Claudio Ranieri

In recent years it almost seems as if Claudio Ranieri has an ambition to coach all of Europe’s most famous teams. He has been at Chelsea, Valencia, Juventus, Roma, Inter Milan, Monaco, Leicester City and now he is in France with Nantes.

Before he joined Chelsea in 2000, he managed teams including Cagliari, Napoli, Fiorentina, Valencia and Atletico Madrid. While at Chelsea he was given the nickname “tinker-man” as he had a habit of changing players a lot.

His biggest success was of course with Leicester City where he stunned the entire world by winning the league title just a season after the team were promoted to the Premier League.

Over the years Ranieri has signed a number of players including James Rodriguez for £38.5 million, Falcao and Joao Moutinho. He was also responsible of the transfers of N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez to Leicester City, although they were relatively cheap players. In fact, most of the money he has spent was at Monaco, but he has still managed to spend £591 million in the last ten years.

5. Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger has just announced that he will be leaving Arsenal at the end of this season. He is one of the longest serving managers in the history of the Premier League and it is no surprise that he is also one of the biggest spending.

While it is true that Wenger believes in grooming home talent rather than spending large amounts on big names, he has still made a number of major signings. He brought in Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid for a fee of €50 million and he signed Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona for €42.5 million.

In recent years he has started to spend more, he purchased Alexandre Lacazette for £52.7 million and then broke his own transfer spending record by signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for £56 million in January 2018. This brought his total spending for the last ten years to £733.7 million!

4. Manuel Pellegrini

Former Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini doesn’t hold back when he finds a player he wants. Over the last ten years he has managed seven clubs including some of the world’s best such as Real Madrid, Villarreal and Manchester City.

While at Real Madrid he bought Cristiano Ronaldo for a massive £80 million in 2009, which at the time made him the most expensive player in the world. He also signed Ricardo Kaka from AC Milan for €65 million, also making him one of the world’s most expensive players. Other signings while he was at Real Madrid included Karim Benzema for £30 million from Olympic Lyonnais and Xabi Alonso from Liverpool for £30 million.

When he was at Manchester City he signed Kevin De Bruyne from VFL Wolfsburg for an impressive £57 million and also brought in Raheem Sterling from Liverpool for £49 million. His other signings included Fernandinho, Nicolas Otamendi and Eliaquim who came to a total of over €200 million.

At present he is managing Hebei China Fortune where he has spent around £80 million including the recent singing of Javier Mascherano from Barcelona, and a number of expensive Chinese players including Chengdong Zhang for £18 million. All of this has brought his total spending for the last decade to a cool £876 million.

3. Pep Guardiola

It seems that manging Manchester City inspires people to spend vast amounts of money as next on the list is the current City boss Pep Guardiola. Before joining Manchester City he was at Barcelona where he bought his most expensive player in 2009, Zlatan Ibrahimovic for an amazing €69.5 million. He also spent €34 million on bringing Cesc Fabregas back to the club from Arsenal, he brought David Villa for €40 million and signed Dani Alves for €35.5 million.

During his time at Bayern Munich he signed players such as Medhi Benatia for £25 million, Doublas Costa for £27 million and Arturo Vidal for £34 million.

Since he joined Manchester City he has also been busy and bought Aymeric Laporte for £57 million, Kyle Walker for £52 million, Benjamin Mendy for £50 million, Ederson for £24.7 million, Leroy Sane for £42 million, and John Stones for £50 million.

Thanks to all of this Guardiola has spent £946.6 million over the last ten years!

2. Carlo Ancelotti

In second place is Carlo Ancelotti who is truly a big spender. At Real Madrid he spent €174 million just to sign Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez.

At Chelsea he bought Fernando Torres for a massive £50 million and while he was managing Paris Saint-Germain he spent more than €80 million to bring in the players Lucas Moura and Thiago Silva. All of this means that he has spent a whopping £970 million in the last decade.

1. Jose Mourinho

It probably comes as no surprise that the biggest spending manager of the last ten years is Jose Mourinho. The current manager of Manchester United is known for getting results, but he certainly makes the clubs pay for them.

Mourinho moved to United when he was sacked by Chelsea for the second time. Over the years he has attracted a number of top players such as, Diego Milito and Samuel Eto’o to Inter Milan, Andriy Shevchenko and Diego Costa to Chelsea, and Angel Di Maria and Luka Modric to Real Madrid.

Since joining United he has spent heavily, including a (at the time) world record transfer fee of £100 million for Paul Pogba. He also signed Romelu Lukaku for £90m and Nemanja Matic for £30m among others.

In total, over the last decade, Jose Mourinho has spent £1.1 billion on players!