Serie A Transfers ai??i?? A Look Over The Years

The transfer window has thrown up quite a few surprises so far, and one of the most important talking points will be the huge involvement of Serie A. With more than a month of transfer action still to go, Serie A has taken the top billing when it comes to player movement ai??i?? in or out of Italy. Almost every major club has gone in for new players in order to bolster their attempts to succeed both domestically and in Europe. No longer are the clubs afraid to spend on players and coaches, and it certainly looks like a rosy time for Italian clubs this season.

The most noise seems to have been made by Napoli, who finished last season as runners-up. After a long drawn out saga over Edinson Cavani and his possible destination, PSG finally snapped up the Uruguayan for a record fee of ai??i??64.5 million. Whether he will set the Ligue 1 on fire is a different question altogether, but this current move brings into mind the big money transfers ai??i?? both in and out of Serie A. It can be safely said that the big-spending times of the early 90ai??i??s is beyond Serie A, and from the looks of the administration of the various clubs, that time is not likely to return to Italy anytime soon.

However, the interest of the rest of the leagues of players from Serie A have been on the rise for quite some time, and the latest transfer of Cavani goes on to prove that fact. It also proves another age-old fact that no player is really off the transfer market, and given a proper deal, any club is willing to sell off their crown jewels to the highest bidders. The Cavani saga saw many processions and requests by Neapolitans to hold him back, urging him to stay at Napoli and achieve greatness. But like Lavezzi last season, Cavani too moved on. Sadly, the only member left of the famed attacking trio of a few years back is Hamsik. Napoli, however did spend the money wisely, bringing in Callejon from Real Madrid, Dries Mertens from PSV and Rafael from Santos, who immediately on arrival went on record saying that he would love to stop Balotelli from the spot.

A five year comparison

With the exception of Udinese, every big club in the peninsula has had to deal with negative transfer balances at the end of the season. Leading the list of net income loss are Juventus and Lazio, with both teams having had a negative transfer balance in the last five years. If we only consider the 2013/14 season, Serie A saw a total revenue generated of ai??i??276.48 million from the sale of players as compared to an expenditure of ai??i??236.99 million. This puts a net income of ai??i??39.49 million for Serie A. Interestingly enough, since the 1979/80 season, this will be the 6th season overall where Serie A actually made a profit!

The last time when Serie A ended with a positive income was during the 2004/05 season, and like the present season, Juventus were one of the top movers at that time. That year saw Juventus bring in Emerson for ai??i??28 million, Fabio Cannavaro for ai??i??10 million and Matteo Brighi for ai??i??11.5 million. However, not every big transfer had the Old Ladyai??i??s name linked to it as the likes of Valeri Bojinov moved to Fiorentina for ai??i??14 million, Japp Stam moved to AC Milan for ai??i??10 million, Stefano Fiore moved to Valencia for ai??i??17 million and Walter Samuel moved to Real Madrid for ai??i??23 million.

Fast forward to the current season, and once again Juventus has been pretty active on that front. Till now, they have brought in Ogbonna for ai??i??13 million from Torino, Zaza for ai??i??3.5 million from Sampdoria, Carlos Tevez from Manchester City for ai??i??9 million and Federico Peluso for ai??i??4.8 million from Atalanta. The other major movers till now have been Roma, Napoli and Fiorentina. Romaai??i??s net transfer income has meandered over the course of the last five years, with their most expensive season coming in 2011/12. In that single season only, Roma spent more than any other club has spent in the last five seasons in Serie A. Bringing in Fabio Borini, Miralem Pjanic, Pablo Osvaldo, Maarteen Stekelenburg, Bojan Krkic, Jose Angel, Erik Lamela and Marco Boriello, Roma set themselves back by a net margin of ai??i??64.43 million. The 2004/05 season was also noteworthy for the other clubs in the peninsula with Juventus recording a net loss of ai??i??80.7 million, Napoli with ai??i??47.95 million and AC Milan set back by ai??i??31.25 million.

Romaai??i??s current season expenses too have been on the high side with their most recent acquisition, Kevin Strootman, setting them back a whopping ai??i??16.5 million. Mehdi Benatia also moved to Roma from Udinese along with Tin Jedvaj, with Roma spending a total of ai??i??18.5 million on the duo. However, the biggest movement for Roma has been the transfer of Marquinhos to PSG, with the 19-year-old bringing them ai??i??31.4 million. With the transfer market yet to be closed, Roma could see the potential departure of De Rossi, their captain in the waiting.

When it comes to net income from transfers, the most efficient has been Udinese. The last time they recorded a negative balance was way back in 2004/05 season, when they brought Di Natale for a meagre ai??i??100,000 following the relegation of Empoli. Toto has seen his stock rise over the years at Udinese and for two consecutive seasons in 2009/10 and 2010/11, he was the Capocannoniere in Serie A. For every season in the last decade, Udinese has sold one of the best and brightest players but still they managed to play in Europe and most importantly, keep the club in Serie A. With a stable financial plan in place, Udinese have never seen a loss for most of the last decade and if they keep up their dealings, they might never see such a situation arise!