Top 20 Selling Clubs in Europe: Arsenal Are Down at 8

Wednesday, 18 January 2012 02:54 Karan Mundul

Inter Sales

When we think of a 'selling club' the names Valencia, Porto and Arsenal come to mind. The general opinion of a 'selling club' is that it's a club that sells its best players to larger, more successful teams. In the football industry, there is one fact which we fail to take into account: the human angle. Due to a variety of reasons the best of football clubs may find themselves selling their biggest stars.

Manchester United sold Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid sold Sneijder, Robinho, Robben, Van der Vaart and even Manchester City are on the verge of selling Tevez. The table below contains a list of the top 20 selling clubs in football. The figures are for amounts received for player transfers conducted over the past decade i.e. since 2002-03.

Club	Amt (£m)	Highest Transfers (Datewise)
Inter Milan	412.050	Eto'o, Balotelli, Ibrahimovic, Crespo, Ronaldo
Porto	408.931	Falcao, Quaresma, Anderson, Pepe, Carvalho
Liverpool	299.919	Torres, Mascherano, Alonso, Keane, Crouch
Real Madrid	278.634	Robben, Robinho, Owen, Samuel, Makelele
AC Milan	273.556	Huntelaar, Kaka, Gilardino, Shevchenko, Coco
Lyon	264.167	Benzema, Malouda, Tiago, Diarra, Essien
Manchester United	256.964	Ronaldo, Heinze, Nistelrooy, Beckham, Veron
Arsenal	240.970	Fabregas, Nasri, Adebayor, Henry, Viera
Juventus	234.972	Diego, Criscito, Ibrahimovic, Zambrotta, Brighi
Tottenham	221.328	Crouch, Bent, Berbatov, Keane, Carrick
Barcelona	216.559	Ibrahimovic, Toure, Chygrynskiy, Eto'o, Ronaldinho
Udinese	212.400	Sánchez, Inler, Quagliarella, Iaquinta, Pizarro
Benfica	208.505	Coentrao, Di Maria, David Luiz, Ramires, Simao
Ajax	205.937	Suarez, Huntelaar, Sneijder, Ibrahimovic, Chivu
Newcastle	199.751	Carroll, Milner, Dyer, Jenas, Woodgate
Chelsea	199.632	Zhirkov, Bridge, Robben, Duff, Gudjohnsen
Genoa	198.377	Criscito, Ranocchia, Milito, Bonucci, Motta
West Ham	195.078	Tevez, Mascherano, Bellamy, Tevez Loan, Reo-Coker
Sevilla	192.060	Alves, Keita, Ramos, Baptista, Reyes
Atlético Madrid	182.380	Aguero, De Gea, Elias, Jurado, Torres

Based on the figures above, it's safe to conclude that every football club is a selling club. The table above contains names of the most successful clubs in football history. Selling your top players does not reflect weakness in the club. It is merely a reflection of the manner in which the football industry operates.