The summer transfer window has officially closed and now a new mechanism has been devised to see if your club's big-name signing was worthy of his massive fee.
The CIES Football Observatory have developed the transfer value calculator. The technology uses an exclusive algorithm created on the basis of nearly 1,500 fee paying transfers which have occurred during the previous five years tofind out whether a player was worth their price tag or not.
Manchester United fans may be ecstatic with their acquisitions in the window but, when the numbers are crunched, it turns out that most of their big name signings were actually bad business. According to the calculator, Angel Di Maria was the most over-paid player in the window, with the Red Devils paying a whopping €30 million over his actual value. Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera were also among the most over-priced transfers.
At the other end of the spectrum, Chelsea have done excellently in terms of getting bang for their buck. Despite over-paying for Filipe Luis, the Blues' €38 million signing of Diego Costa was the third best value buy after Luis Suarez's Nou Camp switch and Mario Balotelli's move to Anfield. The signings of Cesc Fabregas and Loic Remy were also proven to be bargains.
Unsurprisingly, it was deemed that the London club were paid over the market value of David Luiz when they sold the Brazilian for an incredible €62 million to PSG.
It's bad news for Shane Long, I'm afraid. According to the CIES the Irish international was undeserving of his €15 million transfer fee. If he nets enough goals for Southampton this season, they probably won't mind paying that little bit extra.
