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Man United's summer spending gives them Europe's third-costliest squad

Manchester United's summer spending has given them the third most expensive squad in Europe, behind only neighbours Manchester City and Real Madrid.

According to the CIES Football Observatory, only Real (£428.5 million) and City (£408.1m) paid more in transfer fees to acquire their current group of players.

But while City and Real are perennially near the top of such lists, United jumped up after spending £389.1m while compiling Louis van Gaal's squad, with their newest signing, Anthony Martial, arriving for a fee that could rise to €80m.

United's squad cost over than £100m more than Champions League winners Barcelona's, bought for £287m, and more than 50 percent more than Bayern Munich's, who arrived for £246m.

The Old Trafford club have spent more than £260m under Van Gaal, a fee that could rise to almost £290m if the add-ons for former Monaco forward Martial are triggered.

Van Gaal has spent £25m each on Morgan Schneiderlin and Memphis Depay, £27m on Luke Shaw and £28.8m on Ander Herrera.

Other expensive signings include Juan Mata (£37.1m) and Marouane Fellaini (£27.5m), who both arrived under David Moyes, and Wayne Rooney, who cost £27m when Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge.

City broke their own transfer record twice this summer, paying £49m for Raheem Sterling and £54m for Kevin De Bruyne as they committed almost £160 million on new players.

Real's squad includes Gareth Bale, who cost £85.3m, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who commanded an £80m fee when he joined in 2009.

Premier League teams have five of the nine costliest squads, with Chelsea (fifth), Liverpool (seventh) and Arsenal (ninth) all with a more expensive group of players than Champions League finalists Juventus.

Bournemouth have the cheapest squad of players in the English top flight, costing £26.3m, with Norwich and Watford, the other promoted clubs, the next lowest spenders.

However, there are 15 other squads in Europe's top five leagues that cost under €5m to assemble, and only five Ligue 1 clubs paid more for their players than Bournemouth did to assemble their squad.