Only Barcelona and Real Madrid have more valuable squads than Tottenham Hotspur, according to a new study.
The CIES Football Observatory study found that only Barcelona had a greater gap between the cost of assembling their squad and its current value than Spurs.
The Barca squad was named as the most valuable in Europe, worth €1,071 million (£924m), with Real's worth the second-highest amount at €921m.
The report said the Tottenham squad was worth €799m and had cost €274m to assemble.
Academy graduate Harry Kane, who cost nothing, was named by CIES as one of eight players in the world worth more than €100m, while Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose were signed inexpensively but are now worth huge sums.
#thfc Only Barcelona have a greater gap between the cost of assembling their squad & its current value than Tottenham, says @sportCIES. pic.twitter.com/pAqSSrwE6E
- Dan Kilpatrick (@Dan_KP) January 24, 2017
Messi's path from an academy graduate to an estimated transfer value of €170.5m and the increase in value of Neymar -- who cost €87m but is now worth €246.8m -- largely accounted for the €586m gap between squad assembly expenditure and current value.
Manchester United's squad was named as the second most valuable in the Premier League at €700m, but the fact that it cost €718m to assemble left the Red Devils ranked 95th in Europe.
Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool made up the Premier League's top six most valuable squads in that order.