Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea profits from…

Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea profits from academy talents compared

Chelsea possess the Premier League ’s most profitable academy, but the Blues and their fellow Big Six members fall some way behind the rest of Europe’s top sides.

The CIES Football Observatory have analysed how much income clubs across the world have received from the transfer of players who graduated from their academies, having been there for at least three years between the seasons of their 15th and 21st birthday.

The figures include any potential future add-ons from the transfer deals that have been done in the past seven years for each clubs academy graduate sales.

Their analysis puts a surprising name at the top of the leaderboard, with none of the so-called Big Six Premier League clubs featuring in the top seven of the list.

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Portuguese giants Benfica sit at the summit, having raised £317million from sales of academy players, though 32 per cent of that comes from Joao Felix’s £113m move to Atletico Madrid.

Real Madrid are second, by some way, having raised £276m, of which Alvaro Morata’s move to Chelsea in 2017 forms the biggest chunk.

Kylian Mbappe’s world-record move to Paris Saint-Germain means that Monaco are third, with the Frenchman’s fee going an astonishing 63 per cent of the way towards the Ligue 1 side raising £238m from academy sales.

Unsurprisingly, Ajax’s famed academy means they are just behind Monaco, having raised £237m from sales of academy graduates since 2015.

In somewhat of a shock, Lyon round out the top five, with £226m brought in, though the player they have received the most money for, Alexandre Lacazette, makes up only 22 per cent of that number.

Chelsea are the highest-placed Premier League club, but raised less than Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta to finish eighth.

Tammy Abraham’s move to Roma last summer makes up 21 per cent of the £175m that the Blues have brought in.

Arsenal brought in less than Sporting Lisbon, but still finished in the top 10 with £143m, with Liverpool just behind them.

Arsenal and Liverpool finished 10th and 11th in the list respectively (Getty Images)

Manchester City finished seven places lower than the Reds, having raised £23m less than the Anfield side, with Kelechi Iheanacho’s move to Leicester making up a fifth of their sales.

The Foxes, Aston Villa and Tottenham all finished ahead of Manchester United though, who raised a paltry £50m from sales of academy graduates.