Mourinho, Guardiola & Co. – Which Managers have Spent the Most Money on Former Players?

When managers move clubs, it’s almost inevitable that they’ll be linked with returning to their former clubs to sign their favorite players. New Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca signed Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from former club Leicester City while Julen Lopetegui returned to Wolves to sign Max Kilman for West Ham.

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has been accused of signing too many of his former Ajax players since moving to Old Trafford. And the Dutchman looks set to add another familiar face with Matthijs de Ligt edging closer to joining United from Bayern Munich. Using Transfermarkt data, we’ve analyzed which managers have spent the most money signing players that they’ve worked with at former clubs. We’ve crunched the numbers from all managers that have worked in the top ten leagues but loan moves haven’t been included!

Which Managers have spent most signing players from their former clubs?

Ten Hag sits comfortably top of the list after spending €251m on seven players that he’s previously worked with. The most expensive former player was Antony with the Brazilian costing €95m from Ajax but it’s been a spectacular failure with the move cited as the biggest example of Ten Hag’s poor transfer policy. Lisandro Martínez (€57.4m) and André Onana (€50.2m) also joined United after previously working with Ten Hag. The total figure doesn’t just include transfers made at Old Trafford as it also features the deals to bring Zakaria Labyad (€6m) and Sean Klaiber (€4.25m) from Utrecht to Ajax.

As the graphic above illustrates, José Mourinho ranks second with the Portuguese manager signing five former players for a combined cost of €187m across his legendary career. Mourinho took Nemanja Matic (€44.7m) to Man United after working together at Chelsea, while Tammy Abraham (€41m) joined him at Roma from the Stamford Bridge club. Ricardo Carvalho (€30m) also famously followed Mourinho from Porto to Chelsea. Current Aston Villa boss Unai Emery ranks third with the Spaniard spending €74m on former players with Pau Torres (€33m) the most expensive addition after following Emery from Villareal to Villa. Richarlison is Marco Silva’s most expensive ever signing after the Brazilian followed the Portuguese boss from Watford to Everton, while Kilman joining Lopetegui at West Ham ensures the Spanish boss features in the top five.

Sourced from; Transfermarkt.com