Celtic are the world’s most successful “high spending club”, new research shows.
The study, conducted by sports analytics provider Tips.gg, looked at clubs that have spent the most on transfers over the past five seasons and examined data from six different factors to create an index. Boffins crunched the numbers on the average goals scored per game, the average goals against per game, average wins and losses per season, the average league position across the seasons, and money spent on transfers between 2020-2025.
Factors where a high score is considered negative were then inverted and each was given a weighting to calculate a total score for every side studied, producing an overall index score out of 100 to create a final ranking – with the Hoops top of the table, netting a final result of 87.34 out of 100.
Over the five year period the Parkhead club spent £115m on transfers, including the combined £19m spent this summer on Arne Engels and Adam Idah, and averaged 25.20 wins per season, scoring an average of 2.53 goals per game over this period. The average number of goals conceded by Celtic per game sits at just 0.71, and their average losses per season are just 2.80 with their average Premiership position across the five seasons covered 1.20.
The Hoops are followed in the table by Dutch side PSV, who recorded a score of 84.80, and Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk on 82.66. Red Bull Salzburg, River Plate, Palmeiras, Feyenoord, Sporting Lisbon and Porto follow. Ipswich Town are the only other club from the UK to make the top 10, with the newly promoted Premier League side sitting 10th with a score of 77.70.
On the flip side, the least successful team was revealed to be Premier League strugglers Southampton, with a score of 10.60 out of 100. The club, who sacked former Rangers loanee Russell Martin last week, spent £325m on transfers between 2020-2025 and has an average league position of 17.25 across the seasons covered. They scored an average of 1.05 goals per game, and an average of 1.88 goals per game were scored against them., losing more than 18 games a season on average.
Commenting on the study, Anton Malyutin, Founder and CEO of Tips.gg, said, “It’s interesting to see a range of clubs from across the world in this listing. It’s particularly impressive to see teams like Celtic and PSV Eindhoven performing so consistently at the top level, demonstrating that smart spending and strong team performance can go hand in hand.
“These findings offer a fresh perspective on the strategies behind football’s highest-spending clubs and provide fans with a deeper understanding of how success is achieved. As we move forward to the later seasons, it will be intriguing to see how spending and performance trends develop in the years to come.”