Highest spending division - but 1st time no English teams in UCL or UEL semis since 2015

This week football fans witnessed another set of dramatic and eye-catching European quarter-finals, as the best clubs on the continent made their bids to make it to the last four of the Champions League, the Europa League and the Europa Conference League. In the Champions League quarter-finals, there was 32 goals across the eight games in both legs - an average of four goals per game. However for the English teams, and the divisions chances of gaining a fifth Champions League place next season, it was a disastrous week.

Both Manchester City and Arsenal crashed out of the Champions League at the hands of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich respectively. Whilst, Liverpool and West Ham were eliminated from the Europa League by Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen respectively. The Premier League is the division that has spent by far the most money on transfer fees in recent seasons. It also dominates the most valuable leagues in world football, with a total market value of €11.09 billion, leaving the division way out in front of second placed La Liga with a market value of €5b. But it's the first time there will be no English team in either the semi-final of the Champions League or the Europa League since 2015 - So what went wrong for the Premier League clubs this season? 

What went wrong for Premier League teams in Europe?

Just a few weeks back, many people were predicting that the Premier League was all but nailed on to get a fifth Champions League spot next season. Opta's super computer was giving England around an 80% chance. Man City were favourites to win the Champions League. Liverpool were favourites to win the Europa League. Aston Villa were favourites to win the Europa Conference League. Now Villa are the only English side still in Europe, and even Unai Emery's team needed a penalty shoot-out to progress past Lille in the quarter-finals. 

In the last ten season's there has been at least one English team in the semi-finals of the Champions League eight times. Despite that statistic, it was maybe experience that cost the Premier League teams this time around. Arsenal were playing their first Champions League quarter-final in 15 seasons against a team brimming with European experience in Bayern, and lost by just a one goal margin, with the Bavarians Champions League savvy probably the difference between the two sides. Both the English sides boasted a higher squad market value than their opponents.

Whilst Man City have begun to build up a portfolio of European experience in recent years, and of course won the Champions League last season, they were up against the most experienced team of all-time at this level in 14-time winners Real Madrid. Incredibly 'Los Blancos' have been to nine of the last 11 Champions League semi-finals - also winning it five times in that period. It took a penalty shoot-out and some inspired defending, but Carlo Ancelotti's team knocked out the holders and continued the club's incredible run in Europe's top club competition.

In the Europa League, not even the most ardent of Atalanta fan could have predicted a 3-0 win at Anfield in the first leg last week. The Serie A outfit blew Jürgen Klopp's team away on the counter-attack, and despite conceding an early goal in the home leg, saw the game out to go through 3-1 on aggregate, and end Klopp's hope of a European trophy farewell. For West Ham, they were up against one of the most impressive teams in Europe this season in Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen. Notwithstanding a superb effort at the London stadium this Thursday that saw the hammers lead until the dying minutes, a late Jeremie Frimpong goal ensured the Germans went through, and also remained unbeaten in all competitions. 

Premier League spending & market values compared to other leagues

In recent seasons, the Premier League has begun to dominate the spending in the transfer market. Other clubs from other leagues and countries simply haven't been able to keep up with the money in the English top-flight. As can be identified in the table below, in the last five seasons since the summer 1029 transfer window Premier League clubs have spent €11.14b on transfers. That's over double the amount of second placed on that list - Serie A with a €5.27b spend. It's also over triple the spend of the other three top five leagues in Ligue 1 (€3.68b) La Liga (€3.48b) and the Bundesliga (€3.29b)

As can be seen below, when we look at the highest net spends from all clubs in world football across the last five seasons, the list is dominated by English teams. In fact, 11 of the top 20 clubs are English. Leeds United, who are currently in the Championship have a higher net spend than Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona across the time period. The top five clubs with the highest net spends are also all English, with Chelsea way out in front with a net spend of €784m across the last five seasons.

As previously touched on, the Premier League has by far the highest total market value among all leagues worldwide. The league not only has a total market value of €11.09b, but has the two most valuable squads in the world in the division in Man City (€1.27b) and Arsenal (€1.12b). There's no doubt this season was an underperformance from Premier League clubs in Europe. And although not too much should be placed upon the results of knockout football, it certainly puts into perspective that the English top-flight has plenty of worthy competitors across Europe.