What is the common feature between Dele Alli, Renato Sanches, Christian Pulisic and Gianluigi Donnarumma? They are all the most experienced players in their age group among those under contract with clubs of 31 top division leagues of UEFA member associations. Issue number 176 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the top 20 list in the experience rankings for players born in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999.

Issue number 175 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents a networked representation of fee paying deals having involved big-5 league teams during the last transfer window. Clubs in the five major European championships have invested a record amount of 742 million € to sign new players. The previous record, 523 million €, was established in 2011.

Issue number 174 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents players who made their debut in the professional game after July 1st 2016 fielded during the current season in domestic league matches by a big-5 league club. The analysis notably highlights the key role played by the French top division in the promotion of young talents.

Issue number 173 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the gap between the value of squads and transfer fee expenditure to assemble them. This analysis allows us highlighting the most and least efficient clubs from a player economic valorisation perspective. For the vast majority of teams, the gap is positive. Indeed, the study does not take into account costs that the replacement of squad members would generate.

Neymar is by far the big-5 league player with the highest transfer value. The Brazilian prodigy outranks Lionel Messi and Paul Pogba. Data presented in issue number 172 of the Weekly Post is computed by means of the exclusive CIES Football Observatory transfer value algorithm.

Year after year, the CIES Football Observatory research team has developed a powerful approach for the technical analysis of player performance. On the basis of this methodology, issue number 171 of the Weekly Post presents the 10 best performing big-5 league players per position. Cristiano Ronaldo heads the table for forwards ahead of Lionel Messi.

Issue number 170 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the number of players fielded in domestic league matches from July 1st 2016 onwards by clubs in 31 top division leagues of UEFA member associations. The record values were observed for the Finnish champions Mariehamn (17 players) and the Croatian side RNK Split (37 players).

Issue number 169 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post highlights clubs whose footballers have played the most minutes in national A-team matches in 2016. At the top of the table is Juventus. Throughout the year, twenty-one players from the Italian team have taken part in 157 international matches for a total of 12,454 minutes.

Issue number 168 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 footballers born on or after January 1st 1997 who played so far the highest percentage of minutes in 31 top division European leagues. Among the four players fielded for 100% of minutes are three goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan), Alban Lafont (Toulouse) and Adam Jakubech (Spartak Trnava).

Brazil tops the list of countries with the most expatriates in 31 top division championships of UEFA member associations. France heads the table at big-5 league level. All data is available in issue number 167 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post.

Issue number 166 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks European teams according to the average age of line-ups fielded in domestic league matches since July 1st 2016. Danish side Nordsjælland heads the table at the level of 31 top division European leagues (22.1 years), while Toulouse tops the big-5 league rankings (23.4 years).

Issue number 185 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the stability of squads in 31 top division leagues of UEFA member associations. The championships surveyed are compared according to the percentage of players who joined the first team squad of their employer team after January 1st 2016.

The presence of club-trained footballers greatly varies throughout Europe. Issue number 164 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks 31 top division championships of UEFA member associations according to the percentage of club-trained players in squads.

Issue number 163 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the annual list of the most productive training clubs. At the head of the rankings for big-5 league players is Real Madrid, while Dutch side Ajax tops the table for footballers in 31 top division European championships.

Real Madrid squad members were on average recruited at the age of 22.5 years. This is the lowest figure at big-5 league level. Issue number 162 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the data for the 98 clubs from the five major European championships. German and English teams are over-represented in the top positions of the rankings.

Issue number 161 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post compares big-5 league teams according to the number of players in their current squad signed after January 1st 2016. The best performing teams recruited fewer footballers than the less competitive ones. German champions Bayern Munich only signed two players.

Issue number 160 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the percentage of domestic league minutes played by national footballers* since the start of the season. At the top of the table is Osasuna (97%), while Udinese is at the bottom (1%).

Transfer expenditure at the top of the football pyramid has significantly grown in recent years. Issue number 159 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the sums spent in transfer fees by big-5 league teams to assemble their current squad. In football history, no club has invested as much as Manchester United this season to make up its roster: €718 million (+€185 million compared to last season).

The 158th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the beneficiaries of transfer investments made by big-5 league clubs. Between 2010 and 2016, roughly two thirds of the fees were paid out to other teams taking part in the five major European championships. This percentage varies between 63% in Italy and 70% in England.

Issue number 157 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 teams having generated the most income from the transfer of players to big-5 league clubs since 2010. Liverpool tops the rankings with €442 million, ahead of Valencia (€432 million), Juventus (€415 million) and Benfica (€414 million).

Issue number 156 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the table of clubs who spent the most on transfer fees since 2010 and in 2016. In both cases, Manchester City heads the rankings: €1 billion since 2010 and €231 million in 2016 (including add-ons). In the former table, Guardiola’s team outranks Chelsea (€871 million) and Manchester United (€841 million).

Issue number 155 of the Weekly Post presents the most profitable transfers of the summer from a selling club perspective. The highest gaps between fees paid (add-ons included) and amounts estimated via the CIES Football Observatory algorithm were measured for Gonzalo Higuaín at individual level (+ €23.8 million) and Sevilla FC at team level (+ €34.9 million).

While the transfer window did not yet come to an end, it is already possible to have a good idea of the profile of squads assembled by clubs. Issue number 154 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the average age per team of players fielded in domestic league games. Up until now, the youngest team at big-5 league level is Nice: 23.3 years. Tottenham heads the English Premier League ranking.

According to the CIES Football Observatory exclusive algorithm, the transfer value of players in the English squad amounts to €751 million. This figures is over €500 million for four other teams: France (€697 million), Spain (€639 million), Germany (€601 million) and Belgium (€550 million). Issue number 153 of the Weekly Post presents the data for all nations.

Issue number 152 of the Weekly Post unveils the exclusive CIES Football Observatory list of the 100 big-5 league players with the highest values from a transfer fee perspective. Besides Lionel Messi, seven other footballers had on June 1st 2016 a transfer value of more than €100 million.

Issue number 151 of the Weekly Post ranks big-5 league clubs according to the average transfer cost per player fielded. Leicester City was crowned despite the third lowest transfer expenditure at English Premier League level (€2.7 million per player). Conversely, Newcastle United could not avoid relegation despite having on average played with the 8th costliest line-up (€7.9 million per player).

David Silva heads the CIES Football Observatory table of the best performing big-5 league attacking midfielders. Manchester City’s Spaniard outranks Mesut Özil (Arsenal) and Henrik Mkhitaryan (Dortmund). In the top three positions for forwards are Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Zlatan Ibrahimovi? (Paris St-Germain) and Neymar (Barcelona). Issue number 150 of the Weekly Post presents the top 10 for both positions.

Issue number 149 the Weekly Post presents the best performing central midfielders of the big-5 league season. According to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory methodology, at the top three positions of the rankings for defensive midfielders are Arturo Vidal (Bayern), Xabi Alonso (Bayern) and Lucas Biglia (Lazio). Mousa Dembélé (Tottenham), Blaise Matuidi (Paris St-Germain) and?lkayGündo?an(Dortmund) head the box-to-box midfielder table.

Issue number 148 the Weekly Post highlights the best performing defenders of the 2015/16 season in the five major European leagues. According to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory statistical approach, at the top three positions of the centre back table are Mats Hummels (Dortmund), Thiago Silva (Paris St-Germain) andNicolásOtamendi (Manchester City). Filipe Luís (Atlético Madrid), Philipp Lahm (Bayern) and Dani Alves (Barcelone) head the full back rankings.

Issue number 147 the Weekly Post presents the best performing goalkeepers of the big-5 league season. The ranking notably takes into account the number of goals conceded per match and the percentage of saves. At the top of the table is German world champion Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), ahead of Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid) and another world champion, the Italian legend Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus).

Leicester City’s success during current Premier League season has been outstanding. The analysis of the percentage of long balls out of total passes confirms the exceptional feature of Claudio Ranieri’s team. While the percentage of long balls for the best performing teams generally does not exceed 3%, this figure is almost 7% for Leicester. This is the highest level in the English Premier League and the third highest in the big-5 European leagues. A full set of data is available in issue number 146 of the Big-5 Weekly Post.

Issue number 145 of the Big-5 Weekly Post identifies young players active in the five major European leagues eligible for England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy who have more experience than current full internationals of those nations had at the same age. Among them notably are Nathan Redmond (Norwich),SaúlÑíguez (Atlético Madrid), Johannes Geis (Schalke 04), Samuel Umititi (Olympique Lyonnais) and Stefano Sturaro (Juventus).

Issue number 144 of the CIES Football Observatory Big-5 Weekly Post compares clubs according to the percentage of their current squad members who have been signed from abroad. At the top of the table is Chelsea (75% of players), followed by Monaco (73%) and Manchester City (69%). Sassuolo is the only big-5 league team who signed all squad members from national based clubs. The English Premier League gathers the most footballers recruited from abroad: 43.1%.

Players fielded by France since June 2015 have played 66,961 minutes in the big-5 leagues during the current season. This is the highest figure among teams qualified for the Euro 2016 tournament, ahead of Italy, Spain, England and Germany. Since last June, Didier Deschamps has fielded 35 footballers who have played during the current season in the big-5 leagues (34 for England). Issue number 143 of the Weekly Post presents data for all the national sides.

Issue number 142 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the median stay of coaches at the head of teams in the five major European leagues. Arsène Wenger stands alone, having managed Arsenal for 233 months. This is almost six times more than the second coach with the highest longevity in the English Premier League: Eddie Howe (Bournemouth). At big-5 league level, the second coach with the longest stay is Christophe Galtier (St-Etienne): 75 months.

Issue number 141 of the Weekly Post presents the highest experience capital for players born in or after 1995. Six players born in 1997 employed by clubs outside the big-5 leagues have greater experience than any footballer born in the same year playing in the five major championships: Rúben Neves (Porto), Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht), Breel Embolo (Basle), Enes Ünal (NAC Breda, on loan from Manchester City), Ante ?ori? (Dinamo Zagreb) and Renato Sanches (Benfica).