Current Manchester United and Manchester City squad members have played 120 national A-team matches in 2015. This is the record figure at big-5 league level. In third position is Chelsea (111), ahead of Paris St-Germain (106) and Barcelona (99). Seven out of the 10 top ranked clubs qualified for the Champions League knockout stages. The full set of results is presented in issue number 129 of the Weekly Post.

Issue number 128 of the Weekly Post analyses the average day of birth of players for each club of the five major European leagues. In 23 teams only, this date is after July 1st. This is the average date of birth of the typical citizen. The extreme values were recorded at Fiorentina (20 April) and Southampton (11 August). This confirms the existence of a selection bias in football, which favours players born in the first months of the year.

Issue number 127 of the Weekly Post presents data on the average transfer fee invested per player fielded. Four clubs stand apart: Real Madrid (€30.7 million), Manchester City (28.3), Manchester United (27.4) and Paris St-Germain (27.1). Only in two other clubs is the average transfer expenditure for players on the pitch above €20 million: Chelsea (21.9) and Barcelona (21.3). This figure is only €2.5 million for Leicester City.

Playing a significant number of matches from the start of a professional career is a key success factor for football players. Issue number 126 of the Weekly Post unveils the rankings of teams who played the most important role in the development of current big-5 league players. At the head of the European table is Real Madrid Castilla. Southampton contributed most to the development of English Premier League footballers.

Issue number 125 of the Weekly Post presents the rankings of clubs who have trained the most players under contract with teams in the five major European leagues. At the top of the table is Barcelona (44 players), ahead of Olympique Lyonnais (35) and Real Madrid (34). Munich 1860 heads the rankings of non-big-5 league clubs (18 players). The second division German club outranks River Plate (17) and Lens (16).

Issue number 124 of the Weekly Post reveals the rankings of the best performing players since the start of the big-5 league season. At the head of the tables for the five outfield positions considered are Otamendi (centre backs), Aurier (full backs), Cazorla (defensive midfielders), Özil (attacking midfielders) and Lewandowski (forwards). The rankings are based on a purely data-driven and objective methodology developed by the CIES Football Observatory research team.