The two Manchester clubs have the costliest squad in Europe, a new research has revealed.

Manchester City have the most expensive squad in Europe with an estimated price tag of $1.07BN (€1.08BN) and narrowly edge Manchester United's valuation of $1.02BN ($1.03BN), according to the CIES Football Observatory. The figures were disclosed on Monday in the independent research body's annual analysis on the big-5 league teams' transfer fee spending to assemble their current squads.

The spending power of clubs in the Premier League still remains unmatched as far as European football is concerned. Each summer's transfer window, clubs in the English top-flight smash the division's transfer spending record and the recently ended one was no exception. The period saw the likes of Darwin Nunez, Erling Haaland, Antony dos Santos, Alexander Isak, Wesley Fofana, among others all completing big money moves to clubs in the competition.

The study by CIES Football Observatory found that the two Manchester clubs have so far invested the most cash to bolster their ranks, and are the only side to splash more than a billion dollars to assemble their current squad (possible add-ons included). However, ahead of the start of the 2020/21 season, the gap between United and City who occupy the No.1 spot reduced from $191M to just about $56M - the difference sitting at almost $135M.

Paris St-Germain made the podium, with their squad valued at $935M while Real Madrid was ranked fifth with $782M. Chelsea finished in the top five with a squad valuation of $776M with three more English Premier League teams; Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham, featuring in the top 10 in the sixth, seventh and ninth positions respectively.

Despite getting Angel Di Maria and Paul Pogba in on free transfers this summer, Juventus was ranked as the side with the ninth most-expensive squad. Barcelona, with their massive recruitment this summer, surprisingly finished in 10th position with their squad valued at $575M.

Click here to view the full list published by the CIES Football Observatory.