Manchester City has spent a record €878m (£777m) on player recruitment according to data collected by CIES Football Observatory, reports www.fcbusiness.co.uk

The Premier League leaders have invested heavily in their current squad with the acquisition of Aymeric Laporte for £57m at the end of the January transfer window the latest in a number of high profile, and costly buys for the club.

According to the figures, City outranks Paris St-Germain who spent £710m (€805m), Manchester United £660m (€747m) and Barcelona £641m (€725m) – the only clubs to have spent more than £600m (€700m) to assemble their current squad.

The average amounts invested in transfer fees by each of the 'big-5 leagues in Europe varies greatly with just £85m (€97m) for clubs in the French Ligue 1, to a record high of £257m (€291m) at English Premier League level.

The figures in the three other competitions of the big-5 are more balanced: £100m (€113m) for the German Bundesliga, £109m (€124m) for the Italian Serie A and £115 (€131m) for the Spanish Liga.

In total, 42 clubs out of 98 have a squad recruitment cost of more than £88m (€100m).