Promoted clubs lead Europe’s value-for-money ranking
IMAGO | After securing promotion to Serie A last season, Frosinone Calcio have been the most efficient club in Europe’s ‘big five’ this season, getting the most value for their money.
The Recap
Newly promoted clubs are among the biggest overachievers in Europe’s top five leagues so far this season.
Data Insight
Frosinone top the ranking across all five leagues with 20 points against an expected total of seven.
Why It Matters
Even in Europe’s top leagues, clubs have very different budgets, and comparing actual points with expected points highlights those punching above their weight.
The Perspective
The value-for-money ranking is free to access and updated every week during the season.
11 November 2026 - 3:00 PM
With the second international break of the season upon us, we have ranked every club in Europe’s top five leagues by how many points they have collected compared with what their money should have bought them.
One clear takeaway is that several of the clubs getting the most out of their resources are either new to their league or have only spent a season or two there.
To build the ranking, which we update every week, we give every club a financial strength score based on the value of their squad at the start of the season and their estimated wage bill for 2026/27.
For each match, we use the difference in financial strength between the two clubs, adjusted for home advantage, to calculate each club’s chances of winning, drawing or losing. Those probabilities tell us how many points each club could expect to earn from the match.
The gap between expected points and actual points shows which clubs are getting more or less out of their resources than their financial strength would predict.
Frosinone lead the way in Italy
In Serie A, we find a newly promoted side and one of Italy’s traditional big clubs at the top of the value-for-money ranking.
Frosinone are back in Serie A for the first time since 2023/24 and go into the break in sixth place after a flying start. The club changed hands this summer, when Clara Vista Investment Partners bought an 80 per cent stake, and Frosinone have since spent more than €30 million on new players. They broke their transfer record twice in the same window, first with Romano Schmid for €8.5 million and then with Thomas Bobcek for €10.7 million.
Lazio are just behind Frosinone in our ranking and lead the Serie A table, where they remain unbeaten.
At the other end of the ranking, Juventus are the least efficient club in Italy. Their 18 points are almost 10 short of what their financial strength would predict.
Newcomers in France, Germany and Spain
The same pattern of clubs new to their league getting more out of their resources than their financial strength would predict shows up in Ligue 1, the Bundesliga and LaLiga.
In France, Liam Rosenior’s Paris FC are the most efficient club and sit third in the league after ten matches.
In Germany, Elversberg top the efficiency ranking in their first ever season in the top division. With 13 points from nine matches, they sit seventh in the Bundesliga. Freiburg are second in the German efficiency ranking and only two points off the top of the Bundesliga, while also playing in the Conference League.
The pattern holds in LaLiga too. Deportivo La Coruña and Racing Santander rank second and third for efficiency after returning to the top flight following absences of eight and 14 years respectively.
Further down the ranking, several clubs have already changed managers. Le Havre have only two points, the fewest of any club in Europe’s top five leagues, and are the least efficient club in France. Their head coach left last week, and the sporting director and president have also gone.
IMAGO | Within two days, Le Havre lost their president, sporting director and head coach.
Mönchengladbach, bottom of both the Bundesliga and the ranking, recently sacked Eugen Polanski and appointed Alexander Blessin.
Patience in the Premier League
The Premier League is the only one of the top five leagues where no club has changed manager yet, even though it has several of the least efficient clubs in Europe.
Brighton top the Premier League’s efficiency ranking. They have the eighth most valuable squad in the league but only the 13th largest wage bill, and the model puts them on 12 expected points.
As in the other leagues, newly promoted clubs feature near the top of the ranking, with two of the three among the Premier League’s five most efficient clubs.
Hull City have been the most efficient of the three since opening day, when they beat Manchester United 2-0 at home, and are now 13th in the league with 11 points. Ipswich Town are also in the top five for efficiency, while Coventry City slipped just outside it over the weekend.
Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, Chelsea and Manchester United make up the bottom five in the efficiency ranking. All five have large wage bills and highly valued squads, so the model expects them to pick up more points than most clubs.
