Juventus were knocked out of the Champions League by a Villarreal starting XI that was purchased for less than Arthur Melo alone, while the current squad costs over €300m compared to €125m for the Spaniards.
The Bianconeri were thrashed 3-0 at home by the Yellow Submarine in the second leg of the Round of 16, making this the third year in a row they have crumbled at this stage of the tournament.
After Ajax and FC Porto, Villarreal are another side who on paper Juventus should’ve been able to push past relatively easily, but found the reality to be very different.
Tuttomercatoweb calculated the transfer fees of the starting XI that played in Turin last night and found the total reached €53.4m.
Their most expensive signing of that group was Arnaut Danjuma at €24m.
In comparison, Juventus paid €76m to get Arthur from Barcelona, although Miralem Pjanic was used as part-exchange.
Arthur is not even the most expensive player in the Bianconeri squad, as Dusan Vlahovic cost €81.6m from Fiorentina in January and Matthijs De Ligt was purchased from Ajax in the summer of 2019 for €85.5m.
Sky Sport Italia calculated the cost of the entire Juventus squad including salaries and amortisation is over €300m, compared to Villarreal’s total of €125m.