5 top European clubs that made a profit in the summer transfer window

Ever since 2013, the annual spending in the summer transfer window in Europe's top five leagues has increased to set new records every year. Back then they had just breached the €2 billion barrier.

2017 saw clubs shatter last season's record by €1.4 billion! The summer transfer window alone saw €5.1 billion spent and the overall spending in 2017 stands at €5.9 billion. Such was the carefree spending that football saw as more money was poured into the game.

With this kind of manic spending, a number of clubs saw their balance go into the negative as their buys far outweighed the sales. However, a select few clubs did manage to make a profit for a number of reasons.

1) Arsenal

Stoke City v Arsenal - Premier League — Arsene Wenger has been criticised for not spending on new players in the market

Money spent: €53m
Money received: €68.7m
Balance: +€15.7m

Ever since their move to the Emirates Stadium in 2006, Arsenal have been a selling club for the majority of those years. They didn't have a choice with the club saddled with debt, selling players to make a profit.

But that is no longer the situation and fans have a right to be angry with the club for not spending enough in the market when the team clearly needs improvement in several areas. This squad finished fifth last season and missed out on the Champions League for the first time in years.

And the only business Wenger did was to bring in a forward and a left-back. While signing Alexandre Lacazette (€53m) was a welcome move and Sead Kolasinac came for free, fans were left disappointed as the Gunners failed in the €100m pursuit of Monaco's Thomas Lemar.

There were also reports that there was no cash left over for major signings (not in terms of transfer fees but wages). This made it all the more difficult to get big-name signings towards the end of the window unless they trimmed the squad.

But they did sell first-team players such as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wojciech Szczesny, Gabriel and Kieran Gibbs which saw them make a healthy profit - one that could condemn them to another finish outside the top four judging by their start to the season.