No rivalry in world football has the same glitz and glamour as the Manchester Derby.
Despite the city's working-class roots, it now houses two of the wealthiest clubs on the planet and both sets of owners have spent big in the transfer market in recent years.
The financial backing has led to very different results on the pitch, though. While City stand as a shining example of how to run a football club when you have a bottomless pit of resources, United have wasted a lot of cash and are now some way behind their old foes.
Recent research conducted by our friends at the Football Observatory really hammered home just how much money that has been splashed in the red and sky blue halves of Manchester in recent years.
The current City squad, for instance, was assembled for a staggering €1.08bn. Meanwhile, United only had to spend €1.02bn of their gaggle of perennial underachievers.
This means the Manchester clubs possess the two most expensively-assembled squads in world football. Only fellow moneybags Paris Saint-Germain come close to rivalling them – their current side was assembled for €939m.
A significant portion of City's value is down to the arrival of Jack Grealish in summer 2021. Although he has underwhelmed somewhat this season, the former Aston Villa man cost in a excess of £100m – a British transfer record.
The most expensive member of United's current squad is Paul Pogba, who tipped the scales at slightly less than £90m in August 2016.
For more from Matt O’Connor-Simpson, follow him on Twitter
Source : 90min