The club accounts aren't very clear about the amount of money spent on transfer fees. The numbers used in this graph are from the www.soccerbase.com site.
The club stopped listing how much money goes in signing on fees, and unlike many teams they don't tell anyone how much goes to agents.
It is clear that much more money would be available for transfers, or for the purpose of reducing club debt, if the large dividend payments were reduced. NUFC dividend yield has consistently been at a level that is among the highest of UK public companies. A football comparison is that in 2004 and 2003 Liverpool paid no money out in dividends.
The club finished in Champions League slot in the seasons following the big spend years of 2002 and 2003. In the two years since January 2003 nothing was spent on transfers. The policy of not spending in 2004 and 2005 meant that there was a huge need to invest in 2006, to try and catch back up.
The total net amount spent on transfer fees since 1998 is £86m or roughly an average of just under £10m per season.
