Squad retention in the big European leagues
Which squad have lost the most minutes from last season
Update: This is intended to be the final version, but if there are any last-minute departures to leagues whose windows are still open then I’ll refresh this.
Seeing as the Premier League and EFL squad retention graphics have been so popular, I’ve also run them for some of the other big European leagues to see how their numbers compare.
If you haven’t seen these before, there’s a full explanation in the post linked above, but they’re quite easy to follow. Each club’s minutes from last season have been divided up into segments by player, with faded segments indicating those who have since moved on.
In total I’ve looked at six leagues: the other four members of the “big five” - i.e. the top tiers of Spain, Italy, Germany and France - plus those in Netherlands and Portugal for good measure.
I’ve chosen to rely entirely on Transfermarkt: each club’s current squad list has been compared against the minutes accumulated in league matches last season to calculate what proportion of playing time has been retained.
Serie A
Tackling these in descending UEFA coefficient order, most of Italy’s top teams look to have kept the core of their squads together. The notable exception is Milan, who have undergone more churn than every team except Verona and will be missing two of their three most-used players from 2024-25. Tijjani Reijnders has been sold to Man City and Theo Hernández to Al Hilal.
Two of the three promoted teams - Sassuolo and Cremonese - will each have to make do without two of their three most-used players, most of whom were loanees.
La Liga
In the Spanish top tier, Mallorca and Vallecano both made huge strides last season - going from relegation danger to top half finishes - and have managed to hold onto most of their players.
Barcelona are the least-changed of the main title challengers so far, although Atlético Madrid’s departures have mostly been fringe players. Their local rivals Espanyol are at the other end of the chart, having lost three of their six most-used players from last season. Two were loanees and the third - ever-present goalkeeper Joan García - has been poached by Barça.
Bundesliga
In the German top flight, last season’s runners-up Leverkusen will look very different this time around. Six of their eight most-used players having departed: Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong (both to Liverpool), Granit Xhaka, Jonathan Tah, Lukas Hradecky and Piero Hincapié.
Leipzig are without three of their five most-used players from 2024-25: Benjamin Šeško and Xavi Simons have moved to the Premier League while Loïs Openda has gone to Juventus.
Ligue 1
It’s no surprise to see French (and European) champions PSG being able to retain the majority of last season’s minutes, but it’s interesting that neighbours Paris FC have kept the faith with the majority of their promotion-winning squad.
Nantes finished close to the relegation zone for the third year running and will now have to do without the core of last season’s team, with four of their five most-used players departing.
Fellow relegation battle survivors Le Havre will also look very different on the pitch this season, although they have retained their core: six of their seven most-used players still remain at the club.
Eredivisie
There has already been plenty of significant movement near the summit of the Dutch top tier, with both champions PSV and third-placed Feyenoord set to line up quite differently. Both clubs have lost three of their four most-used players, with PSV the most-changed side of all.
Another Rotterdam side - Excelsior - have retained six of the seven core players from their successful promotion campaign but shed most of the rest.
Primeira Liga
I’ve unintentionally saved the weirdest for last, as newly-promoted Alverca have jettisoned their entire squad apart from one player. I thought this was a bug in the code at first, but you can see from their squad page that virtually everyone on the list has joined this summer. Attacking midfielder Diogo Martins is the only surviving first-team member from 2024-25.
While Viktor Gyökeres’ departure from Sporting attracted a lot of headlines, their team is the most intact of the traditional “big three”.
Benfica have lost two of their four most-used players, with Álvaro Carreras being sold to Real Madrid and Orkun Kökçü heading to Beşiktaş. Porto have cleared out a lot of their backups but have held onto their seven most-used players.