It could take half a season for a footballer to adjust to a new team following a big money transfer to a new league according to analysis by The University of Manchester based on Opta data provided by a Premier League club.

University students have used in-depth performance data to define how long it takes football players to find their form when transferring between clubs in Europe’s biggest leagues.

This year’s all-English Champions League final marked the cessation of European men’s club football for another season. Like clockwork the back-pages became flooded with footballing transfer gossip and eye-watering sums of money for sought after stars throughout the summer.

Now a University of Manchester project in association with a Premier League club has delved into a huge data set to determine the time it takes for players to settle-in when transitioning to a different league in a new country. The team found that not only are there differences in transition times between the leagues, but the position of the player also heavily impacts on their initial form.

Speculation in the transfer market isn’t an exact science, but new data analysis suggests it could be. With access to a wealth of valuable data from Opta, the team found several striking statistics based on years of comparative information on individual performances.

Upon transferring a forward player to England from another European league, a Premier League club can expect that player to take 6 matches to adjust if they transfer from Spain, or 18 matches if they transfer from France or the Netherlands. Whereas for a defender, there is no adjustment period if they transfer to England from Spain, but they might take nine matches if they come from the German Bundesliga.