Every £20m+ sale ever made by a Premier League club
After bringing you the 111 players signed by Premier League clubs for a fee of £20million or more, it is time to document those sold for the same price. English clubs have sold 62 players for £20m or more during their time in the top flight, because we do really well at the spending loads of money, but less well at doing the selling.
We have looked not only at the 20 current Premier League clubs, but the teams who sanctioned sales worth £20m or more when they were Premier League clubs. Here’s to you, Aston Villa…
Crystal Palace – 1
Yannick Bolasie – £25m (to Everton in August 2016)
Leeds – 1
Rio Ferdinand – £29.3m (to Manchester United in July 2002)
Portsmouth – 1
Lassana Diarra – £20m (to Real Madrid in January 2009)
Sunderland – 1
Jordan Pickford – £25m (to Everton in June 2017)
Watford – 1
Odion Ighalo – £20m (to Chungchun Yatai in January 2017)
West Ham – 1
Dimitri Payet – £25m (to Marseille in January 2017)
Burnley – 1
Michael Keane – £25m (to Everton in July 2017)
Stoke City – 1
Marko Arnatouvic – £20m (to West Ham in August 2017)
Leicester – 2
N’Golo Kante – £30m (to Chelsea in July 2016)
Danny Drinkwater – £34m (to Chelsea in August 2017)
Swansea – 3
Wilfried Bony – £25m (to Manchester City in January 2015)
Andre Ayew – £20.5m (to West Ham in August 2016)
Gylfi Sigurdsson – £45m (to Everton in August 2017)
Bony and Ayew scored a combined 47 goals in 105 games, signed for £12million, and were sold for £40.5m. Not bad business, that. So too with Gylfi…
Aston Villa – 3
James Milner – £26m (to Manchester City in August 2010)
Stewart Downing – £20m (to Liverpool in July 2011)
Christian Benteke – £32.5m (to Liverpool in July 2015)
Four English clubs currently outside of the Premier League have sold players for £20million or more. Aston Villa are the only side to do it more than once.
Newcastle – 3
Andy Carroll – £35m (to Liverpool in January 2011)
Georginio Wijnaldum – £25m (to Liverpool in July 2016)
Moussa Sissoko – £30m (to Tottenham in September 2016)
Newcastle must get awfully excited when they see Liverpool strolling through the St James’ Park gates. Even Daniel Levy struggled to negotiate with Mike Ashley and his cronies.
Tottenham – 4
Dimitar Berbatov – £30.75m (to Manchester United in September 2008)
Luka Modric – £30m (to Real Madrid in August 2012)
Gareth Bale – £86.3m (to Real Madrid in August 2013)
Kyle Walker – £46m (to Manchester City in July 2017)
The first time in four years that Tottenahm have sold a player for £20m or more. The start of a trend?
Manchester City – 4
Shaun Wright-Phillips – £21m (to Chelsea in July 2005)
Mario Balotelli – £22m (to AC Milan in January 2013)
Alvaro Negredo – £23.8m (to Valencia in July 2015)
Kelechi Iheanacho – £24m (to Leicester City in August 2017)
Manchester City do plenty of the signing – they have bought 28 players for £20m or more – but they understandably struggle a little more with the selling.
Everton – 4
Wayne Rooney – £27m (to Manchester United in September 2004)
Joleon Lescott – £22m (to Manchester City in August 2009)
Marouane Fellaini – £27.5m (to Manchester United in September 2013)
John Stones – £47.5m (to Manchester City in August 2016)
Romelu Lukaku – £75m (to Manchester United in July 2017)
Manchester club, is it? That will be £20m or more, please…
Manchester United – 4
David Beckham – £24.5m (to Real Madrid in June 2003)
Cristiano Ronaldo – £80m (to Real Madrid in June 2009)
Angel di Maria – £44.3m (to PSG in August 2015)
Morgan Schneiderlin – £20m (to Everton in January 2017)
Sir Alex Ferguson accounts for two of Manchester United’s £20m+ sales; Louis van Gaal lays claim to one; Jose Mourinho is responsible for the other. Bloody David Moyes.
Southampton – 5
Luke Shaw – £27m (to Manchester United in June 2014)
Adam Lallana – £25m (to Liverpool in July 2014)
Dejan Lovren – £20m (to Liverpool in July 2014)
Morgan Schneiderlin – £25m (to Manchester United in July 2015)
Sadio Mane – £34m (to Liverpool in June 2016)
THEY DIDN’T ADD TO THIS LIST THIS SUMMER! TAKE THAT, VIRGIL VAN DIJK…
Liverpool – 6
Xabi Alonso – £30m (to Real Madrid in August 2009)
Fernando Torres – £50m (to Chelsea in January 2011)
Luis Suarez – £65m (to Barcelona in July 2014)
Raheem Sterling – £44m (to Manchester City in July 2015)
Christian Benteke – £27m (to Crystal Palace in August 2016)
Mamadou Sakho – £26m (to Crystal Palace in August 2017)
Liverpool signed the first five on this list for a combined £85.9m; they sold them for £216m. When they get it right, they get it right. When they get it wrong, they get Iago Aspas.
Arsenal – 7
Nicolas Anelka – £22.3m (to Real Madrid in August 1999)
Marc Overmars – £25m (to Barcelona in July 2000)
Emmanuel Adebayor – £25m (to Manchester City in July 2009)
Cesc Fabregas – £25.4m (to Barcelona in August 2011)
Samir Nasri – £25m (to Manchester City in August 2011)
Robin van Persie – £24m (to Manchester United in August 2012)
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – £35m (to Liverpool in August 2017)
Four current Premier League clubs have sold more players for at least £20m than they have bought for that fee or more. Newcastle, Swansea and Watford all have a decent excuse. Arsenal keep them company.
Chelsea – 9
Arjen Robben – £24m (to Real Madrid in August 2007)
Juan Mata – £37.1m (to Manchester United in January 2014)
David Luiz – £40m (to PSG in June 2014)
Romelu Lukaku – £28m (to Everton in July 2014)
Andre Schurrle – £22m (to Wolfsburg in January 2015)
Ramires – £25m (to Jiangsu Suning in January 2016)
Oscar – £52m (to Shanghai SIPG in January 2017)
Nathan Ake – £20m (to Bournemouth in June 2017)
Nemanja Matic – £40m (to Manchester United in August 2017)
Ladies and gentlemen, your kings of flogging off unwanted players for ridiculous prices. But did they cock up with Matic?
Matt Stead