Arsenal signing is one of biggest Premier League underpays of the summer 2025 transfer window

Chelsea and Liverpool have both found value in the transfer market by underpaying for a couple of players each, while Arsenal have a bargain of their own.

While the biggest Premier League overpays in the 2025 summer transfer window can fairly easily be guessed, their counterparts are a little tougher to predict in terms of players signed under their market value.

A few factors go into that assessment. Age, performance level and experience are inevitably taken into account but the number of interested teams, general market trends and the reputation and status of the leagues the selling and buying clubs belong to can also heavily dictate that that final market value number.

Outside of players bought out of expiring contracts slightly earlier for Club World Cup purposes – the Trent Alexander-Arnolds of this world – many of the biggest underpays have been made by Premier League clubs according to the numbers crunched by the fine folk at Transfermarkt.

Estevao Willian (Palmeiras to Chelsea)

Fee: £29m rising to £52m
Transfermarkt valuation at the time: £52m

It would be no shock whatsoever if Chelsea genuinely based their bids for players on such algorithms. And ultimately if Estevao does trigger the £23m in add-ons which would bring the cost of his signing into line with his market value in 2025, his actual worth at that point will be exponentially higher.

That is certainly the plan for a player who agreed to join Chelsea after a phone call from Mauricio Pochettino. While hardly the first player to sign under a manager who has left before they have a chance to work together, it is a curious start to life in England.

Facing Chelsea in his final appearance for the club which nurtured him so masterfully only added to the peculiarity of the move.

Enzo Maresca called that a “perfect night” as Chelsea reached the lucrative Club World Cup final despite Estevao scoring a Palmeiras equaliser against his imminent employers.

But by inheriting the teenage forward Maresca has the enviable task of helping Estevao “adapt” and realise anything close to the potential which had him linked with Europe’s biggest clubs.

Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool)

Fee: £100m rising to £116m
Transfermarkt valuation at the time: £121.3m

There are clauses which once again muddy the picture somewhat but the relative haste with which Liverpool completed a possible British record move – and their continued spending since – has helped dilute the ludicrousness of their Wirtz capture.

Liverpool should not really have stood a chance against Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Manchester City but Arne Slot’s tactics, Liverpool’s facilities and the “freedom” on offer with the Premier League champions swayed a bona fide star.

It is unknown precisely what is required to activate the £16m in add-ons but it would be reasonable to suggest they are linked not to appearances, goals and assists but rather trophies of the team and individual variety.

If they are indeed triggered the overwhelming likelihood would be that Wirtz was central to more sustained Liverpool success.

Paying £100m for a footballer never sat easy with Jurgen Klopp but after keeping their powder almost entirely dry in the summer the German left, Wirtz represents their historic loosening of the purse strings.

Jeremie Frimpong (Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool)

Fee: £29.5m
Transfermarkt valuation at the time: £43.3m

He will have already found kinship with Frimpong, who paved the path from Leverkusen to Liverpool before May was even out.

The Dutchman’s return to the Premier League after nine years in the Manchester City academy had long felt inevitable. His homegrown status, allied with an eye-catching attacking flair at wing-back, made him a tantalising prospect.

Even during his time at Celtic it seemed as though Frimpong could make the grade at a higher level and he proved as such over four-and-a-half years in Germany; only three players made more appearances in the Almost Invincibles Season of 2023/24, including Wirtz.

There is some scepticism as to whether Liverpool really needed to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold with another ultra-attacking right-back with defensive frailties but that release clause made it too tempting an opportunity to pass up.

Cristian Mosquera (Valencia to Arsenal)

Fee: £13m rising to plus add-ons
Transfermarkt valuation at the time: £26.2m

While never intended to be the final piece in the puzzle, Mosquera represents Arsenal’s continued work trying to fill out the background. Squad depth has been a problem in recent seasons and much of this summer has been spent trying to avoid history repeating itself.

The belief is that Mosquera can pad out their defensive ranks in a far more cost-effective way than leading targets Dean Huijsen and Marc Guehi. With no such Premier League tax to pay on the 21-yeat-old as there would have been with either of those players, it meant the budget could be spread better elsewhere.

Considering the numbers involved, it is difficult to see how the deal backfires. If Mosquera does not realise his immense potential then £13m was a risk worth taking and most of that should be made back even in the worst-case scenario by a club weirdly atrocious at selling players.

But the alternative is that Mosquera grows into the confident, versatile and gifted defender most expected him to become in Spain, taking the Jakub Kiwior route to trusted first-team option.

Rayan Cherki (Lyon to Manchester City)

Fee: £30.45m rising to £34m
Transfermarkt valuation at the time: £39m

Those pre-Club World Cup signings really do fall into a bit of a blind spot. Manchester City were the biggest summer spenders at one point but have been overtaken by a handful of sides after their early June splurge.

Tijani Reijnders might form the basis of a cogent argument but Cherki still feels like the most intriguing addition to Pep Guardiola’s refreshed pack. Even beyond the battle with Wirtz which promises to become laborious within a few weeks of the season starting, his brand of inventive, individualistic, dribbling-led creativity is precisely the sort this manager supposedly stifles.

But as Jack Grealish nears his Etihad end and the era of De Bruyne comes to a close, Manchester City needed a change. Cherki might be their most narratively interesting signing at the very least since Erling Haaland changed the equation.

That Cherki arrived in the Premier League discussing his Ballon d’Or prospects underlines his quality and confidence. It could easily go wrong, but at a fee which will not rank among the 20 biggest paid this summer it is a potential bargain and absolutely worth the risk.

Liam Delap (Ipswich to Chelsea)

Fee: £30m
Transfermarkt valuation at the time: £34.7m

The lesson here is that release clauses are starting to have a significant influence on the market. Although it should be said that in the case of Delap, the insertion of such fine print in his Ipswich contract always made his Portman Road move essentially an expensive loan.

Ipswich paid £20m to Manchester City for the striker, who was thought to have a £40m release clause in his deal which would drop to £30m upon relegation.

Twelve goals and two assists in his first Premier League season, while leading the line for a promoted side otherwise lacking firepower, was always going to spark a summer auction.

Chelsea emerged victorious despite interest from most of England’s top flight, as Delap appreciated “the stature of this club and the trajectory it is on with these players and the head coach”.

He helped the Blues win the Club World Cup within a few weeks of his arrival and really could be the madman striker they need to reach the next level.