Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool 2025 in top 10 biggest transfer window spends ever
The top 10 transfer window spends ever has a new leader…
It has been an astonishing summer of spending from Premier League clubs.
10) Barcelona (summer 2019/20) – £235m
The club endured its worst season in years, going trophyless for the first time in over 10 years, so we wonder how much they regretted spending such eye-watering money on Frenkie de Jong but especially Antoine Griezmann. Their third-most-expensive signing that summer? Neto, of course.
9) Chelsea (summer 2022/23) – £254m
This is when we arrived in the true Chelsea banter era, with the new owners spending barely believable sums on Wesley Fofana, Raheem Sterling, Marc Cucurella and Kalidou Koulibaly. Less than three years later, only one of the signings made that summer is a Chelsea first-team regular.
READ: Chelsea usurped at top of Premier League net spend table
8) Arsenal (summer 2025/26) – £254.9m
The long-awaited and interminably drawn-out arrival of Viktor Gyokeres nudged Arsenal up towards a £200m summer but has plenty of final-piece-of-the-puzzle vibes. Then came Eberechi Eze for another £60m.
7) Chelsea (winter 2022/23) – £278m
Obviously things were going so swimmingly (they weren’t) that the sensible thing was to go again in January, with over £100m being spaffed on Enzo Fernandez, who was joined by Mykhailo Mudryk, Noni Madueke, Malo Gusto and many more. At this point, absolutely nothing made any sense anymore, but if it moved, Chelsea bought it.
6) Real Madrid (summer 2019/20) – £279m
Eden Hazard was the headline name but there was also so very much money spent on Eder Militao, Luke Jovic, Ferland Mendy and Rodrygo, with varying degrees of success. When they won the Champions League in 2022, only two of those names played a significant part.
5) Chelsea (summer 2025/26) – £282.2m
There were pre-arranged moves for Estevao, Dario Essugo, Mamadou Sarr and Kendry Paez. Throw in the £30m signing of Liam Delap and the Blues were already making very expensive waves before they signed Joao Pedro for an initial £55m and Jamie Gittens and Jorrel Hato for not much less. And then Alejandro Garnacho arrived.
4) PSG (summer 2023/24) – £295m
There was definitely money overspent – on Randal Kolo Muani and Manuel Ugarte in particular – but less than two years after that outlay, they will not regret the sums paid out for Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola and Lucas Hernandez.
3) Al-Hilal (summer 2023/24) – £298m
The Saudi summer brought – deep breath – Neymar, Aleksandar Mitrović, Ruben Neves, Sergej Milinković-Savić, Malcom, Kalidou Koulibaly and more to Al-Hilal, who promptly won the Saudi Pro League. Because of course they sodding did.
2) Chelsea (summer 2023/24) – £391m
Chelsea did not just set a new record for a transfer window spend; they obliterated it. It now seems highly unlikely that anybody will go past this figure and presumably beyond £400m over the next decade. There were 11 signings to arrive for over £10m and six for over £30m in Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Cole Palmer, Axel Disasi, Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku. That likely Conference League trophy has come at one hell of a price…
1) Liverpool (summer 2025/26) – £414.5m
Florian Wirtz cost an initial £100m (and it could rise to £116m) and they now have the top two most expensive signings of this summer after confirming the arrival of Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt. Full-backs Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez have joined for £29.5m and £40m respectively, and we have also added the £25m on Giorgi Mamardashvili as that transfer will be counted in the 25/26 accounts. Giovanni Leoni took the Reds up from sixth to fourth, while Alexander Isak’s record move earns them the top spot.
READ: The 20 biggest transfers in the world in the 2023 summer transfer window