Every £20m+ sale ever made by a Premier League club
Current Premier League clubs have made 169 signings for £20m or more. They have made 78 sales at the same value, because they are inherently less exciting but still entirely necessary. Chelsea dominate both lists.
Brighton, Sheffield United, West Brom and Wolves – 0
Their record sales are, in order: £10.5m, £11.5m, £16.5m and £16m. West Brom are the only current Premier League club yet to spend or sell any player for £20m or more. Boing boing.
Portsmouth (Lassana Diarra), Sunderland (Jordan Pickford, and yes, he counts), Watford (Odion Ighalo), Stoke (Marko Arnautovic) and Swansea (Wilfried Bony, Andre Ayew and Gylfi Sigurdsson) have all managed to trade on their transient Premier League status by selling a player for at least £20m. Up your game, guys.
Burnley – 1
Michael Keane – £25m (to Everton in July 2017)
Dwight McNeil will be on this list as soon as people start recognising his anomalous talent.
Fulham – 1
Ryan Sessegnon – £25m (to Tottenham in August 2019)
Nine starts later and vice-chairman Tony Khan is “not interested” in bringing the 20-year-old back because he “already played for us in the Premier League and he didn’t do enough to keep us in there”. Ouch.
Leeds – 1
Rio Ferdinand – £30m (to Manchester United in July 2002)
Until and unless PSG realise Pablo Hernandez is the missing piece in their quest to accomplish world domination, this isn’t changing any time soon.
Crystal Palace – 2
Yannick Bolasie – £25m (to Everton in August 2016)
Aaron Wan-Bissaka – £45m (to Manchester United in July 2019)
Buyhurst Park, more like.
West Ham – 2
Dimitri Payet – £25m (to Marseille in January 2017)
Marko Arnautovic – £22m (to Shanghai SIPG in July 2019)
It was described by someone within West Ham as “a terrible deal” for them at the time, but he wouldn’t even be the best striker with the initials ‘M.A’ in East London right now.
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)
Add those fees together and it might just be enough to get you a Jack Grealish.
Leicester – 5
N’Golo Kante – £30m (to Chelsea in July 2016)
Danny Drinkwater – £34m (to Chelsea in August 2017)
Riyad Mahrez – £60m (to Manchester City in July 2018)
Harry Maguire – £85m (to Manchester United in August 2019)
Ben Chilwell – £50m (to Chelsea in August 2020)
That is both saucy and sorcery.
Manchester United – 5
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)
Romelu Lukaku – £74m (to Inter Milan in August 2019)
They just don’t sell all that well. Nor, at the minute, do they buy at all.
Newcastle – 5
Andy Carroll – £35m (to Liverpool in January 2011)
Georginio Wijnaldum – £25m (to Liverpool in July 2016)
Moussa Sissoko – £30m (to Tottenham in September 2016)
Aleksandar Mitrovic – £22m (to Fulham in July 2018)
Ayoze Perez – £30m (to Leicester in July 2019)
An eclectic list of buying clubs and an industrious five-a-side team who are a little too familiar with their elbows. Lovely.
Tottenham – 5
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 – £50m (to Manchester City in July 2017)
Kieran Trippier – £20m (to Atletico Madrid in July 2019)
Negotiating with Daniel Levy is “more painful” than a hip replacement after all, so you’d better make sure you’re certain first.
Everton – 6
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)
Idrissa Gueye – £29m (to PSG in July 2019)
Ruining that beautiful pattern might be damn near the worst thing PSG have ever done, aside from becoming a state-owned front for aggressive sportswashing.
Manchester City – 6
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)
Danilo – £34.2m (to Juventus in August 2019)
Leroy Sane – £40.9m (to Bayern Munich in July 2020)
Manchester City have signed 34 players for £20m or more. They have not translated that too well to the other side of the transfer coin, not that they particularly need to.
Southampton – 6
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)
Virgil van Dijk – £75m (to Liverpool in January 2018)
They really were the kings of this at one point, until Claude Puel, Mauricio Pellegrino and Mark Hughes put the conveyor belt out of commission. Ralph Hasenhuttl is probably their most valuable asset now.
Liverpool – 8
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 – £49m (to Manchester City in July 2015)
Christian Benteke – £27m (to Crystal Palace in August 2016)
Mamadou Sakho – £26m (to Crystal Palace in August 2017)
Philippe Coutinho – £142m (to Barcelona in January 2018)
Danny Ings – £20m (to Southampton in July 2019)
Liverpool signed this octet for £129m and sold them on for £409m. That’s what laptops and air-conditioned offices get you.
Arsenal – 9
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)
Theo Walcott – £20m (to Everton in January 2018)
Alex Iwobi – £35m (to Everton in August 2019)
Arsenal only sell to the world’s biggest clubs. And Real Madrid.
Chelsea – 13
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)
Diego Costa – £57m (to Atletico Madrid in January 2018)
Thibaut Courtois – £35m (to Real Madrid in August 2018)
Eden Hazard – £88.5m (to Real Madrid in June 2019)
Alvaro Morata – £58.3m (to Atletico Madrid in July 2019)
Marina Granovskaia must have a villa in Madrid by now. The Roman empire is on the rise again, funded almost exclusively by investment from the Spanish capital.