Where every Premier League club has shopped most for transfers this century

London sides like to keep the cash in the capital but no club shops local more than Bournemouth. They’ve had more players off Southampton than even Liverpool.

Here’s the club every Premier League team has taken most players from since 2000… 

Arsenal: Chelsea – 6
Players signed: Petr Cech, David Luiz, Lassana Diarra, Willian, William Gallas, Yossi Benayoun
Total spent: £23.04m

The Gunners have taken half a dozen players off Chelsea but they’ve spent more with 19 other clubs since 2000. Lille, Dortmund and Real Madrid have profited most.

Aston Villa: Tottenham – 8
Players signed: Alan Hutton, Wayne Routledge, Jermaine Jenas, Josh Onomah, Kyle Walker, Simon Dawkins, Öyvind Leonhardsen, David Ginola.
Total spent: £6.48m

Villa have taken most players from Spurs but they spent most at Brentford, splurging £52m on three players between 2017 and 2020.

Bournemouth: Southampton – 17
Players signed: Shane Long, Artur Boruc, Lee Barnard, Danny Seaborne, Andrew Surman, Matt Mills, Leon Best, Simon Gillett, David McGoldrick, Adam Lallana, Jake Thomson, Ryan Doble, Martin Cranie, ,Alan Blayney, Scott McDonald, Neil Moss, Dani Rodrigues
Total spent: £0

All but two of these 17 former Saints were loan deals between the south coast clubs. The Cherries like to shop local – Pompey is the club from which they’ve taken the second-highest number of players.

Brentford: Reading – 12
Players signed: Paul Brooker, Alan Bennett, John Halls, Mikkel Andersen, Alex McCarthy, Simon Cox, Nicholas Bignall, Lloyd Owusu, Ben Hamer, John Salako, Ricky Newman, Anthony Rougier
Total spent: £0

The Bees have had a dozen players for f*** all off Reading. They have spent most at Celtic after coughing up £14.13m for Kristoffer Ajer.

Brighton: Fulham – 7
Players signed: David Button, David Stockdale, Paul Brooker, Ross Flitney, Zesh Rehman, Simon Morgan, Ross Flitney
Total spent: £5.25m

The Seagulls have spent most at PSV Eindhoven having chucked £27m on Jurgen Locadia and Davy Propper.

Chelsea: Barcelona – 7
Players signed: Cesc Fàbregas, Pedro, Boudewijn Zenden, Emmanuel Petit, Deco, Juliano Belletti, Winston Bogarde
Total spent: £89.91m

Chelsea have bought more from Barca but spent most with Real Madrid – £126.9m on Alvaro Morata, Mateo Kovacic, Claude Makelele, Geremi and Mateo Kovacic.

Crystal Palace: West Ham – 7
Players signed: James Tomkins, Cheikhou Kouyate, Carl Fletcher, Freddie Sears, Kyel Reid, Neil Ruddock, Paul Kitson.
Total spent: £20.7m

The Eagles have also taken seven players off Birmingham but Blues have pocketed only £4.55m.

Everton: Manchester United – 8
Players signed: Morgan Schneiderlin, Phil Neville, Tim Howard, Darron Gibson, Donny van de Beek, Wayne Rooney, Tom Cleverley, Louis Saha, Jesper Blomqvist
Total spent: £29.79m

Everton have done some favours for United over the last couple of decades. Hands up who else completely forgot Blomqvist’s 15-game spell with the Toffees…

Fulham: Tottenham – 8
Players signed: Scott Parker, Michael Brown, Lewis Holtby, Danny Murphy, Josh Onomah, Paulo Gazzaniga, Wayne Routledge, Paul Stalteri
Total spent: £5.94m

It’s a well-trodden path between Craven Cottage and White Hart Lane but the Cottagers have made a £50m net profit from their London rivals.

Leeds: Leicester – 13
Players signed: Chris Wood, Lee Peltier, Alan Sheehan, Radostin Kishishev, Mark de Vries, Patrick Kisnorbo, Darren Kenton, Paul Dickov, Kevin Pressman, Max Gradel, Steve Guppy, Craig Hignett, Nathan Blake
Total spent: £4.1m

Leeds took some dross off Leicester’s hands, but aside from Valencia, after they trousered £27m for Rodrigo, the Whites have spent more on Man Utd players than recruits from any other club.

Leicester: Manchester City – 8
Players signed: Kelechi Iheanacho, Paul Dickov, Michael Johnson, Kelvin Etuhu, Ryan McGivern, Ben Mee, Steve Howey, Danny Tiatto
Total spent: £26.28m

Half of Leicester’s deals with City have been loans. They’ve spent more with five clubs: Monaco, Sporting Lisbon, Saint-Etienne, Newcastle and RB Salzburg.

Liverpool: Southampton – 8
Players signed: Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mané, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Nathaniel Clyne, Peter Crouch, Rickie Lambert, Paul Jones
Total spent: £194.27m

The Reds spent £70million more with Southampton than any other club. Roma have cashed £124m worth of Liverpool’s cheques for five players since 2000.

Manchester City: Aston Villa – 7
Players signed: Jack Grealish, James Milner, Gareth Barry, Fabian Delph, Darius Vassell, Stuart Taylor, Peter Schmeichel
Total spent: £151.65m

Prior to City spending £100million on Grealish, Benfica profited more than anyone else from the champions’ wealth, with £115m finding its way into the Portuguese club’s account in return for Ederson, Ruben Dias and Javi Garcia.

Every Premier League club since 2017 ranked by their net spend

Manchester United: Sporting Lisbon – 4
Players signed: Bruno Fernandes, Nani, Marcos Rojo, Cristiano Ronaldo
Total spent: £114.75m

United have also bought four from Monaco this century but their spend on Anthony Martial, Fabien Barthez, Patrice Evra and Radamel Falcao totalled £78.57m.

Newcastle: Chelsea – 7
Players signed: Damien Duff, Scott Parker, Christian Atsu, Kenedy, Geremi, Celestine Babayaro, Patrick van Aanholt
Total spent: £29.70m

Aside from Hoffenheim, who looked to have robbed Newcastle of £40m before Joelinton became 2022’s Bryan Robson, Deportivo La Coruna have made most from the Magpies’ recruitment, trousering £38.4million for Albert Luque, Fabricio Coloccini, Fabian Schar and Dennis Wise’s mate, Xisco.

Nottingham Forest: Olympiacos – 10
Players signed: Djamel Abdoun, Rafik Djebbour, Pajtim Kasami, Matt Derbyshire, Stefanos Kapino, Miguel Ángel Guerrero, Panagiotis Tachtsidis, Cafu, Mohamed Drager, Andreas Bouchalakis
Total spent: £3.33m

Forest and Olympiacos share the same owner, Evangelos Marinakis, and seemingly enjoy sharing players, with four going the other way since 2018.

Southampton: Tottenham – 10
Players signed: Kyle Walker-Peters, Grzegorz Rasiak, Tommy Forecast, Kyle Walker-Peters, Jamie Redknapp, Kasey Keller, Calum Davenport, Iago Falque, Philip Ifil, Tomas Pekhart
Total spent: £15.03m

To answer your question, Tommy Forecast is a goalkeeper who moved to Saints for £100,000 on a five-year contract as part of the renegotiation of Gareth Bale’s sell-on clause. Forecast never played for Saints and was sent on loan to Grimsby. He made his debut in a 4-0 defeat to Crewe and his performance was described in the The Crewe Chronicle as ‘one of the most shockingly inept displays the Football League has ever seen’. This is an absolute evisceration.

Tottenham: Fulham – 5
Players signed: Ryan Sessegnon, Mousa Dembele, Clint Dempsey, Sean Davis, Steed Malbranque
Total spent: £55.53m

Spurs have also taken five off Southampton, PSV Eindhoven, Portsmouth and West Ham, but Fulham raked in more money.

West Ham: Arsenal – 11
Players signed: Freddie Ljungberg, Lucas Pérez, Jack Wilshere, Carl Jenkinson, Marouane Chamakh, Manuel Almunia, Jérémie Aliadière, Henri Lansbury, Davor Suker, Nigel Winterburn, Rami Shaaban
Total spent: £8.01m

The days of West Ham taking Arsenal’s rejects may be over if they play their cards right.

Wolves: Sunderland – 11
Players signed: Greg Halford, Jody Craddock, Alex Rae, Paul Butler, Stephen Elliott, Neill Collins, Gary Breen, Danny Graham, Carlos Edwards, Darren Ward, Joachim Björklund
Total spent: £7.76m

Wolves have taken an XI off the Black Cats but only one of these deals – borrowing Danny Graham – has been done since 2009.