The last five times every Premier League club broke transfer record

Every Premier League club has broken their transfer record at least once since Manchester United last did. A few have this summer.

Remember, this is a record of the last five record transfers, NOT a record of the five most expensive transfers ever.

Arsenal record transfer progression

Mesut Ozil – £42.5m (Real Madrid, September 2013)
Alexandre Lacazette – £46.5m (Lyon, July 2017)
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – £55.5m (Borussia Dortmund, January 2018)
Nicolas Pepe – £72m (Lille, August 2019)
Declan Rice – £100m plus £5m add-0ns (West Ham, July 2023)

Three of those players subsequently had their contracts terminated early, while Lacazette was at least allowed to see out his Arsenal deal before leaving on a free transfer when it expired.

Aston Villa record transfer progression

Wesley Moraes – £22m (Club Brugge, June 2019)
Ollie Watkins – £28m, rising to £33m (Brentford, September 2020)
Emi Buendia – £30m, rising to £38m (Norwich, June 2021)
Moussa Diaby – £43.2m, rising to £51.9m (Bayer Leverkusen, July 2023)
Amadou Onana – £50m (Everton, July 2024)

Add-ons make things a little murky – Watkins has surely achieved his while Buendia has not – but the total value of the package to bring in Diaby was in a different market to where Villa usually deal. They then somehow sold the Frenchman for a profit, which allowed them to break their transfer record for Everton and Belgium midfielder Onana.

How they would like to break that record again for a third successive summer. Those nasty PSR rules won’t let it happen.

Bournemouth record transfer progression

Benik Afobe – £10m (Wolves, January 2016)
Jordon Ibe – £15m (Liverpool, July 2016)
Nathan Ake – £20m (Chelsea, June 2017)
Jefferson Lerma – £25m (Levante, August 2018)
Evanilson – £31m, rising to £39.5m (Porto, August 2024)

Six years is a big old gap between record buys, but selling Dominic Solanke to Tottenham for a small fortune enabled them to reinvest in Evanilson, who pushed Tyrone Mings off this list.

Brentford record transfer progression

Keane Lewis-Potter – £16m, rising to £20m (Hull, July 2022)
Kevin Schade – £22m (Freiburg, July 2023)
Nathan Collins – £23m (Wolves, July 2023)
Igor Thiago – £30m (Club Brugge, February 2024)
Dango Ouattara – £37m, rising to 42.5m (Bournemouth, August 2025)

The new record signing has replaced a former incumbent in Bryan Mbeumo – and Brentford will pray the move goes as well. Ivan Toney was another once recognised as the club’s most expensive signing and Igor Thiago has similarly large boots to fill there.

MORE TRANSFER COVERAGE FROM F365
👉 Top 20 biggest transfers of the 2025 summer window
👉 Five-year Premier League net spend table
👉 Every Premier League transfer of the summer

Brighton record transfer progression

Jurgen Locadia – £14m (PSV, January 2018)
Alireza Jahanbakhsh – £17m (AZ Alkmaar, July 2018)
Adam Webster – £20m (Bristol City, August 2019)
Joao Pedro – £30m (Watford, May 2023)
Georginio Rutter – £40m (Leeds United, August 2024)

Brilliant as Brighton are, their transfer strength has been in identifying rough diamonds from faraway lands to polish and move on for considerable profit rather than spending big. Pedro might be the exception as Brighton could pretty much double their money on the Brazilian, but Rutter’s first season was underwhelming.

Burnley record transfer progression

Robbie Brady – £13m (Norwich, January 2017)
Chris Wood – £15m (Leeds, August 2017)
Ben Gibson – £15m (Middlesbrough, August 2018)
Zeki Amdouni – £16.1m (Basel, July 2023)
Lesley Ugochukwu – £25m (Chelsea, August 2025)

It once used to be just giant centre-halves and centre-forwards up there with the odd Robbie Brady chucked in, but Lesley Ugochukwu really does represent a departure from the norm for Burnley and expensive signings. At that sort of price it is hoped he can help keep them up.

Chelsea record transfer progression

Alvaro Morata – £58m (Real Madrid, July 2017)
Kepa Arrizabalaga – £71m (Athletic Bilbao, August 2018)
Kai Havertz – £75.8m (Leverkusen, September 2020)
Romelu Lukaku – £97.5m (Inter Milan, August 2021)
Enzo Fernandez – £106.8m (Benfica, February 2023)

There is a genuine case to say Fernandez is legitimately the best of those Chelsea signings, which reflects well on no-one. But Todd Boehly has continued that proud tradition of general waste, with £100m Moises Caicedo finally approaching his best form as the other half of a potentially sensational midfield.

Crystal Palace record transfer progression

Dwight Gayle – £4.5m (Peterborough, July 2013)
James McArthur – £7m (Wigan, September 2014)
Yohan Cabaye – £10m (PSG, July 2015)
Andros Townsend – £13m (Newcastle, July 2016)
Christian Benteke – £27m (Liverpool, August 2016)

A ludicrous fact: not a single one of those signings was made by Roy Hodgson (nine transfer windows in charge). Crystal Palace presumably still regret giving Alan Pardew (four transfer windows in charge) quite so much pocket money.

And if none is given to Oliver Glasner even after cashing in on Eberechi Eze then they really could lose their greatest manager.

Everton record transfer progression

Yakubu Aiyegbini – £11.3m (Middlesbrough, August 2007)
Marouane Fellaini – £15m (Standard Liege, September 2008)
Romelu Lukaku – £28m (Chelsea, July 2014)
Jordan Pickford – £30m (Sunderland, June 2017)
Gylfi Sigurdsson – £45m (Swansea, August 2017)

Not sure what to say about that. It would probably make the best five-a-side team of any club on this list. Would love to see Lukaku at Powerleague.

Fulham record transfer progression

Edwin van der Sar – £7m (Juventus, August 2001)
Steve Marlet – £11.5m (Lyon, August 2001)
Konstantinos Mitroglou – £12m (Olympiakos, January 2014)
Jean Michael Seri – £25m (Nice, July 2018)
Emile Smith Rowe – £27m, rising to £34m (Arsenal, August 2024)

Fulham do like to use their regular Premier League promotions, or in the case of Mitroglou imminent relegations, to open new transfer doors. Though last summer they waited for the cash to arrive for Joao Palhinha before splashing out on Smith Rowe. The jury is out on whether he was worth the outlay.

Leeds United record transfer progression

Michael Bridges – £5.6m (Sunderland, July 1999)
Olivier Dacourt – £7.2m (Lens, July 2000)
Rio Ferdinand – £18m (West Ham, November 2000)
Rodrigo – £27m (Valencia, August 2020)
Georginio Rutter – £35.5m (Hoffenheim, January 2023)

It took 20 months for Leeds to break their transfer record thrice from July 1999. It took 20 years for Leeds to break their transfer record once from November 2000. They took a chance on Rutter in 2023 that did not save them from relegation but did at least make a small profit when he became Brighton’s record signing.

Liverpool record transfer progression

Luis Suarez – £22.7m (Ajax, January 2011)
Andy Carroll – £35m (Newcastle, January 2011)
Mo Salah – £36.9m (Roma, June 2017)
Virgil van Dijk – £75m (Southampton, January 2018)
Florian Wirtz – £100m, rising to £116m (Bayer Leverkusen, June 2025)

The blockbuster arrival of Florian Wirtz blows the Van Dijk fee out of the water, but the good news for Liverpool is that this is a list containing more unambiguous success stories than most, and you always need an exception to prove the rule anyway. If you want further proof of Liverpool’s ability to get a record transfer just right, the player knocked out of this top five by Wirtz? Fernando Torres.

MORE TRANSFER COVERAGE FROM F365
👉 Top 20 biggest transfers of the 2025 summer window
👉 Five-year Premier League net spend table
👉 Every Premier League transfer of the summer

Manchester City record transfer progression

Aymeric Laporte – £57.2m (Athletic Bilbao, January 2018)
Riyad Mahrez – £60m (Leicester, July 2018)
Rodri – £62.8m (Atletico Madrid, July 2019)
Ruben Dias – £64.3m (Benfica, September 2020)
Jack Grealish – £100m (Aston Villa, August 2021)

As masters of the £50m transfer and really anything in that general ballpark, it seemed as though Pep Guardiola had rather unfairly cracked the art of the £100m move. Grealish overcame the usual season one struggles to contribute to a Treble in his second campaign before unlocking the lesser-seen difficult third Pep year. And fourth.

Manchester United record transfer progression

Rio Ferdinand – £29.3m (Leeds, July 2002)
Dimitar Berbatov – £30.8m (Tottenham, September 2008)
Juan Mata – £37.1m (Chelsea, January 2014)
Angel di Maria – £59.7m (Real Madrid, August 2014)
Paul Pogba – £89.3m (Juventus, August 2016)

Fair play to Manchester United for accepting that their last two club-record signings were either immediately or eventually so catastrophic it would be foolish to try again. They have the longest-standing current Premier League transfer record.

Newcastle United record transfer progression

Alan Shearer – £15m (Blackburn, July 1996)
Michael Owen – £16m (Real Madrid, August 2005)
Miguel Almiron – £20m (Atlanta United, January 2019)
Joelinton – £40m (Hoffenheim, July 2019)
Alexander Isak – £58m, rising to £63m (August 2022)

We suspect a lot of those Isak add-ons will have been met, although it is unlikely any of them stipulated that toys had to be expelled so far from the pram first. Will FFP ever allow Newcastle to break that record again?

Nottingham Forest record transfer progression

Taiwo Awoniyi – £17.2m (Union Berlin, June 2022)
Emmanuel Dennis – £20m (Watford, August 2022)
Morgan Gibbs-White – £25m, rising to £42.5m (Wolves, August 2022)
Ibrahim Sangare – £30m (PSV, August 2023)
Elliot Anderson – £35m (Newcastle United, July 2024)

Another one difficult to accurately decipher without access to what are undoubtedly hilarious financial accounts, as while Elliot Anderson’s £35m fee obviously outstrips Sangare’s, both have either been eclipsed by Gibbs-White’s add-ons or probably will be soon enough.

Sunderland record transfer progression

Darren Bent – £10m with add-ons (Tottenham, August 2009)
Steven Fletcher – £12m with add-ons (Wolves, August 2012)
Didier N’Dong – £13.8m (FC Lorient, August 2016)
Enzo Le Fee – £19.35m (Roma, June 2025)
Habib Diarra – £27m (Strasbourg, July 2025)

Enzo Le Fee became Sunderland’s record signing after their promotion back to the Premier League. They will hope they don’t lose quite so much n’dosh on him as N’Dong. They then broke the record again for midfielder Diarra.

Tottenham record transfer progression

Erik Lamela – £29m (Roma, August 2013)
Moussa Sissoko – £30m (Newcastle, September 2016)
Davinson Sanchez – £42m (Ajax, August 2017)
Tanguy Ndombele – £53.7m (Lyon, July 2019)
Dominic Solanke – £55m, rising to £65m (Bournemouth, August 2024)

Richarlison (£50m rising to £60m) was theoretically capable of usurping Ndombele, but that would make this collection only slightly less damning.

West Ham United record transfer progression

Andre Ayew – £20.7m (Swansea, August 2016)
Marko Arnautovic – £25m (Stoke, August 2017)
Felipe Anderson – £36m (Lazio, July 2018)
Sebastien Haller – £45m (Eintracht Frankfurt, July 2019)
Lucas Paqueta – £51m (Lyon, August 2022)

One or both of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano probably belong here somewhere, but we’ve no idea of their actual fees. West Ham paid £20m in compensation to Sheffield United and £5.5m in Premier League fines over the third-party ownership fiasco with Tevez and that alone would qualify.

MORE TRANSFER COVERAGE FROM F365
👉 Top 20 biggest transfers of the 2025 summer window
👉 Five-year Premier League net spend table
👉 Every Premier League transfer of the summer

Wolves record transfer progression

Adama Traore – £18m (Middlesbrough, August 2018)
Raul Jimenez – £30m (Benfica, June 2019)
Fabio Silva – £35.6m (Porto, September 2020)
Matheus Nunes – £38m, rising to £42.2m (Sporting, August 2022)
Matheus Cunha – £44m (Atletico Madrid, July 2023)

The latter has delivered a profit now he has been sold on to Manchester United. Jorge Mendes has done some serious work here.