Ranking the 16 British record signings since 1992

Sarah Winterburn
during the Barclays Premier League match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on February 5, 2012 in London, England.

Jadon Sancho is likely to break the British transfer record this summer. Manchester United will hope he is more Roy Keane than Angel Di Maria. We rank from the worst to the very best….

 

16) Angel Di Maria – Real Madrid to Man United in 2014 (£59.7m)
“Talented, but a complete fanny,” was how one former Manchester United teammate described the Argentine, who was delighted to join “the only club that I would have left Real Madrid for” when he arrived as Louis van Gaal’s marquee signing in 2014. A year later he was departing for PSG after scoring just three Premier League goals. Recouping £44million of the fee United paid Real remains one of Ed Woodward’s finest achievements, though he was lucky to do business with perhaps the only other club with more money than sense.

Now? He plain hates Manchester United.

 

15) Andrei Shevchenko – AC Milan to Chelsea in 2006 (£30.8m)
A Champions League winner. A Serie A champion. A Ballon d’Or recipient. An absolute pony signing for Chelsea whose only braces in two seasons came against Aston Villa and Wycombe Wanderers. And for just a handful of goals he was being paid the biggest wages of any Premier League player. And this is why Russian oligarchs who own English football clubs should not be allowed to sign their friends.

 

14) Juan Veron – Lazio to Man United in 2001 (£28.1m)
“He is a fucking great player…and youse are all fucking idiots,” said Sir Alex Ferguson almost a year after breaking the British transfer record to sign Juan Veron, who by his own admission had struggled with the pace of English football despite a bright start that saw him crowned September Player of the Month. A year after Ferguson’s explosion, the Argentine was gone, dismissed as one of the floppiest of flops.

History has since re-written Veron’s spell as a ‘right man, wrong time’ tale but we are in the business of ranking transfers and there is no room for nuance here. And anybody who argues is a fucking idiot.

 

13) Robinho – Real Madrid to Manchester City in 2008 (£32.5m)
“On the last day, Chelsea made a great proposal and I accepted,” said Robinho at his surprise unveiling as a Manchester City player. When a reporter replied, querying whether he “meant Manchester”, the Brazilian answered: “Yeah, Manchester, sorry!”

In terms of statement signings, this was as transparent as it was necessary: an expensive square forced into a circular gap. City needed a name and Robinho duly provided one, but it was never destined to be a long-term love. The forward scored 16 goals in 53 games before returning to first club Santos in a successful bid to force his way into Brazil’s World Cup squad.

A few months later, the forward moved to Milan and City – who recouped less than half their money – started the process of building a proper side around David Silva and Yaya Toure.

 

12) Fernando Torres – Liverpool to Chelsea in 2011 (£50m)
“When Chelsea bid £50m for Torres in January 2011 there was consternation among Liverpool supporters,” said Jamie Carragher some years later. “Although we could never state it publicly at the time, there was general astonishment in our dressing room. We thought Chelsea had not been watching him for the previous 12 months. We knew Chelsea did not sign the player they thought.”

Liverpool did not spend the money wisely enough to crow about it, but they were very lucky to get £50m for Torres, who scored just 20 Premier League goals in over three seasons for Chelsea and would leave for basically nothing as a busted flush. He did win the trophies he had craved while being brilliant at Liverpool, mind. Swings and roundabouts.

 

11) Stan Collymore – Nottingham Forest to Liverpool in 1995 (£8.5m)
His Liverpool numbers are not terrible – 26 top-flight goals in two seasons make him an Anthony Martial rather than an Alvaro Morata. But the problem is that Liverpool paid a British record fee and expected that kind of return. He dovetailed excellently with Robbie Fowler in his first season but was found somewhat lacking in application and consistency in his second as Michael Owen emerged to offer both.

“Stan did a lot of things we didn’t want him to do but he had the ability to do a lot of things no one else could. But we started getting problems with him in his second year when sometimes he didn’t turn up for training. You could see the other players wondering what was going on,” said Roy Evans, who sold his truculent arse to Aston Villa at the end of that poor second campaign.

 

10) Paul Pogba – Juventus to Man United in 2016 (£89m)
It now seems astonishing but it was truly a coup when a Manchester United side that had just finished fifth somehow persuaded the best young central midfielder in the world to re-join. It kind of almost worked when Pogba and new boss Jose Mourinho delivered two trophies in that first season, though both player and manager would be unwanted by both club and fans within another two years.

Pogba still remains at United and perhaps there is hope that Bruno Fernandes and a raft of other huge-money signings might eke a bit of oomph out of the brilliant but feckless Frenchman but for now he is an expensive mistake and the question is whether any club in Europe can afford a repeat.

 

9) Rio Ferdinand – West Ham to Leeds in 2000 (£18m)
Leeds United breaking the British record with a move that made Rio Ferdinand the world’s most expensive defender now feels utterly surreal, but this was the year 2000 and the Yorkshire side were living far beyond their means and waiting for the massive bubble to pop.

Ferdinand helped Leeds reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, but 12 months later they were finishing fifth and captain Ferdinand was forcing through a move to bitter rivals Manchester United (see below) after realising that there was no more money left in the pot.

 

8) Alan Shearer – Blackburn to Newcastle (£15m) in 1996
There were goals. So many goals – over 200 for Newcastle across ten seasons. But the truth is that Newcastle smashed the British transfer record for Shearer so they could win silverware. They won none. And for that reason alone he sits relatively low down on the list despite the goals, the statue, the legendary status.

 

7) Chris Sutton – Norwich to Blackburn (£5m) in 1994
“Norwich had a fee in their heads and Blackburn were willing to pay it but I never said I was worth £5m. But I don’t think it will bother me. I’m going to Blackburn to play football and if I’m 100 per cent fit – and there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be – then I don’t think my form will go off that badly.”

And it really didn’t. Sutton scored 15 Premier League goals in his first season as a Blackburn player to help them to the title. A grand total of zero goals the following season provided a crash back down to earth but he recovered to score 18 goals in 1997/98 before leaving at the end of the following season for a disastrous Chelsea spell. But Blackburn more than doubled their money on their title winer.

 

6) Andy Cole – Newcastle to Man United in 1995 (£7m)
A serial winner with Manchester United – five Premier League titles in seven seasons is exactly why he left Newcastle for Old Trafford – but he remains largely unloved among fans who were spoiled in those seasons by the presence of Eric Cantona, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and David Beckham, and then Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Dwight Yorke and Teddy Sheringham in later years.

His 34-goal Premier League season for Newcastle had promised a little more but his 93 goals in 195 Premier League games for United remains an incredible record. It’s little wonder that he feels a bit disrespected by those who rarely include him in ‘greatest ever’ lists.

“They can continue to show me that lack of respect as long as they like, but you know when I start smelling the roses, when I’m no longer here, that’s when people start talking about how good you were.”

 

5) Ruud van Nistelrooy – PSV to Man United in 2001 (£19m)
The man was a machine. While Cole scored 93 in 195, the Dutchman netted 95 in 150 in the Premier League, with basically none of those goals coming from outside the area. “He was a flawless finisher who scored some true poacher’s goals,” said Sir Alex Ferguson.

But the flip-side is that Van Nistelrooy won just one Premier League title in five seasons and eventually had to be sold to Real Madrid because his style and personality clashed with that of Cristiano Ronaldo. “Ruud had that kind of ego: he wanted all the passes,” said Louis Saha. “And sometimes, for the development of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, it was difficult for the manager to deal with.”

 

4) Rio Ferdinand – Leeds to Man United in 2002 (£29.1m)
For the second time he became the world’s most expensive defender, and there was barely a minute in his first decade at United when anybody doubted his worth. At his best, he oozed class, forming a silk and steel partnership with Nemanja Vidic that formed the bedrock of that annoyingly brilliant United side. Ferdinand claimed six Premier League titles and captained the side to Champions League triumph.

 

3) Alan Shearer – Southampton to Blackburn in 1992 (£3.6m)
The first big-money transfer of the Premier League era brought unprecedented goalscoring feats as Shearer notched three consecutive 30-goal seasons, one of which helped secure the title in 1994/95. Jack Walker would never regret spending what had seemed like ridiculous money on a player also courted by Ferguson at United.

“I had a call from someone at Man Utd that they wanted to sign me,” Shearer once said. “I told them [the situation] and I never had a call back. It was never an option. It felt right for me, the project felt right. Kenny [Dalglish] was a huge influence, as was Ray Harford, with Jack Walker’s finance behind him, he had massive plans.”

 

2) Dennis Bergkamp – Inter to Arsenal in 1995 (£7.5m)
They had been the Arsenal of George Graham, Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn, Ray Parlour and Paul Merson, but they then became the Arsenal of Bruce Rioch and Dennis Bergkamp, though the latter would outlast the manager who lured him to north London by a decade.

Bergkamp’s start to life at Arsenal was underwhelming, with the British press deriding him as a flop after his first few goalless games at the club. But then he got better. And then Arsene Wenger arrived and he became brilliant. Truly brilliant. There were three titles, there were amazing goals, there were moments of pure brilliance. And now there is a statue and the Dutchman is a genuine icon of the English game.

 

1) Roy Keane – Nottingham Forest to Man United in 1993 (£3.75m)
We will let others argue whether he is the Premier League’s greatest ever import, but there is no doubt that Keane is among Ferguson’s greatest ever signings, even if the pair eventually parted on the worst of terms. He took over from Bryan Robson as the beating heart of United’s midfield and became one of the modern era’s most fearsome leaders. There is no doubt that he was absolutely worth every penny of his British record fee.

If seven Premier League titles do not convince you, watch that Champions League semi-final.

Sarah Winterburn

 

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