The transfer record progression of every Premier League club

News Desk
Virgil van Dijk, Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku are the record signings for Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea.

By our count, the four players to appear on this transfer record list more than once are Fernando Torres, Andy Carroll, Rio Ferdinand and Romelu Lukaku. Hmm.

 

ARSENAL
Andrei Arshavin – £15m (Zenit St Petersburg, February 2009)

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)

Not a single unqualified success among them, which is impressive in a way. 

 

ASTON VILLA
Stewart Downing – £12m (Middlesbrough, July 2009)

Darren Bent – £18m (Sunderland, January 2011)

Wesley Moraes – £22m (Club Brugge, June 2019)

Ollie Watkins – £28m (Brentford, September 2020)

Emi Buendia – £30m plus add-ons (Norwich, June 2021)

Buendia bumped James Milner off the list after Villa broke their transfer record for the third summer in succession. They would have to break it again to take up their option on Philippe Coutinho.

 

BRENTFORD
Mathias Jensen – £3.5m (Celta Vigo, July 2019)

Pontus Jansson – £5.5m (Leeds United, July 2019)

Bryan Mbeumo – £5.85m (Troyes, August 2019)

Ivan Toney – £5m rising to £10m with add-ons (Peterborough, September 2020)

Kristoffer Ajer – £13.5m (Celtic, July 2021)

Norway defender Ajer looked well worth the investment before his hamstring twanged in October. Brentford have pretty much nailed this transfer malarkey. 

 

BRIGHTON
Davy Propper – £10m (PSV, August 2017)

Jose Izquierdo – £13.5m (Club Brugge, August 2017)

Jurgen Locadia – £14m (PSV, January 2018)

Alireza Jahanbakhsh – £17m (AZ Alkmaar, July 2018)

Adam Webster – £20m (Bristol City, August 2019)

Bit Flemish. Does Adam Webster have some Eredivisie or Jupiler Pro League experience everyone has collectively managed to overlook?

 

BURNLEY
Steven Defour – £7.3m (Anderlecht, August 2016)

Jeff Hendrick – £10.5m (Derby, August 2016)

Robbie Brady – £13m (Norwich, January 2017)

Chris Wood – £15m (Leeds, August 2017)

Ben Gibson – £15m (Middlesbrough, August 2018)

A no-nonsense centre-half and a burly centre-forward sharing the title of Burnley’s most expensive player ever just feels right.

Chris Wood looks dejected

 

CHELSEA

Fernando Torres – £50m (Liverpool, January 2011)

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)

Havertz’s Champions League final winner was worth the fee alone but Lukaku looks like heading the same way as the other four on this list, especially if he can’t keep his mouth shut

 

CRYSTAL PALACE
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)

Roy Hodgson spent £42.2m during his reign as Crystal Palace manager between September 2017 and May last year. Alan Pardew’s entire summer 2016 transfer outlay was £51.5m. Glorious.

 

EVERTON
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)

Everton more than doubled their money on Fellaini and Lukaku. Their chances of repeating the trick with either of the two who followed look slim…

 

LEEDS
Tomas Brolin – £4.5m (Parma, November 1995)

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)

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.

 

LEICESTER
Nampalys Mendy – £13m (Nice, July 2016)

Ahmed Musa – £16m (CSKA Moscow, July 2016)

Islam Slimani – £29.7m (Sporting, September 2016)

Ayoze Perez – £30m (Newcastle, July 2019)

Youri Tielemans – £40m (Monaco, July 2019)

They indulged in the summer after winning the Premier League title and during their first summer with Brendan Rodgers in charge. That’s what the smell of trophies and mince will do to you.

 

LIVERPOOL
Fernando Torres – £20.2m (Atletico Madrid, July 2007)

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)

That really is quite the hit rate. Virgil van Dijk has three more Liverpool goals than Andy Carroll, by the way.

 

MANCHESTER CITY
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)

City had never spent truly mega sums on individuals before splurging on Grealish. Doing it again for Harry Kane was too rich even for the Sheikh’s blood. 

 

MANCHESTER UNITED
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)

Crystal Palace are the only other Premier League club not to break their transfer record at least once from August 2017 onwards. And Manchester United’s record signing looks like leaving for free. 

Paul-Pogba-Mo-Salah

 

NEWCASTLE
Faustino Asprilla – £6.7m (Parma, February 1996)

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)

The first, third, fourth and fifth entrants have scored 50 goals between them in 301 Premier League games for Newcastle. It took Shearer just 86 top-flight appearances for the Magpies to reach that mark.

 

NORWICH
Dean Ashton – £3m (Crewe, January 2005)

Robert Earnshaw – £3.5m (West Brom, January 2006)

Ricky Van Wolfswinkel – £8.5m (Sporting Lisbon, July 2013)

Steven Naismith – £8.5m (Everton, January 2016)

Christos Tzilos – £9m (PAOK, August 2021)

One goal in 25 Premier League games for RVW.  And one in 13 for Naismith. None yet for Tzolis, despite Daniel Farke proclaiming him to be “one of the most exciting offensive players in Europe in his age group”.

 


Every completed Premier League transfer last summer


 

SOUTHAMPTON
Dani Osvaldo – £14.6m (Roma, August 2013)

Sofiane Boufal – £16m (Lille, August 2016)

Mario Lemina – £18.1m (Juventus, August 2017)

Guido Carillo – £19m (Monaco, January 2018)

Danny Ings – £20m (Liverpool, July 2019)

The club famed for providing a conveyor belt of talent for Liverpool finally snapped their underwhelming transfer record streak by signing a player from them. That’s some 200 IQ sh*t.

 

TOTTENHAM
Roberto Soldado – £26m (Valencia, August 2013)

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)

Antonio Conte seems to be in a similar mindset to Jose Mourinho and Ryan Mason when it comes to Ndombele. Not sure it’s a coincidence.

 

WATFORD
Abdoulaye Doucoure – £8m (Rennes, February 2016)

Isaac Success – £12.5m (Granada, July 2016)

Roberto Pereyra – £13m (Juventus, August 2016)

Andre Gray – £18.5m (Burnley, August 2017)

Ismaila Sarr – £40m (Rennes, August 2019)

The Hornets could easily get their money back on Sarr if they wish. Which they might have to next summer. 

 

WEST HAM
Andy Carroll – £15m (Liverpool, June 2013)

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)

West Ham should stop breaking their transfer record and stick to signing players from the Czech league. 

 

WOLVES
Ruben Neves – £15.8m (Porto, July 2017)

Rui Patricio – £16m (Sporting, June 2018)

Adama Traore – £18m (Middlesbrough, August 2018)

Raul Jimenez – £30m (Benfica, June 2019)

Fabio Silva – £35.6m (Porto, September 2020)

That stinks of Jorge Mendes, save for the brief sojourn to what is absolutely not north Yorkshire. Wolves could double their money on Neves and Traore this month.