Liverpool are threatening a “big summer” while Arsenal will need to spend to make that final leap from also-rans to champions; they need to spend over £200m to get on this list.
Just marvel at Chelsea though…
**10) Manchester City (summer 2017/18): £210m**
This was the summer of the £50m full-backs but also the summer that Bernardo Silva and Ederson arrived as Pep Guardiola really put his stamp on a squad that had come third the season before, but would then win six of the next seven Premier League titles. Having put together the spine of a dominant team, City never needed to spend that much in one summer ever again.
They did almost challenge that total in the January of 2025 after November/December results bordering on relegation form, with their £180m spend coming to around half of the total shelled out by Premier League clubs. Ouch.
**9) Real Madrid (summer 2009/10) – £218m**
And that was when £218m was a f\*\*\* of a lot of money. But that’s what happens when you bring in Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Kaka ans Xabi Alonso in one summer. The best part of the story? They still came second.
**8) Juventus (summer 2018/19) – £223m**
It seems incomprehensible even in 2025 that just seven years ago, an Italian club was outspending every other club in the world. But Juventus paid a high price to sign Ronaldo in a summer when Leonardo Bonucci and Joao Cancelo also arrived. The Old Lady was on a mission to claim a Champions League trophy that never came.
**7) Barcelona (summer 2019/20) – £235m**
The club endured its worst season in years, going trophyless for the first time in over 10 years, so we wonder how much they regretted spending such eye-watering money on Frenkie de Jong but especially Antoine Griezmann. Their third-most-expensive signing that summer? Neto, of course.
**6) Chelsea (summer 2022/23) – £254m**
Now we arrive in the true Chelsea banter era, with the new owners spending barely believable sums on Wesley Fofana, Raheem Sterling, Marc Cucurella and Kalidou Koulibaly. Less than three years later, only one of the signings made that summer is a Chelsea first-team regular.
**READ: [Chelsea way out in front in Premier League net spend table](https://www.football365.com/news/transfers-premier-league-five-year-net-spend-man-utd-man-city)**
**5) Chelsea (winter 2022/23) – £278m**
Obviously things were going to swimmingly (they weren’t) that the sensible thing was to go again in January, with over £100m being spaffed on Enzo Fernandez, who was joined by Mykhailo Mudryk, Noni Madueke, Malo Gusto and many more. At this point, absolutely nothing made any sense anymore, but if it moved, Chelsea bought it.
**4) Real Madrid (summer 2019/20) – £279m**
Eden Hazard was the headline name but there was also so very much money spent on Eder Militao, Luke Jovic, Ferland Mendy and Rodrygo, with varying degrees of success. When they won the Champions League in 2022, only two of those names played a significant part.
**3) PSG (summer 2023/24) – £295m**
There was definitely money overspent – on Randal Kolo Muani and Manuel Ugarte in particular – but less than two years after that outlay, they will not regret the sums paid out for Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola and Lucas Hernandez.
**2) Al-Hilal (summer 2023/24) – £298m**
The Saudi summer brought – deep breath – Neymar, Aleksandar Mitrović, Ruben Neves, Sergej Milinković-Savić, Malcom, Kalidou Koulibaly and more to Al-Hilal, who promptly won the Saudi Pro League. Because of course they sodding did.
**1) Chelsea (summer 2023/24) – £391m**
Chelsea did not just set a new record for a transfer window spend; they obliterated it. It now seems highly unlikely that anybody will go past this figure and presumably beyond £400m over the next decade. There were 11 signings to arrive for over £10m and six for over £30m in Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Cole Palmer, Axel Disasi, Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku. That likely Conference League trophy has come at one hell of a price…
**READ: [The 20 biggest transfers in the world in the 2023 summer transfer window](https://www.football365.com/news/summer-transfer-window-2023-most-expensive-players-biggest-deals)**