It’s been a summer of ludicrous spending by Premier League clubs and some of the figures have been truly eyewatering.
Of the 20 biggest transfers in the world this summer, 15 were made by Premier League clubs. And of the 10 biggest overpays of the summer transfer window, seven were made by Premier League clubs.
The market values and the fees are taken from transfermarkt; the former are usually on the low side anyway and the fees are the initial ones before add-ons. So it’s not gospel but it’s a guide to which clubs paid rather more than they should have done…
10) Alvaro Carreras – Real Madrid overpaid by £13m
Benfica never sell on the cheap, especially when they owe a sell-on fee to Manchester United. Real Madrid were more than happy to pay slightly over the odds for a left-back, after getting one of the world’s best right-backs for very, very little.
9) Noni Madueke – Arsenal overpaid by £13.86m
To sell Noni Madueke to Arsenal for a sizeable profit after two-and-a-half underwhelming years was some phenomenal business from Chelsea, which is becoming something of a habit for Chelsea Transfer Club.
There were petitions from Arsenal fans against the signing of yet another Chelsea reject; TM suggest they should have paid far closer to £35m than £50m for the England winger. He was good against Andorra, mind.
8) Muhammed Kudus – Tottenham overpaid by £16.3m
He’s in the Premier League team of the season so far, so you would struggle to find any Spurs fans moaning that they have overpaid for Kudus, even if TM have him pegged as being worth around £40m. His performances in 2024/25 for West Ham had been poor, but although he was worth nowhere near his reported £85m release clause, West Ham were never going to do business for less than £55m.
7) Anthony Elanga – Newcastle United overpaid by £16.81m
As we wrote at the time: ‘Is Anthony Elanga worth £55m? Only to Newcastle but that’s what matters.’
Elanga was an upgrade in the one position – at the time – that they really needed an upgrade, and Nottingham Forest were never going to be forced into a transfer for the £40m he would have been worth to any other club.
6) Bryan Mbeumo – Manchester United overpaid by £17.33m
We are as shocked as you that Benjamin Sesko is not on this list, though he does have youth on his side. Brentford played hardball with Manchester United over Mbeumo just as they did with Newcastle over Yoane Wissa and they emerged with an initial £65m with very achievable add-ons that are likely to take the deal past £70m.
But the idea that anybody would pay more than £50m for the Brentford winger they signed for relative pennies would have seemed ludicrous just six months before.
5) Ilya Zabarnyi – PSG overpaid by £18.2m
Having already sold Dean Huijsen to Barcelona, the only way Bournemouth were going to sell his defensive partner to PSG was if they came in with more than £50m. In the end, the offer was too good for club or player to turn down.
4) Mateo Retegui – Al-Qadsiah overpaid by £20.15m
It now feels almost quaint that a Saudi Arabian club made an offer that could not be turned down, but it’s fair to say that no European club was offering £56.3m for Serie A’s top scorer from last season.
3) Alexander Isak – Liverpool overpaid by £21.66m
Worth less than Florian Wirtz according to the algorithms, but there was a Premier League and a Newcastle tax to pay for Isak. Many will agree that Liverpool have overpaid for Isak despite his obvious talents, but it was clear very early this summer that Liverpool were going to have to break the British transfer record to sign the Swede. Now they have to win the Premier League. Simple as.
2) Yoane Wissa – Newcastle United overpaid by £27.73m
With just one year remaining on his contract, it is close to ridiculous that Newcastle United felt like they had no choice but to pay £50m for a 28-year-old who has only once scored more than 12 goals in a top-flight season. But Brentford absolutely had Newcastle over a barrel.
1) Nick Woltemade – Newcastle United overpaid by £47.66m
As Bayern Munich’s honorary president Uli Hoeness said: “We would have liked to have Nick Woltemade. We offered 55 million, Stuttgart wanted 75. Now they’ve apparently sold him to Newcastle for almost 90 million euros. But what Newcastle is doing has nothing to do with football. It’s like Monopoly – advance to Schlossallee, then some sheikh will come along, and then you can buy.”
He scored 12 Bundesliga goals last season. But by this point Newcastle were about 427 miles past desperate.