Liverpool are required to break the British transfer record to sign Alexander Isak this summer, with Newcastle set to rebuff offers of anything less than £150m for their prized asset.
But it will only be the ninth highest Premier League fee after adjusting for football inflation. Our thanks to the brilliant football finance expert Kieran Maguire for this top 20, unsurprisingly featuring eight signings by the once great Manchester United.
20) Moises Caicedo (Brighton to Chelsea, £115m): £124m
Struggled in his first season but Chelsea will now be perfectly happy with that outlay after Caicedo returned to and possibly even improved on his Brighton form last term. Nine-figure sums are simply what’s required for world-class central midfielders these days.
19) Didier Drogba (Marseille to Chelsea, £24m): £126m
Twelve major trophies and nine goals in cup finals, including the header and winning penalty to claim Chelsea’s first Champions League trophy. The going rate for that guarantee would be far more than £126m.
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18) Andrey Kanchelskis (Manchester United to Everton, £5m): £126m
That’s more than Everton have spent on the nine players signed for a fee in the last three seasons.
17) Nick Barmby (Middlesbrough to Everton, £5.75m): £126m
Unless the seven goals Barmby scored in the 1995/1996 season to encourage Everton into his signing were all Puskas contenders we would suggest this was a gross overpayment.
16) Angel Di Maria (Real Madrid to Manchester United, £59.7m): £126m
Not an unreasonable price for what Di Maria produced before and after his time at Old Trafford. We don’t talk about what happened during it.
15) Jack Grealish (Aston Villa to Manchester City, £100m): £127m
A key part of City’s treble-winning team in 2022/2023, but it is odd for him to be City’s club-record signing.
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14) Faustino Asprilla (Parma to Newcastle, £6.7m): £127m
Asprilla would probably be labelled a flop as a result of 18 goals and 19 assists in 63 appearances had he been signed for such a high fee in the last five to ten years. Thank goodness we were gifted Apsrilla before the joy was sucked out of football.
13) Romelu Lukaku (Everton to Manchester United, £75m): £129m
It didn’t work out but you can’t doubt the logic in signing a striker who had scored 25 goals for Everton in the previous campaign for that fee if you’re currently in favour of Liverpool signing 23-goal Isak.
12) Dwight Yorke (Aston Villa to Manchester United, £12.6m): £139m
‘Ok, but what’s the greatest strike partnership in Premier League history worth?’ you ask…
11) Wayne Rooney (Everton to Manchester United, £27m): £141m
Twelve major trophies, 253 goals and 141 assists. A £141m bargain.
10) Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan to Chelsea, £31m): £142m
That works out to £6.5m per goal for a striker who left Chelsea for nothing three years later. Yikes.
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9) Paul Pogba (Juventus to Manchester United, £89m): £145m
That represents decent value for money for the Pogba playing for France while at Manchester United.
8) Fernando Torres (Liverpool to Chelsea, £50m): £154m
We’ll always have the Gary Neville goalgasm at the Nou Camp.
7) Andy Cole (Newcastle to Manchester United, £7m): £159m
…it’s worth £289m.
6) Les Ferdinand (QPR to Newcastle, £6m): £159m
To match the outlay to sign a front three of Ferdinand, Asprilla and Alan Shearer today, Newcastle would need to sign Yamal, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.
5) Rio Ferdinand (Leeds to Manchester United, £29m): £165m
Absolutely no chance any team in the world is paying that much for a defender these days.
4) Juan Sebastian Veron (Lazio to Manchester United, £28m): £175m
An unimpressive couple of seasons at United somehow persuaded Chelsea to spend £15m (or £100m) on Veron two years later.
3) Dennis Bergkamp (Inter Milan to Arsenal, £7.5m): £189m
A ten-year stint featuring eight major trophies and some wonderful moments from one of the most delightful footballers ever to grace the Premier League. Inter spent almost all of that fee on Paul Ince, as part of an extraordinary £41m total summer spend which equates to over £1bn in today’s money.
2) Stan Collymore (Nottingham Forest to Liverpool, £8.5m): £219m
That’s £45m more than the current most valuable footballer in the world, and Stan Collymore was not Lamine Yamal.
1) Alan Shearer (Blackburn to Newcastle, £15m): £225m
A 25-year-old striker who guarantees Premier League goals is essentially what Haaland is now. Add an English tax and we’re pretty much there.