Chelsea are bidding to be the world’s biggest spenders in the summer window for the fourth consecutive season, but they currently trail Liverpool and Arsenal.
It’s been a record-breaking window for the Premier League champions, underlined by Chelsea’s inability to keep up.
All fees and figures are taken from*Transfermarkt.* The 20 biggest deals of the summer are here.
10) Sunderland – £142.59m
Nine first-team signings have come in. We’re not sure they’re finished, either.
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9) Real Madrid – £144.4m
They had already dropped £50m on Dean Huijsen and £8.5m on a few weeks of Trent Alexander-Arnold before they agreed to sign man-child Franco Mastantuono for an awful lot of money. And then came Alvaro Carreras for another £43m.
8) Nottingham Forest – £151.23m
There was always a sense that Evangelos Marinakis was waiting to get Crystal Palace out of the way before sanctioning a heavy spend to Europa-proof Nuno’s squad. Three players have cost more than £30m apiece and Arnaud Kalimuendo wasn’t much less.
7) Atletico Madrid – £151.4m
Diego Simeone rebuilds again, with 10 permanent signings through the door, eight of whom are between the ages of 22 and 27. Alex Baena is the most expensive of the bunch.
6) Manchester City – £153.21m
That’s the price of a Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolves, a Rayan Cherki from Lyon, a Tijanji Reijnders from AC Milan, a Sverre Nypan from Rosenborg, and a James Trafford from Burnley, and all of them feel like bargains.
5) Tottenham Hotspur – £182.4m
Spurs have confirmed their eighth summer signing, Xavi Simons, which takes them up to fifth above Man City and friends.
4) Manchester United – £208.4m
The Red Devils are back near the top of this list after making Benjamin Sesko their third major summer signing after Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha. Ruben Amorim would ‘love’ two more…
3) Chelsea – £246.1m
They were the top spenders in the summers of 2024, 2023 and 2022 and will be up there in 2025 thanks to pre-arranged moves for Estevao, Dario Essugo, Mamadou Sarr and Kendry Paez. Throw in the £30m signing of Liam Delap and the Blues were already making very expensive waves before they signed Joao Pedro for an initial £55m and Jamie Gittens and Jorrel Hato for not much less.
2) Arsenal – £254.9m
The long-awaited and interminably drawn-out arrival of Viktor Gyokeres nudged Arsenal up towards a £200m summer but has plenty of final-piece-of-the-puzzle vibes. Then came Eberechi Eze for another £60m.
1) Liverpool – £289.5m
Florian Wirtz has cost an initial £100m (yes, it could rise to £116m but we’re not worried about add-ons on this particular list) and now have the top two most expensive signings of the summer after confirming the arrival of Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt. Full-backs Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez have joined for £29.5m and £40m respectively, and we have also added the £25m on Giorgi Mamardashvili as that transfer will be counted in this summer’s accounts. Giovanni Leoni edges the champions closer to the £300m mark.
READ MORE: Liverpool seventh in five-year Premier League net spend table after Luis Diaz sale