10 most expensive January transfers in Premier League history | OneFootball

Highlights

In most cases, Premier League clubs tend to save their biggest bits of business for the summer transfer window, where the market tends to be more stable and negotiations are easier to conduct. A lot of clubs are reluctant to sell their best players in the middle of a season as there is no telling just what sort of disruption that departure could have on the rest of the team.

Therefore, the majority of the most crazy transfer windows over the years have come during July and August as opposed to January. However, there have still been multiple occasions where clubs have been convinced to part with big money in the winter.

Sometimes, clubs chasing the title or a place in the top four have sensed their side needs something more and have splashed the cash to bring in that player during the season with the hope that they will make an immediate difference. Or else an offer for one of their players has been too good to turn down and the club have decided they can do without him or else have a replacement already lined up.

Here at GIVEMESPORT, we're going to be counting down the ten most expensive signings in January in Premier League history. All inclusions on this list are since transfer windows were first introduced to the league in 2002. Valuations have been taken from TransferMarkt unless stated otherwise.

10 Ferran Torres

Ferran Torres was an astute purchase for Manchester City in the summer of 2020, when they picked him up from Valencia for just £20.8m. The right winger had impressed during his three years with Los Ches and received his first call-up to the Spain senior team just two weeks after signing for City.

Despite his brimming potential, he was never a fan favourite at the Etihad and struggled to get into the side ahead of the likes of Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden. Barcelona came calling 18 months later and agreed to purchase Torres for £55m, more than doubling what City had paid for him and the Spaniard returned to his native country to immediately become one of the first names on the teamsheet at the Nou Camp.

9 Bruno Fernandes

Bruno Fernandes has gone down as one of Manchester United's best signings of the Premier League era. The Red Devils had long held an interest in the Portuguese playmaker, and they finally got their man in late January 2020, forking out £55m to pry him away from Sporting Lisbon.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side were struggling upon his arrival, slumped in seventh place in the table, but Fernandes revitalised the team and helped them end the season in formidable form. He scored eight goals and grabbed seven assists as United embarked on an unbeaten run of 14 league matches to close out the 2019/20 season, which they ended in third place and comfortably secured Champions League football for the following campaign.

8 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

The final signing of the Arsene Wenger era came on the final day of the January transfer window in 2018. Arsenal's star player Alexis Sanchez had been sold to Man United the week before, and to replace his goals, Borussia Dortmund's explosive striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was brought in for £56m.

The Gabonese international immediately hit the ground running with 10 goals in his first 14 appearances for the Gunners, and he followed that up the following campaign with 22 goals in the league, sharing the Golden Boot with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah. He was appointed club captain in October 2019, but his time in North London would end in acrimonious circumstances and he left the club by mutual consent in February 2022.

7 Aymeric Laporte

In January 2018, Manchester City were already well on their way to another league title, but Pep Guardiola still decided his star-studded team needed another quality addition. The club broke their transfer record by signing centre-back Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao for a fee of £57m.

His performances helped the Citizens romp to league glory with an unprecedented 100 points that season before they repeated the trick the following year, with the Spaniard making 51 appearances in all competitions. However, a combination of injuries and the form of other defenders at the club meant he was starting fewer games, and he left for Al Nassr in August 2023.

6 Christian Pulisic

In 2019, Chelsea were about to be handed a transfer ban for two windows and so the signing of Christian Pulisic in January proved vital. The young American was signed for £58m and immediately loaned back to Borussia Dortmund, meaning that when he finally arrived in West London in the summer, he was like a new signing at a time when the Blues were not allowed to make them.

He enjoyed a positive first season at Stamford Bridge, with 11 goals and 10 assists in 34 matches across all competitions. However, his impact lessened in the following seasons, and he managed just two goals in the 2022/23 campaign, which resulted in his sale to AC Milan at the end of the season.

5 Oscar

Oscar was one of the most exciting talents in the Premier League after Chelsea signed him from Internacional in 2012 as a 20-year-old attacking midfielder with bags of potential. He immediately slotted into the team and made no fewer than 64 appearances in all competitions in his first season of English football as he helped the Blues win the Europa League.

The Brazilian would spend another three-and-a-half years at Stamford Bridge, winning the Premier League in 2015, before Chinese side Shanghai Port came in with a colossal £60m offer for him in January 2017. Oscar accepted the deal and would make over 200 appearances for the side in the Far East, but he would never be given another opportunity to add to the 48 caps he'd won for Brazil between 2011 and 2016.

4 Mykhaylo Mudryk

Chelsea are involved for a third consecutive time and this is the first transfer on this list that took place under the ownership of Todd Boehly. The Blues had already blown through £275m in transfer fees during the summer of 2022 which saw no fewer than nine first-team players signed but remarkably, they would spend even more in January.

Mykhaylo Mudryk was a young talent whose lightning pace and dribbling ability had caught the eye of numerous top-level clubs in Europe, including Arsenal who looked to be the front-runners in the race to sign him. But Chelsea got in ahead of their London rivals and parted with £62m to sign the winger from Shakhtar Donetsk, although an even bigger acquisition was still to come.

3 Virgil van Dijk

The signing of Virgil van Dijk was arguably the biggest turning point in Jurgen Klopp's reign at Liverpool and was what transformed them from a side capable of finishing in the top 4 to challenging for the title. Pundits scoffed at the £75m fee, which at the time was a world record for a defender, but the former Southampton man more than repaid his worth in the years that followed.

He immediately slotted into a makeshift defence that was letting down its formidable attack, and once Alisson and Fabinho were added in front of and behind him the following summer, Liverpool looked like a side capable of winning trophies. Van Dijk would help the Reds win the Champions League in 2019 as well as the Premier League title the following year and was appointed club captain in the summer of 2023.

2 Enzo Fernandez

As of 2023, Enzo Fernandez is the most expensive signing of the Todd Boehly era. After his starring performances at World Cup 2022 with Argentina, Chelsea were persuaded to part with £105m to sign him from Benfica in a bid to try and rectify their season, which was going from bad to worse under the management of Graham Potter.

The signing broke the British transfer record and is the most expensive acquisition made by a Premier League club in a January transfer window, but the Argentinian did not have the immediate impact expected of him. The Blues would win just three of their final 18 games of the season as they finished in 12th place in the table, their lowest league position since 1994.

1 Philippe Coutinho

Philippe Coutinho was one of the best bits of business Liverpool ever carried out, signed him from Inter Milan for £8.5m in 2013, before selling him on to Barcelona for a monumental profit five years later. The Brazilian playmaker was a fan favourite during his time at Anfield, but it was his sale that allowed the Reds to bolster their squad elsewhere, including the aforementioned Virgil van Dijk.

It cost £105m for Barcelona to prise him away for Liverpool and that fee could have risen as high as £142m based on performance-based add-ons. However, Coutinho never lived up to the Neymar replacement tag placed on him, and he was sold to Aston Villa for £17m in 2022, where he again failed to make the necessary impact.