The five most expensive transfer sales by Premier League clubs | OneFootball

The five most expensive transfer sales by Premier League clubs | OneFootball

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The Football Faithful

·7 August 2024

The five most expensive transfer sales by Premier League clubs

Article image:The five most expensive transfer sales by Premier League clubs

The Premier League is no stranger to big money deals in the transfer window.

We haven’t seen quite as many of them this summer, with many English clubs choosing to tighten the purse strings to keep in line with Profit and Sustainability Rules.


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Still, Leny Yoro, Amadou Onana, Riccardo Calafiori, Joshua Zirkzee, Max Kilman and Ian Maatsen have all made top-flight moves for upwards of £35m in the past couple of months.

Many of the most expensive deals, though, have been sales to overseas clubs. Aston Villa sold Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby for a combined £92m, Michael Olise joined Bayern Munich from Crystal Palace for just over £50m, and Joao Palhinha followed him to the German giants from Fulham for £43m.

Julian Alvarez is set to eclipse the lot with a £82m transfer agreed between Manchester City and Atletico Madrid. That is a huge fee, but incredibly it does not make the top five most expensive sales by Premier League clubs.

Here are the ones that make the list, with fees including add-ons.

The five most expensive transfer sales by Premier League clubs:

5. Jack Grealish – £100m

It has now been three years since Jack Grealish made the move from Aston Villa to Manchester City for nine figures, and we can safely say that he has not turned out to be the transformative signing that kind of transfer fee would demand.

The left winger started slowly at Eastlands, before heartily contributing to the club’s Treble the following season. The 2023/24 was interrupted by injuries, but Pep Guardiola rarely called upon him even when he was fit, leading to his omission from the England squad for Euro 2024. The signing of Jeremy Doku didn’t help.

4. Declan Rice – £105m

This might be the only transfer on this list that doesn’t turn out to be a waste of money, even if it’s only been one year since Arsenal paid West Ham United £100m plus £5m in performance-related add-ons for his services.

Declan Rice slotted right into the Gunners lineup last season, playing a key role in their Premier League title challenge in the heart of midfield. At 25 years of age, it still feels like the England international has another level he can reach.

3. Moises Caicedo – £115m

Under Clearlake Capital, Chelsea developed a fetish for handing Brighton cartoon-sized bags of cash, paying them £225m over the course of a single year.

The most expensive deal saw Moises Caicedo swap the south coast for west London for an initial £100m plus £15m in add-ons. It remains to be seen whether or not the Colombian proves he was worth the money following a mediocre maiden campaign at Stamford Bridge, but it certainly seems like they overpaid for the midfielder.

2. Eden Hazard – £130m

Chelsea made out like bandits when it came to selling Eden Hazard, receiving an initial £88m from Real Madrid for the Belgian international. He arrived in the Spanish capital out of shape, which was a precursor for what was to come as he continually struggled with a host of fitness issues.

To add insult to injury for Real, they ended up in shelling out a stupefying £130m to the Blues for the washed up winger through add-ons. Hazard was an inconsequential, bit-part player when they won the Champions League in 2022, and retired from football entirely 17 months later.

1. Philippe Coutinho – £142m

Gareth Bale was the most expensive Premier League sale to a foreign club, joining Real Madrid from Spurs for £85.1m (€100.8m) in 2013, until Philippe Coutinho joined Barcelona for a whopping £105m in January 2018.

Liverpool got their money’s worth for their best player, and more as it turned out. Despite the move turning out to be a failure for the Brazilian playmaker, Barça still had to pay out another £37m in add-ons.

The deal funded a series of major signings for the Reds, and the rest is history.

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