If Liverpool want Anthony Gordon and Manchester United are after Jarrad Branthwaite, they must break long-standing transfer records both teams helped set.
Arsenal
Paul Merson – £5m (to Middlesbrough in July 1997)
Nicolas Anelka – £22.3m (to Real Madrid in August 1999)
Marc Overmars – £25m (to Barcelona in July 2000)
Cesc Fabregas – £25.4m (to Barcelona in August 2011)
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – £35m (to Liverpool in August 2017)
Conclusion: Arsenal really are rotten at selling players. Four of their last five record signings left for nothing. And even if Emile Smith Rowe achieves all the add-ons in his £34m Fulham transfer, his final fee would fall just short of what the Gunners extracted from Liverpool for Oxlade-Chamberlain at the same age with a year left on his contract.
Aston Villa
Dwight Yorke – £12.6m (to Manchester United in August 1998)
James Milner – £18m plus Stephen Ireland (to Manchester City in August 2010)
Stewart Downing – £20m (to Liverpool in July 2011)
Christian Benteke – £32.5m (to Liverpool in July 2015)
Jack Grealish – £100m (to Man City, August 2021)
No club has made more money through player sales in summer 2024 but Grealish’s benchmark looks likely to be passed only when Man Utd panic and spend £150million on John McGinn, or Chelsea suddenly realise only Emiliano Martinez can save them.
Bournemouth
Lewis Grabban – £3m (to Norwich in June 2014)
Tommy Elphick – £3.2m (to Aston Villa in June 2016)
Matt Ritchie – £12m (to Newcastle in July 2016)
Tyrone Mings – £20m rising to £25m (to Aston Villa in July 2019)
Nathan Ake – £40m (to Manchester City in August 2020)
It is not immediately obvious who might take the Bournemouth crown and displace Grabban to make this an entirely Premier League-era list.
Brentford
Ezri Konsa – £12m (to Aston Villa in July 2019)
Chris Mepham – £12.2m (to Bournemouth in January 2019)
Neal Maupay – £20m (to Brighton in August 2019)
Said Benrahma – £20m plus add-ons (to West Ham in January 2021)
Ollie Watkins – £28m rising to £33m (to Aston Villa in September 2020)
Brentford have absolutely nailed this transfer malarkey; those five cost a combined £8.6m and were flipped for considerably more. Ivan Toney seemed destined for that treatment next but fate has seemingly decided against it.
Brighton
Leonardo Ulloa – £8m (to Leicester in July 2014)
Anthony Knockaert – £10.5m (to Fulham in July 2020)
Ben White – £50m (to Arsenal in July 2021)
Marc Cucurella – £55m rising to £62m (to Chelsea in August 2022)
Moises Caicedo – £100m rising to £115m (to Chelsea in August 2023)
The sales of Adam Virgo to Celtic for £1.8m in July 2005 and Liam Bridcutt to Sunderland for £2.5m in January 2014 have been callously disregarded by Todd Boehly.
MORE TRANSFER COVERAGE FROM F365
👉 Five-year Premier League net spend table
👉 The 20 biggest transfers in the world in the 2024 summer transfer window
Chelsea
Juan Mata – £37.1m (to Manchester United in January 2014)
David Luiz – £40m (to PSG in June 2014)
Oscar – £52m (to Shanghai SIPG in January 2017)
Diego Costa – £57.1m (to Atletico Madrid in January 2018)
Eden Hazard – £88.5m rising to £150m (to Real Madrid in June 2019)
Five players signed for a combined £138m and sold – each for a profit – at a cumulative £274.2m. Their pure profit-hunting academy player-shedding, along with a general decline in clubs being quite as financially ridiculous as 2019 Real Madrid, means Hazard might be there for a while.
Crystal Palace
Chris Armstrong – £4.5m (to Tottenham in July 1995)
Andy Johnson – £8.6m (to Everton in May 2006)
Wilfried Zaha – £15m (to Manchester United in January 2013)
Yannick Bolasie – £25m (to Everton in August 2016)
Aaron Wan-Bissaka – £45m rising to £50m (to Manchester United in July 2019)
Michael Olise has been sold to Bayern Munich in a deal reportedly matching the terms of Wan-Bissaka’s move to Manchester United. It feels like he has a better chance of achieving the add-ons.
Everton
Francis Jeffers – £8.25m (to Arsenal in June 2001)
Wayne Rooney – £27m (to Manchester United in September 2004)
Marouane Fellaini – £27.5m (to Manchester United in September 2013)
John Stones – £47.5m (to Manchester City in August 2016)
Romelu Lukaku – £75m (to Manchester United in July 2017)
Jarrad Branthwaite to Manchester United isn’t happening in part because there would need to be a new addition here, exceeding what they paid for Lukaku.
Fulham
Steve Finnan – £3.5m (to Liverpool in June 2003)
Louis Saha – £12.83m (to Manchester United in January 2004)
Mousa Dembele – £15m (to Tottenham in August 2012)
Ryan Sessegnon – £25m plus Josh Onomah (to Tottenham in August 2019)
Aleksandar Mitrovic – £50m (to Al-Hilal in August 2023)
Marco Silva was not particularly happy about it but Fulham eventually received twice as much as their previous record when Mitrovic forced his Saudi Arabia move.
Ipswich
John Wark – £450,000 (to Liverpool in March 1984)
Brian Gayle – £750,000 (to Sheffield United in September 1991)
Jason Dozzell – £1.9m (to Tottenham in August 1993)
Kieron Dyer – £6.5m (to Newcastle in July 1999)
Connor Wickham – £8.1m rising to £12m (to Sunderland in June 2011)
Only one of those players joined a team which would win the European Cup mere months later. Hint: it wasn’t Wickham.
Leicester
Emile Heskey – £11m (to Liverpool in March 2000)
N’Golo Kante – £30m (to Chelsea in July 2016)
Danny Drinkwater – £35m (to Chelsea in August 2017)
Riyad Mahrez – £60m (to Manchester City in July 2018)
Harry Maguire – £85m (to Manchester United in August 2019)
Leicester really did make that lark of buying low and selling high once every year while being upwardly mobile look quite simple up until the precise point they thought they had outgrown the selling bit. They have also pretty much borked the centre-half market for the foreseeable future.
Liverpool
Robbie Fowler – £12m (to Leeds in November 2001)
Xabi Alonso – £30m (to Real Madrid in August 2009)
Fernando Torres – £50m (to Chelsea in January 2011)
Luis Suarez – £65m (to Barcelona in July 2014)
Philippe Coutinho – £105m rising to £142m (to Barcelona in January 2018)
Liverpool more than doubled their money on Torres, almost tripled it on both Alonso and Suarez, made some of that sweet pure profit on Fowler long before it was actually a thing and did some silly maths with Coutinho.
Manchester City
Alvaro Negredo – £23.8m (to Valencia in July 2015)
Danilo – £34.1m (to Juventus in August 2019)
Leroy Sane – £40.9m (to Bayern Munich in July 2020)
Ferran Torres – £46.7m (to Barcelona in January 2021)
Raheem Sterling – £47.5m (to Chelsea in July 2022)
Money is no object so Manchester City have never had to make a fortune on any one player. Their cheat code sales amount to more than £250m already.
Manchester United
Mark Hughes – £2m (to Barcelona in May 1986)
Paul Ince – £7.5m (to Inter in June 1995)
Jaap Stam – £15.3m (to Lazio in August 2001)
David Beckham – £24.5m (to Real Madrid in June 2003)
Cristiano Ronaldo – £80m (to Real Madrid in June 2009)
It is genuinely intriguing to wonder who will break this Manchester United record and finally dislodge Sparky. Is there a Turkish club mad enough to give them their money back on Antony?
Newcastle
Paul Gascoigne – £2.2m (to Tottenham in July 1988)
Andy Cole – £6m plus Keith Gillespie (to Manchester United in January 1995)
Dietmar Hamann – £8m (to Liverpool in June 1999)
Jonathan Woodgate – £13.4m (to Real Madrid in August 2004)
Andy Carroll – £35m (to Liverpool in January 2011)
With Elliot Anderson’s £35m switch to Nottingham Forest, the two biggest sales in Newcastle history were academy products. Anthony Gordon would change that trend if Liverpool cough up like they did for Carroll.
Nottingham Forest
Roy Keane – £3.75m (to Manchester United, July 1993)
Stan Collymore – £8.5m (to Liverpool, July 1995)
Oliver Burke – £13m (to RB Leipzig, August 2016)
Britt Assombalonga – £15m (to Middlesbrough in July 2017)
Brennan Johnson – £47.5m (to Tottenham in September 2023)
That is a significant jump but perhaps the most important part of the Johnson deal was the date – completed too late to avoid a points deduction for FFP breaches.
Southampton
Dean Richards – £8.1m (to Tottenham in September 2001)
Gareth Bale – £10m (to Tottenham in May 2007)
Luke Shaw – £27m (to Manchester United in June 2014)
Sadio Mane – £34m (to Liverpool in June 2016)
Virgil van Dijk – £75m (to Liverpool in January 2018)
They used to be the absolute best at this.
MORE TRANSFER COVERAGE FROM F365
👉 Five-year Premier League net spend table
👉 The 20 biggest transfers in the world in the 2024 summer transfer window
Tottenham
Paul Gascoigne – £5.5m (to Lazio in June 1992)
Michael Carrick – £18.6m (to Manchester United in July 2006)
Dimitar Berbatov – £30.75m (to Manchester United in September 2008)
Gareth Bale – £85.3m (to Real Madrid in September 2013)
Harry Kane – £86.4m rising to £100m (to Bayern Munich in August 2023)
Those last three entries reek of Daniel Levy. And there is Gazza, clinging on for dear life.
West Ham
David Unsworth – £3m (to Aston Villa in June 1998)
John Hartson – £7.5m (to Wimbledon in January 1999)
Rio Ferdinand – £18m (to Leeds in November 2000)
Dimitri Payet – £25m (to Marseille in January 2017)
Declan Rice – £100m rising to £105m (to Arsenal in July 2023)
The only way Rice will be removed from this throne is if someone appoints David Moyes and Michail Antonio is made available for transfer.
Wolves
Steven Fletcher – £14m (to Sunderland in August 2012)
Helder Costa – £16m (to Leeds in July 2020)
Diogo Jota – £41m (to Liverpool in September 2020)
Ruben Neves – £47m (to Al-Hilal in June 2023)
Matheus Nunes – £53m (to Manchester City in September 2023)
Robbie Keane (£6m to Coventry in August 1999) and Matt Jarvis (£10.75m to West Ham in August 2012) were usurped last year. Steven Fletcher’s head remains intact for now.