Is there a curse on Premier League transfers above £70million? Arsenal’s record signing Declan Rice has done his bit to buck the trend and Moises Caicedo has finally come good for Chelsea, but this list remains grim.
Including an alarming number of flops, we have ranked the 17 players who cost a Premier League club £70m or more.
17) Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea
Chelsea bought Romelu Lukaku for the second time in 2021, splashing out £97.5m on the Belgian, who was given another chance to make a name for himself at Stamford Bridge. He had spent time on loan at Everton and West Brom during his first spell, playing the best football of his Premier League career for the former.
After a permanent and successful move to the Toffees, Lukaku joined Manchester United for big money (more on that soon) before a move to Inter and then Chelsea for the second time. Many expected Lukaku to be the signing of the season, F365 included, but he flopped disastrously having dug his own grave by publicly begging Inter to re-sign him.
The ill-advised interview with Sky Italia ensured the former Red Devils striker’s career in west London was as good as done. He did, at least, earn a loan move back to Inter for the 2022/23 campaign. He spent last season at AS Roma and the Blues finally cut ties with him in the summer when he signed for Napoli.
16) Antony to Manchester United
Antony might have age on his side but we cannot see how he becomes a success at Old Trafford. He cost a ridiculous £80m during Erik ten Hag’s first summer at the club, with United paying his former employers Ajax way above his value having left it so late in the 2022 summer transfer window.
United ended up spending more than they ever have before in a single window when Ten Hag arrived, most notably signing Lisandro Martinez, Casemiro and Antony.
Antony came to the Premier League known for his silky skills and wand of a left foot and a goal on his debut against Arsenal was the perfect start, but it was only downhill from there. He now has more yellow cards (14) than goals (12) or assists (5) for United in 93 appearances and even without the conclusive evidence of the statistics, the Brazilian has been extremely poor and looked nothing like a £70m+ winger.
Having signed for £80m, Antony is now worth £16.6m on Transfermarkt and United would be lucky to get that much for him. What a bloody disaster.
15) Jadon Sancho to Manchester United
Manchester United have had some absolute howlers in the transfer market over the years and the signing of Jadon Sancho is one of the worst. The Red Devils chased the England winger for well over a year while he was at Borussia Dortmund before eventually landing him for around £73m in the summer of 2021.
Fast forward three-and-a-half years and Sancho is finished at Old Trafford. He is now on loan at Chelsea after a very productive six months at ex-club Dortmund and United stand to make around £25m from his triggered sale at the end of the season. It is only because he will probably be sold for more and cost less than Antony that he is ranked higher than the Brazilian.
Perhaps the most costly example of ‘Bundesliga tax’, Sancho was never able to find his game for United and he lost every hope of turning things around after his public dispute with Ten Hag.
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14) Nicolas Pepe to Arsenal
Nicolas Pepe cost Arsenal £72m when he signed from Lille in 2019. There has been talk before and since that then-head coach Unai Emery preferred and wanted to sign Wilfried Zaha, but was given the Crystal Palace star’s fellow Ivory Coast international instead. This Arsenal fan right here was ecstatic when news of Pepe’s transfer broke, nonetheless. What a poor – yet devilishly handsome and charming – sod.
Although Pepe is widely regarded as a massive flop, he did have his moments in an Arsenal shirt. He came up big when Mikel Arteta led the Londoners to FA Cup glory during the Covid-19 pandemic, providing an assist in the semi-final and final. Eighteen goal contributions in his debut year was a decent return, if not a bit underwhelming for someone who cost so much money.
The following season, Pepe claimed 21, including 10 goals in 29 Premier League matches. He came second in the voting for Arsenal’s Player of the Year, though they did finish eighth so some perspective is required. 21/22 was rubbish and the Ivorian spent 12 months back in France with Nice before his contract was terminated in the summer of 2023 following the club’s inability to sell him to Saudi Arabia.
13) Kepa Arrizabalaga to Chelsea
The former Athletic Club shot-stopper (that term is being used loosely) is the most expensive goalkeeper of all time, joining Chelsea for a mind-blowing £72m in August 2018.
Since the move, he has only played 12 times for his country, lost his spot as first-choice goalkeeper after two seasons, was replaced by a goalkeeper the Blues signed for around £56m less, who would go on to become the best in his position in Europe before falling off a cliff and giving Kepa another chance to impress.
Football is a funny sport and of course Kepa enjoyed briefly being Real Madrid’s No. 1 goalkeeper last season. He is now on loan at Bournemouth. It’s a natural career trajectory, folks.
Kepa isn’t doing too bad on the south coast, to be fair. He is not quite playing at a £72m level, but yeah, he is doing just fine.
12) Harry Maguire to Manchester United
Harry Maguire was signed for a monstrous £80m from Leicester City in the 2019 summer transfer window and did well enough under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to be given the captaincy. That unfortunately resulted in even more pressure when the colossal transfer fee was already doing a number on him.
Pressure may well be the main reason for Maguire’s failings, and that argument has only gained weight given his stellar performances last season after being stripped of the captaincy by Ten Hag before 2023/24 kicked off.
The England centre-back is a few places better off than the last time we updated this list (January, 2024). I have a lot of respect for him considering he is still performing pretty well and willing to represent a club with whom he has been consistently scapegoated and abused. Yes, £80m was far too much money and played more than a part in his struggles, but he really wasn’t that bad.
11) Paul Pogba to Manchester United
Ah, Paul Pogba. What a player. Manchester United broke the world transfer record in 2016 when they paid £89m to sign the player they released four years before. It is safe to say the Red Devils did not get the player they thought they were buying.
Pogba’s first season back at Old Trafford was actually very good. He scored nine goals and got six assists as Jose Mourinho’s side won the Carabao Cup and Europa League, which was their most recent trophy until Ten Hag ruined all the fun and made United fairly competent in 22/23. The French international played in all 15 European matches and scored in the final win over Ajax. But his (second) debut season at the club was as good as it got for Pogba.
Six goals and 10 assists in the league was a decent return in 17/18, but a bit disappointing for a player of his calibre. The following year was more like it as Pogba scored 16 and assisted 11 in 47 games across all competitions, but then the wheels really started falling off in Solskjaer’s first full season at the helm.
After running the show for France at the World Cup a year before, injuries greatly hindered Pogba’s 19/20 campaign. After another below-average season, Pogba returned to Juventus, joining the Serie A juggernauts on a free transfer for the second time in his career.
He is currently a free agent due to a doping ban. Pogba has had a strange career.
10) Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United
Somewhere in between Lukaku’s two spells at Chelsea, he found himself at Manchester United, for whom he looked out of place from his first day at the club.
It simply wasn’t a good fit for a player who joined for £75m after banging in 87 goals in 166 matches for Everton. But 55 goal contributions in 96 United appearances was hardly disastrous, and the fact he was sold for only £8m less than he was bought saves Lukaku from further criticism.
9) Darwin Nunez to Liverpool
Darwin Nunez is definitely at the right club in terms of fanbase. Liverpool supporters have rallied around the Uruguayan from day one, making him one of their own. In terms of an actual style on the pitch, he looks a bit lost and always has.
Roberto Firmino was never an incredible goalscorer as Jurgen Klopp’s No. 9, but he offered so much to the team and brought the best out of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, which Nunez has been unable to do.
At the age of 25, the £73m forward is a unique, yet very raw talent and has time to polish his game.
8) Wesley Fofana to Chelsea
Similar to Man United’s signing of Sancho, Fofana was pursued by Chelsea for some time before the transfer became official. There was talk of a fee that would eclipse Harry Maguire’s but it did not quite happen. He still, obviously, cost an absolute fortune (around £70m).
Fofana could only manage 17 Premier League appearances in 22/23 and didn’t play once last season due to another serious injury. Fofana only missed one of the Blues’ opening 13 Premier League matches this season and it was through suspension, which was a lovely start for Enzo Maresca, who made the wise decision not to include the Frenchman in his Europa Conference League squad.
After coming off with a hamstring injury on December 1, Fofana has not played, which is quite concerning. He really needs to stop getting injured, which is easier said than done.
7) Kai Havertz to Chelsea
Chelsea somehow managed to sell Kai Havertz to Arsenal for £65m, which was a minor miracle given his form for the Blues. His start in north London was indifferent but the debated transfer became justifiable when he became a striker.
Having paid around £72m for Havertz, the Blues only made a £7m loss on a player who was expected to fall out of favour under Mauricio Pochettino. That is pretty good business and one of the reasons the player ranks so high on this list, the other two major factors being the low standard, and the fact he happened to score the only goal in a Champions League final.
Scoring that goal against Manchester City ensured Havertz will always be remembered at Stamford Bridge. Without it, the German might be one of the biggest flops in Chelsea’s history.
6) Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea
British record transfer Enzo Fernandez joined the Blues in January 2023 and hasn’t done much wrong, but had not really done anything noteworthy until Maresca joined in the summer.
Fernandez starred for Argentina at the 2022 World Cup, being named Young Player of the Tournament ahead of Croatia’s Josko Gvardiol, prompting Todd Boehly to spend all of the 2023 winter transfer window trying to sign him from Benfica. They eventually settled on a record fee paid by a Premier League club, reported to be close to £107m.
The 23-year-old midfielder still has a lot to prove in England, but something tells me he will be just fine. Living up to that price is a whole other story, though. He has to basically be the best in his position for the foreseeable. Good luck fella.
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5) Josko Gvardiol to Manchester City
Manchester City usually do well in the transfer market. Anyone signed for a modest fee – your Negredos and Nolitos – do not have a lot of pressure to succeed, while the guys brought in for mega bucks tend to justify it within a season or two.
Josko Gvardiol is one of the best young defenders in the world and his move to the Treble winners was met with moans and groans from rival fans as it looked like they had managed to upgrade on the incredibly consistent Nathan Ake. Ake initially outperformed the Croatian, but the 22-year-old adapted to the Premier League before the turn of the year and was arguably the best defender in the division in the second half of 23/24.
His performances have dipped somewhat this term but that is because the entire City team have forgotten how to play football, so we aren’t judging him too hard.
4) Moises Caicedo to Chelsea
Former Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo quietly thrived for Chelsea last season after a noisy debut which had everyone scratching their heads. Producing seven out of tens every week is pretty much what you want from your defensive midfielder, but for a fee expected to reach £115m, is it enough?
Thankfully for Chelsea and Caicedo, he has really stepped things up this season. This is the player we loved at Brighton.
3) Jack Grealish to Manchester City
The £100m Manchester City paid for Aston Villa is still an eyebrow-raising fee despite Jack Grealish being on the podium for £70m+ signings.
Grealish had a great 22/23 Treble-winning campaign, improving massively on his first season at City, but still did not look like a £100m footballer. The only leeway he gets is that he cost what he was worth to Villa, where he was club captain and their best player by a country mile.
The 29-year-old took his time to adapt to life at the Etihad, initially underwhelming fans after City paid a record fee for a British player. Once again, there is a bit of leeway as it is not an overnight process becoming a cog in the Pep Guardiola machine, but at £100m, you would hope for a much more seamless transition.
He more than played his part as the Cityzens won the Treble two seasons ago playing 50 times across all competitions, which is impressive considering how much Guardiola loves to rotate. Sixteen goal contributions sounds a little underwhelming but this guy goes further than stats.
This season, His lack of goal involvements are under the microscope more than ever as City continue to drop points every week.
2) Declan Rice to Arsenal
Declan Rice has been superb in the Arsenal midfield and there is no doubt that he is the first player on this list to be absolutely worth the money.
This is a signing Arsenal fans would not have considered possible a few years ago, but this is the magnitude of the club’s turnaround under Arteta. Being able to attract Rice is a great sign but there are question marks over his best position in midfield. Is he an out-and-out six or better used as a box-to-box eight? It doesn’t really matter. He is brilliant wherever he plays.
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1) Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool
This was never, ever, ever, EVER in doubt.
Virgil van Dijk’s arrival flicked a switch at Anfield. Those silly dropped points against bottom-half sides like Swansea City and West Brom were behind them the day the Dutchman walked through the door. He sorted out their defence without breaking a sweat and was joined by world-class goalkeeper Alisson six months after joining, in a transfer that completed the puzzle for Klopp and made the Reds European, and then Premier League champions.
Since joining Liverpool from Southampton for a fee in the region of £76m in January 2018, Van Dijk has won eight trophies, been named PFA Players’ Player of the Year, Premier League Player of the Season, UEFA Men’s Player of the Year, Champions League Defender of the Season, Liverpool Fans’ Player of the Season, Liverpool Players’ Player of the Season, Football Supporters’ Federation Player of the Year, and been in the PFA Team of the Year four and UEFA Team of the Year three times. Not too shabby.
He is a rare case of a £70m-plus Premier League signing not turning out to be absolutely pants.
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