03 Sep 2026 10:00:37
I saw this article and in line with all the money we "wasted" over the past 2 years perhaps we have bought cheaply.
Most expensive Premier League transfer fees adjusted for inflation
1. Alan Shearer to Newcastle (1996) – £15m > £236.9m
2. Rio Ferdinand to Manchester United (2002) – £33.3m > £198.5m
3. Juan Sebastian Veron to Manchester United (2001) – £28.1m > £178.5m
4. Stan Collymore to Liverpool (1995) – £8.5m > £176.8m
5. Fernando Torres to Chelsea (2011) – £50m > £157.8m
6. Dennis Bergkamp to Arsenal (1995) – £7.5m > £156m
7. Andy Cole to Manchester United (1995) – £7m > £153.8m
8. Andriy Shevchenko to Chelsea (2006) – £30.8m > £152.6m
9. Dwight Yorke to Manchester United (1998) – £12.6m > £144.7m
10.
Paul Pogba to Manchester United (2016) – £89.3m > £141.6m
11. Wayne Rooney to Manchester United (2004) – £25.6m > £140.2m
12. Rio Ferdinand to Leeds (2000) – £18m > £139.8m
13. Tino Asprilla to Newcastle (1996) – £6.7m > £139.3m
14. Jack Grealish to Manchester City (2021) – £100m > £132.7m
15. Alexander Isak to Liverpool (2025) – £125m > £132.6m
16. Didier Drogba to Chelsea (2004) – £24m > £131.5m
17. Moises Caicedo to Chelsea (2023) – £115m > £131.2m
18. Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea (2021) – £97.5m > £129.4m
19. Angel Di Maria to Manchester United (2014) – £59.7m > £128.7m
20. Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea (2023)
Interested in people's comments.
{Ed001's Note - this is nonsense and has no relation to inflation at all. Absolute fantasy nonsense.}
03 Sep 2026 11:07:11
If you perhaps doubled those fees, you would be around the correct answer.
03 Sep 2026 11:28:22
I can understand inflation on the likes on food and gas but people? Really? How can inflation work on people? It's already stupid, the prices these players are going for.
It's more greedy agents, sponsors and clubs than anything else that the prices are sky rocketing.
03 Sep 2026 11:43:25
Doesn't work like that, chaps. And those figures are nonsense. And no, if u doubled them it wouldn't be like that
03 Sep 2026 11:47:06
Actually, the more I read it, the more laughable those figures are. Jesus, who wrote the original article?
03 Sep 2026 12:26:15
I think the only way to look at "inflation" in football is to compare what clubs generated back then and now!
03 Sep 2026 12:48:38
I wrote a post a few weeks back applying inflation based on our revenues (as a proxy for all clubs).
Not perfect maths - that would require a thesis - but a decent approximation.
03 Sep 2026 13:18:03
Whilst the annual inflation rate from 1996 to now is only about 2.5 - 3%, a lot of people forget that 'football inflation' is much higher; it's also harder to calculate for, as different aspects of the game seem to increase at different rates, but a relatively safe, rough number comes closer to about 9%. Some of these numbers certainly feel overinflated and inaccurate, especially considering that there's a 6.1% spread in his calculations, ranging from about 4.5 - 10.5% annually.
The author used total Premier League revenue growth as the basis for his model, which is not the most accurate way to calculate for inflation on transfers, and I'm sure he knows it, but also knows it would likely give him the most dramatic figures.
03 Sep 2026 13:58:54
To do it properly you would probably have to calculate each year independently based on averages across all transfers that season, removing outliers. Plus, I would be willing to wager half of these initial figures are incorrect anyway because there would be figures reported without add ons, or some with add ons that were never achieved etc.
Then, additionally, you have all the additional costs and fees that are never made publicly available and are likely just as volatile and inconsistent.
I don't trust "journalists" of today to tell me what day it is, let alone anything of substance like this.
03 Sep 2026 12:49:37
Say how you feel ED01! It's good for the soul!!!!???????
03 Sep 2026 14:23:59
This is a perfect example of why ed002 disliked discussing financials.
What increase index is being proposed as "inflation"? For example RPI has increased from 152.4 in July 1996 to 419.1 in July 2026, which is 175% increase over 30 years. running close to 6% per annum. However, that is only one of the many indices we could use.
I am more concerned that despite spending £100m we are still discussing fielding players out of position. We really need get out of this 'square pegs in round holes' mentality.
We also need to appoint an industry savvy director of football. Preferably not an ex-player, who skipped school to play football and can barely negotiate driving in his supercar, let alone negotiate his way through a boardroom and football transfer politics.