Biggest transfer fees adjusted for inflation RANKED
Morgan Rogers is Chelsea’s new record signing and has become the most expensive Englishman in history – but he wouldn’t even crack the top 25 signings in Premier League history when we take inflation into account.
Premier League revenues and spending have blown out of proportion in recent years, to the point where it’s hard to know what’s good value for money anymore.
Eyebrows will be raised at the £117m fee Chelsea have spent on Rogers, just like they would have at fees £100m lower than that 30 years ago.
We often wonder how much a great player of the past would have cost in today’s money. Fortunately, football finance expert Kieran Maguire has devised a system to adjust historic transfer fees for football inflation.
Maguire’s model takes into account the collective revenues of Premier League clubs and is based on the three largest transfer fees paid per season in the competition’s history.
He openly admits it isn’t a fool-proof method, but it’s as good as we’ve got. After all, football inflation has exploded at a greater rate than everyday inflation.
The findings are interesting. Rogers’ £117m move ranks at just 29th among the most expensive Premier League transfers adjusted for inflation, and not the second place it is in terms of the actual fee.
Instead, the top spot is taken by Alan Shearer’s £15m move to Newcastle in 1996. A fee like that would get you an average player these days, but back then it was a world-record deal. Safe to say it worked out pretty well.
Shearer’s previous move to Blackburn in 1992 would also be worth marginally more than Elliot Anderson’s move to Manchester City this summer, which until Rogers’ move was the most expensive deal of the year so far.
It’s also eye-catching that a move as recent as, say, Jack Grealish’s to Manchester City would already be worth more than £30m more now than it was when it happened five years ago.
Manchester United make up half of the entries in the top 10, mainly with moves from the late 90s and early 2000s. Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are also represented along with Newcastle.
The top 40 even includes business by the likes of Leeds and Middlesbrough.
Here are the top 40 most expensive Premier League transfers adjusted for inflation by Maguire’s model.
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) – £106.8m > £127.5m
21. Michael Essien to Chelsea (2005) – £24.4m > £127.2m
22. Les Ferdinand to Newcastle (1995) – £6m > £124.8m
23. Florian Wirtz to Liverpool (2025) – £116m > £123.1m
24. Jaap Stam to Manchester United (1998) – £10.6m > £121.8m
25. Robinho to Manchester City (2008) – £32.5m > £121.7m
26. Ruud van Nistelrooy to Manchester United (2001) – £19m > £120.7m
27. Declan Rice to Arsenal (2023) – £105m > £119.8m
28. Sergio Aguero to Manchester City (2011) – £38m > £117.3m
29. Morgan Rogers to Chelsea (2026) – £117m > £117m
30. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink to Chelsea (2000) – £15m > £116.5m
31. Alan Shearer to Blackburn (1992) – £3.3m > £116.5m
32. Elliot Anderson to Manchester City (2026) – £116m > £116m
33. Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United (2008) – £30.8m > £115.1m
34. Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United (2017) – £75m > £112.6m
35. Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool (2018) – £75m > £112.6m
36. Harry Maguire to Manchester United (2019) – £80m > £112.4m
37. Fabrizio Ravanelli to Middlesbrough (1996) – £7m > £110.6m
38. Andy Carroll to Liverpool (2011) – £35m > £110.4m
39. Chris Sutton to Blackburn (1994) – £5m > £109.9m
40. Ricardo Carvalho to Chelsea (2004) – £20m > £109.6m
READ MORE: An outrageous Premier League XI that cost less than £117m Morgan Rogers
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name Chelsea’s 25 most expensive signings in history?
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