The transfer window remains silly season when it comes to the Premier League and their money as Deadline Day 2026 has brought one of the biggest deals of all time.
Manchester City will pay Chelsea a whopping £125 million for Enzo Fernandez after the two clubs came to an agreement on Tuesday.
That is not just the most money City have ever spent on a player; it matches the record fee paid by Liverpool last year to sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle United.
It also continues an extraordinary summer of spending by City, who also broke the £100 million barrier to nab Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest and bought Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille for over £81m. That is a gargantuan amount of money to splash on just midfield alone.
They are not the only Premier League side to invest very heavily in their squad in this transfer window. Chelsea have brought in around 12 new signings, the most expensive of whom was Morgan Rogers, joining the Blues from Aston Villa in a £117 million mega deal.
That means three of the five biggest signings ever made by Premier League clubs have been completed this summer, with another happening just last year. The outlier in that list is, remarkably, Fernandez, who swapped Benfica for Chelsea for just under £107 million in January 2023.
Just outside the top five is Liverpool’s blockbuster move for Bradley Barcola, which cost them £106 million to prise the winger away from PSG this week. It’s the third time the Reds have paid over £100 million for a player, all of which have come in the past year.
Barcola could yet rise in the list of biggest transfer fees as there is an additional £17 million in potential add-ons included in the deal.
The biggest transfer fees ever paid by Premier League clubs:
=1. Enzo Fernandez – Chelsea to Manchester City (£125m/€144.5m)
=1. Alexander Isak – Newcastle United to Liverpool (£125m/€144.5m)
3. Morgan Rogers – Aston Villa to Chelsea (£117m/€137.3m)
4. Elliot Anderson – Nottingham Forest to Manchester City (£116m/€135.5m)
5. Enzo Fernandez – Benfica to Chelsea (£106.8m/€121m)
6. Bradley Barcola – Paris Saint-Germain to Liverpool (£106m/€125m)
7. Jack Grealish – Aston Villa to Manchester City (£100m/€117.7m)
8. Florian Wirtz – Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool (£100m/€117.5m)
9. Declan Rice – West Ham United to Arsenal (£100m/€116.5m)
10. Moises Caicedo – Brighton & Hove Albion to Chelsea (£100m/€116.3m)
Note: Figures in Euros are converted at the exchange rate at the time of the transfer. All fees via Wikipedia.
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