Morgan Rogers’ £117m switch from Aston Villa to Chelsea and Elliot Anderson’s £116 million move from Nottingham Forest to Manchester City each broke the record for the most expensive British player of all time in July 2026.
New figures, though, show that neither transfer has threatened the most expensive moves ever in the Premier League when they are adjusted for inflation.
Football finance experts Valuball have compiled a list of deals in today’s money based on a range of comprehensively calculated data.
Here’s how they rank the most expensive Premier League signing ever, plus a look at where more recent signings stand on the all-time list.
10) Paul Pogba – Manchester United, £141.6m (£89.3m)
Originally part of United’s academy side, Pogba left United for Juventus as a 19-year-old in 2012 and returned from the Italian club for a world-record fee in 2016, when Jose Mourinho saw him as integral to his vision of success.
The Europa League and EFL Cup titles of his first season were Pogba’s only trophies at the club, leaving on a free transfer in 2022, having won the World Cup with France in 2018.
9) Dwight Yorke – Manchester United, £144.7m (£12.6m)
“If I’d had a gun at the time, I would have shot him,” then-Aston Villa manager John Gregory said of Dwight Yorke’s request to leave the club, resulting in the striker becoming United’s then-record signing in August 1998.
Yorke won the Premier League Player of the Season and golden boot alongside a treble with his new club the following season, becoming a league champion again in each of the next two campaigns.
The Trinidad and Tobago international was exiled after a training ground row with United boss Sir Alex Ferguson in September 2001 and moved to Blackburn Rovers for £2 million the following July, later winning the A-League with Sydney and Championship with Sunderland.
8) Andriy Shevchenko – Chelsea, £152.6m (£30.8m)
Mourinho described the signing of Shevchenko, who had won the 2004 Ballon d’Or among a stack of individual and collective honours at Milan, as a “dream” in 2006.
Ukraine all-time top scorer Shevchenko had averaged under a goal every five league matches by the time he left for Dynamo Kyiv in 2009, released from his £121,000-a-week contract 11 months early under Carlo Ancelotti.
7) Andy Cole – Manchester United, £153.8m (£7m)
Newcastle fans protested when the extraordinarily prolific Cole made a shock move to United in January 1997, breaking the British transfer record in a swap for winger Keith Gillespie.
Cole was part of United’s treble-winning 1998/99 squad and won four more Premier League titles and the FA Cup twice, with only Alan Shearer and Yorke producing more goals or direct goal involvements in the top flight than the England international during his time with the club.
No player has ever scored more goals for a Premier League team without taking any penalties, but Cole’s dissatisfaction with being left out by United led to him joining Blackburn for £7.6m in December 2001.
6) Dennis Bergkamp – Arsenal, £156m (£7.5m)
Bergkamp’s addition as Arsenal’s record signing in 1995 came a year before the arrival of transformative manager Arsene Wenger, who has justifiably called the Gunners icon “the first push” of the club “into the modern, international era”.
The subject of a statue outside the Emirates Stadium, Bergkamp won the Premier League three times and FA Cup four times before ending his career at Arsenal and kicking off the first match at their new home in his testimonial against former club Ajax in 2006.
5) Fernando Torres – Chelsea, £157.8m (£50m)
Chelsea broke the British transfer record in January 2011 for Torres, a EURO 2008 and World Cup 2010 winner with Spain who had scored 81 times in 142 matches across three-and-a-half years with Liverpool.
Notably less prolific than he had been for the Reds and Atletico Madrid, Torres still won the Champions League and FA Cup in 2011/12 and the 2012/13 Europa League, as well as contributing 35 assists before initially leaving to join Milan on loan in 2014.
4) Stan Collymore – Liverpool, £176.8m (£8.5m)
Swiftly breaking the British record set by Cole’s switch, Liverpool swooped for Nottingham Forest goal machine Collymore in July 1995 and were rewarded with a return of 102 goals in two seasons from the England international and strike partner Robbie Fowler.
Collymore was perceived to have attitude problems and has admitted he regrets leaving Anfield for boyhood club Aston Villa two years later, having had a tricky relationship with manager Roy Evans and found his place threatened by the emergence of teenage sensation Michael Owen.
3) Juan Sebastian Veron – Manchester United, £178.5m (£28.1m)
United made Veron the first non-European to break the British record when Sir Alex Ferguson decided to sign the Argentina international who had established himself as one of the best midfielders in the world with Lazio.
Veron won the 2002/03 Premier League but never hit his previous heights with United, who recouped little more than half the fee they had paid when he left two years later for a peripheral spell at Chelsea. The two-time South American Footballer of the Year has said he wishes he had stayed at Old Trafford.
2) Rio Ferdinand – Manchester United, £198.5m (£33.3m)
Leeds paid West Ham £18m to make Ferdinand the world’s most expensive defender in November 2000 and United followed suit to sign the 23-year-old from the Whites in July 2002.
The Premier League hall-of-famer and England stalwart won the Premier League six times, the 2007/08 Champions League and the EFL Cup twice during a 12-year career with the club, as well as scoring United’s last goal under Ferguson.
1) Alan Shearer – Newcastle, £236.9m (£15m)
A huge crowd massed to celebrate Shearer’s symbolic return to his home city after Newcastle beat Manchester United to his signature in July 1996, shortly after he had reaffirmed his status as one of the best strikers in the world during England’s run to the EURO semi-finals.
Despite failing to add to the Premier League title he won with former club Blackburn Rovers, the Newcastle trialist as a boy won the top-flight golden boot in 1997 and remains the all-time record scorer in the division thanks to his time on Tyneside until 2007, briefly returning as interim manager in 2009.
Most expensive Premier League signings: The top 40
Rogers is 29th and Anderson 32nd as the two players to have joined the top 40 this summer.
At 15th, Alexander Isak’s move to Liverpool last year puts the former Newcastle striker well above both, eight ahead of another Reds signing for 2025/26, Florian Wirtz.
| Season | Player | Club | Fee | Adjusted | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 96/97 | Alan Shearer | Newcastle | £15m | £236.9m |
| 2 | 02/03 | Rio Ferdinand | Man United | £33.3m | £198.5m |
| 3 | 01/02 | Juan Sebastian Veron | Man United | £28.1m | £178.5m |
| 4 | 95/96 | Stan Collymore | Liverpool | £8.5m | £176.8m |
| 5 | 10/11 | Fernando Torres | Chelsea | £50m | £157.8m |
| 6 | 95/96 | Dennis Bergkamp | Arsenal | £7.5m | £156m |
| 7 | 94/95 | Andy Cole | Man United | £7m | £153.8m |
| 8 | 06/07 | Andriy Shevchenko | Chelsea | £30.8m | £152.6m |
| 9 | 98/99 | Dwight Yorke | Man United | £12.6m | £144.7m |
| 10 | 16/17 | Paul Pogba | Man United | £89.3m | £141.6m |
| 11 | 04/05 | Wayne Rooney | Man United | £25.6m | £140.2m |
| 12 | 00/01 | Rio Ferdinand | Leeds | £18m | £139.8m |
| 13 | 95/96 | Tino Asprilla | Newcastle | £6.7m | £139.3m |
| 14 | 21/22 | Jack Grealish | Man City | £100m | £132.7m |
| 15 | 25/26 | Alexander Isak | Liverpool | £125m | £132.6m |
| 16 | 04/05 | Didier Drogba | Chelsea | £24m | £131.5m |
| 17 | 23/24 | Moises Caicedo | Chelsea | £115m | £131.2m |
| 18 | 21/22 | Romelu Lukaku | Chelsea | £97.5m | £129.4m |
| 19 | 14/15 | Angel Di Maria | Man United | £59.7m | £128.7m |
| 20 | 22/23 | Enzo Fernandez | Chelsea | £106.8m | £127.5m |
| 21 | 05/06 | Michael Essien | Chelsea | £24.4m | £127.2m |
| 22 | 95/96 | Les Ferdinand | Newcastle | £6m | £124.8m |
| 23 | 25/26 | Florian Wirtz | Liverpool | £116m | £123.1m |
| 24 | 98/99 | Jaap Stam | Man United | £10.6m | £121.8m |
| 25 | 08/09 | Robinho | Man City | £32.5m | £121.7m |
| 26 | 01/02 | Ruud van Nistelrooy | Man United | £19m | £120.7m |
| 27 | 23/24 | Declan Rice | Arsenal | £105m | £119.8m |
| 28 | 11/12 | Sergio Aguero | Man City | £38m | £117.3m |
| 29 | 26/27 | Morgan Rogers | Chelsea | £117m | £117m |
| 30 | 00/01 | Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink | Chelsea | £15m | £116.5m |
| 31 | 92/93 | Alan Shearer | Blackburn | £3.3m | £116.5m |
| 32 | 26/27 | Elliot Anderson | Man City | £116m | £116m |
| 33 | 08/09 | Dimitar Berbatov | Man United | £30.8m | £115.1m |
| 34 | 17/18 | Romelu Lukaku | Man United | £75m | £112.6m |
| 35 | 17/18 | Virgil van Dijk | Liverpool | £75m | £112.6m |
| 36 | 19/20 | Harry Maguire | Man Utd | £80m | £112.4m |
| 37 | 96/97 | Fabrizio Ravanelli | Middlesbrough | £7m | £110.6m |
| 38 | 10/11 | Andy Carroll | Liverpool | £35m | £110.4m |
| 39 | 94/95 | Chris Sutton | Blackburn | £5m | £109.9m |
| 40 | 04/05 | Ricardo Carvalho | Chelsea | £20m | £109.6m |
All data: Valuball
