Over the past few years, there has been undeserving expensive transfers in football. The kind that you raise your eyebrows to when you hear the amount being discussed for the buying and selling of a certain player
But this summer has given us some of the most ridiculous transfer prices and mostly for players who are just average or fairly above
The inflation of the transfer market has always been a hot topic among football lovers, with transfer records being broken and set every season but none has been as shocking as the 2026 transfer window
A look into the past
Some of the expensive transfers that happened pre-2020 include; Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer to Real Madrid in 2009 where Madrid paid £80million (€94million)
Ronaldo at that time was coming off a Ballon d’or season and he also won the FIFA World Player of the year award
Hence, a befitting world record transfer amount for a youngster who has already proven his worth
Another epic transfer that happened pre-2020 was Paul Pogba’s £89million (€105 million) to Manchester United in 2016, also a world record transfer fee as at then
Prior to the transfer, Pogba had 10 goals and 13 assists in 49 games in the 2015/2016 season, he was part of the FIFPro World 11 and UEFA team of the year in 2015. Before that, he was FIFA World Cup Best Young Player in 2014
So, it’s safe to say he has also proven his worth
Moving on to the transfer that broke the market completely and blew everyone’s mind; Neymar’s move to PSG for a record transfer fee of €222 million in 2017
Neymar Jr. was already an established star, not a young player finding his foot. He has won multiple trophies and individual awards including a 3rd place Ballon d’or finish in 2015
As at the time of the move, Neymar was one of the best players in the world. And even still, there were debates as to how expensive the transfer was at the time and people still talk about it till today.
2020-2025
Post-2020, there has been a lot of transfers that has crossed the 100m threshold. Some of them worked out well and most of them ended in regrets
Jude Bellingham’s €103million (£88.5million) transfer to Real Madrid in 2023 and Declan Rice’s £105million transfer to Arsenal in the same year are two of the 100m+ transfers that has worked out exceedingly well with both players giving immediate return on investment for both teams
Some transfers are dancing in the middle, not excellent, not bad either and slightly above average; Moises Caicedo’s £115million transfer to Chelsea in 2023 and also Enzo Fernandez’ £106.8million transfer, same year same club
But some expensive transfers have failed woefully with some of the clubs still trying to recover from the financial hole that these signings caused
It is also worth noting that some huge transfers have failed even when the players had stellar seasons prior to the transfer, both pre 2020 and post 2020
Some transfers that fall under this purview include; Jadon Sancho to Manchester United, Joao Felix to Chelsea and a controversial one that comes to mind is Antoine Griezmann to Barcelona. All good players before the transfer but it just didn’t work out
However, some clubs have been at the forefront of this market prices inflation in the past few years by paying obscene amount of money for players who are nowhere near good enough even prior to the transfer. Prime culprits are Manchester City and Chelsea with the transfer of Mykhailo Mudryk to Chelsea and Jack Grealish to Manchester City good case studies
Summer 2026
The summer transfer window of 2026 has ushered in new levels of tomfoolery in the transfer market where the selling team overprice the players and the teams buying do not even bat an eye
The transfer of Morgan Rogers to Chelsea for £117million from Aston Villa stirred up a lot of conversations online with Chelsea fans defending the price tag with “premier league proven”
Man City signed Elliot Anderson for £116million, a player with just one good Premier League season under his belt. A player signed as replacement to Rodri’s initial replacement (Nico Gonzales whose transfer ended in nothing)
Real Madrid signed Yan Diomande from RB Leipzig for €125million, a mind blowing amount for a player that scored 12 goals in the Bundesliga last season and is not a guaranteed starter for Madrid
And the transfer that officially confirmed we might have all lost the plot isn’t even a 100m+ transfer but the move of Savinho from Manchester City to Tottenham for £75m
Man City bought Savinho in 2024 for £30.8million and he massively underperformed for the team. He scored just 1 goal throughout the 24/25 season and also scored 1 goal again in the 25/26 season…Two goals and nine assists in two seasons combined
And now in the summer of 2026, Tottenham is buying that same player for £75million.
The 2026 transfer window has shown that the inflation of the market transfer prices and the overpricing of average players will continue and become the norm
Teams will most likely break the bank every time or turn to their academy for backup but either way, there are interesting times ahead
