Every Premier League clubs record signing, and an analysis of what it tells us about our league…
The Premier League record signings from each club:
1) Chelsea – Fernando Torres – £50m
2) Manchester City – Sergio Aguero – £38m
3) Liverpool – Andy Carroll – £35m
4) Manchester United – Dimitar Berbatov – £30.75m
5) Aston Villa – Darren Bent – £24m
6) Tottenham – Paulinho – £17m
7) Newcastle United – Michael Owen – £16.8m
8) Arsenal – Santi Cazorla – £16.5m
9) Everton – Marouane Fellaini – £15m
10) Sunderland – Steven Fletcher – £15m
11) West Ham – Andy Carroll – £15m
12) Southampton – Victor Wanyama – £12.5m
13) Swansea – Wilfried Bony – £12m
14) Fulham – Steve Marlet – £11m
15) Stoke City – Peter Crouch – £10m
16) Norwich – Ricky Van Wolfswinkel – £8.5m
17) Cardiff City – Andreas Cornelius – £8.5m
18) Crystal Palace – Dwight Gayle – £8.5m
19) West Bromwich Albion – Shane Long – £6.5m
20) Hull City – Jimmy Bullard – £5m
Analysis:
-15 of the 20 record signings are strikers, and just five are midfielders. No current Premier League club has a defender as their record signing.
-Four of the top five record signings: Torres, Bent, Berbatov and Carroll can probably be judged as failures after their record moves. Aguero is deemed a success after a brilliant debut season, but he did only manage 12 league goals last term.
-Only five of the signings are no longer with the clubs that broke their transfer records – Carroll, Berbatov, Owen, Marlet and Bullard. To be fair, three of these have retired anyway. This could be down to clubs being unwilling to take losses on players they spent such high fees on.
-We are yet to see whether Paulinho, Bony, Wanyama, Van Wolfswinkel, Cornelius and Gayle will be successful at their new clubs, as they were all purchased this transfer window.
-Fulham’s transfer record is the oldest, and signed Steve Marlet back in 2001. They could possibly break this record soon if new owner Shahid Khan invests money into the team.
-Crystal Palace and Cardiff have both broke their transfer records this summer in an attempt to stay in the Premier League. Hull City have not, which could prove fatal for the newcomers.
-Nine of the players are British, two are Spanish, and one player each from Denmark, Bulgaria, France, Holland, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Argentina and Belgium make up the rest of the list.
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