Why Elliot Anderson is just the 31st most expensive Premier League transfer even though his fee was a huge £116m
Manchester City have won the race to sign Nottingham Forest star Elliot Anderson in this summer’s transfer window. The Blues made the England international their top target early on and quickly became the favorites to seal the deal.
City are gearing up for life after legendary manager Pep Guardiola, and they’re ready to welcome his successor, Enzo Maresca, with the perfect gift: Anderson. The club has agreed on a record-breaking fee of £116 million for the central midfielder, surpassing the £100 million they paid for Jack Grealish from Aston Villa five years ago.
The £116 million fee is fixed, with no extra bonuses or conditions. While it’s less than the British record Liverpool set last summer when signing Alexander Isak for £125 million, it’s now the highest fee paid for a British player, beating Arsenal’s £105 million spent on Declan Rice two years ago.
Some might still criticize City’s huge spending on Anderson, but when looking at Premier League history, the fee may not be as shocking as it seems. According to football finance expert Kieran Maguire, although Anderson’s transfer is the second-highest fee in the Premier League era, when adjusted for inflation it’s only the 31st most expensive.
Maguire shared a list on social media showing how Anderson’s move ranks among other Premier League deals after factoring in UK inflation and changes in the football market. This means that smaller-looking fees from the 1990s and early 2000s are adjusted to show just how significant those amounts were at the time.
According to his research, Alan Shearer’s 1996 move from Blackburn to Newcastle remains the top Premier League transfer when inflation is considered—what cost £15 million then would be worth about £237 million today.
The list also shows the huge financial muscle Manchester United had under Sir Alex Ferguson, with transfers like Rio Ferdinand and Juan Sebastian Veron high up. Liverpool’s signing of Stan Collymore for £8.5 million in 1995 is now valued at roughly £177 million, with moves for Fernando Torres, Dennis Bergkamp, Andy Cole, and Andriy Shevchenko also ranking near the top.
United dominate the list, holding five of the ten most expensive Premier League signings in history, including deals for Dwight Yorke, Paul Pogba, and Wayne Rooney, all valued at over £140 million today.
City have only made five of the 44 most expensive Premier League transfers, with the Grealish deal now worth about £133 million, placing 14th on the list. The Anderson signing ranks 31st, just above Dimitar Berbatov’s move to United and close behind Shearer’s switch from Southampton to Blackburn, as well as Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s transfer to Chelsea from Atletico Madrid.