16 clubs who haven’t broken their transfer record since 2020: Man Utd, Barcelona…
Seven Premier League clubs have already broken their transfer records this summer – but not everyone is keeping up with the escalating spending.
Notorious big spenders Manchester City and Chelsea, with the signings of Elliot Anderson and Morgan Rogers, have been joined in breaking their records recently by the ambitious Aston Villa (Johan Manzambi), Brighton (Luka Vuskovic) and Tottenham (Sandro Tonali), as well as promoted sides Coventry (Aurele Amenda) and Ipswich (Emersonn).
It was a similar story last summer too, but there are still some clubs out there whose record transfers are more historic.
We’ve picked out a handful of big clubs who haven’t broken their transfer record since 2020, a summer in which everything slowed down for obvious reasons.
Most clubs have caught up since then, but not this lot…
Manchester United
This summer will mark 10 years since Man Utd broke their transfer record on a player that came through their own academy and left them for nothing – twice. Ouch.
Paul Pogba’s return to the club in 2016 cost United a whopping £89m. Did they get value from him? It was a mixed bag, to be honest.
United fans have long been furious at years of penny pinching by the Glazers and the club are still playing catch-up in the transfer market.
The closest United have got to eclipsing the Pogba fee since is the £82m they paid for Antony (bigger ouch) in 2022.
Barcelona
Not a surprise this one, given all the levers Barcelona have had to pull – whatever that means – to keep their finances in check in recent years.
They were absolutely rampant in the transfer market almost a decade ago, spending up to €147m on Ousmane Dembele in the summer of 2017 and then €135m on Philippe Coutinho six months later.
And then they pretty much ended up broke.
See the summer of 2021, for example, when they resorted to almost exclusively signing free agents.
Barca recently made their biggest buy of the decade by signing Anthony Gordon for €80m, but he’s only seventh on their all-time list of most expensive signings.
PSG
PSG’s earth-shattering purchase of Neymar in 2017 remains the most expensive transfer ever completed by anyone.
It was a game-changer in inflating transfer fees, but still hasn’t been surpassed almost a decade later.
PSG’s biggest signing since 2020 was Randal Kolo Muani for up to €90m in 2023, since which he’s scored a grand total of 11 goals.
But PSG are currently on a streak of five Ligue 1 titles and two Champions Leagues in a row after focusing more on French talent with their recruitment.
Atletico Madrid
Joao Felix’s move from Benfica to Atletico Madrid in 2019 was at the time third only to Neymar and Kylian Mbappe’s moves to PSG for size of fee.
Felix was still a teenager and one of the biggest prospects in the world, so Atleti gambled big on his potential. He didn’t quite live up to it.
Some huge transfers since have dropped him down to the sixth most expensive player ever, but he remains first on Atleti’s list.
Second is Julian Alvarez, who they paid Manchester City up to €95m for in 2024.
Inter Milan
Inter have won three of the past six Serie A titles, but without breaking their transfer record in that time.
Their biggest buy was Romelu Lukaku for €80m in 2019, which went a big way to helping them win the Scudetto in his second season.
So did their costliest signing since, the 2020 addition Achraf Hakimi for up to €45m, but both had to be sold in 2021 to balance the books and Inter have generally been shrewder operators since.
Juventus
Cristiano Ronaldo became Juventus’ record signing when they bought him from Real Madrid in 2018 for more than €100m.
It’s hard to think of a more high-profile player that Juve could sign and so Ronaldo remains their biggest buy.
He scored 101 goals for them and won Serie A twice.
Everton
The biggest package Everton have put together for a player was for Richarlison in 2018, with the deal worth up to £50m.
One of the clubs to have faced PSR scrutiny in recent years, they have had the shackles on with their spending, but things started to come to life again last summer, when Tyler Dibling joined in a £40m deal.
Rangers
Scottish football isn’t what it once was, but Celtic have broken their transfer record since 2020. Arch-rivals Rangers haven’t.
In fact, Rangers’ record signing came all the way back in 2000, when they bought Tore Andre Flo for £12m.
He scored 38 goals in two seasons there, but didn’t win the league in either.
Roma
It had been 17 years since Roma broke their transfer record on Gabriel Batistuta when they did so again with Patrik Schick in 2017, effectively pumping their Mohamed Salah money into a move for the Czech striker.
They were hoping Schick could emulate Batistuta by scoring the goals to fire them to a rare league title, but he flopped badly and they finished third and sixth in his two seasons there.
Roma have since spent almost (but not quite) as much on Tammy Abraham, and more recently have been working on what would be a record-breaking deal for Crysencio Summerville – only to be blown out of the water by a rival bid by Al Hilal.
Lazio
Lazio once broke the world transfer record to sign Hernan Crespo in 2000. The world transfer record has been broken another seven times since, but the Argentine striker is still Lazio’s most lucrative purchase.
He scored 48 goals across two seasons with them before leaving.
Lazio have decided internally to spend no more money than they receive this summer, so won’t be throwing Crespo money around any time soon.
Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund’s record signing is still Ousmane Dembele, who they took from Rennes for €35m in 2016.
Despite Dembele becoming their record sale for more than €100m more a year later, Dortmund didn’t reinvest in one specific player and instead spread the funds around.
Sebastien Haller is their biggest signing since 2020, costing €31m in 2022.
Monaco
PSG might have the reputation as Ligue 1’s big spenders, but there was a time when Monaco were splashing the cash to rival them.
Those days are long gone, though. Monaco’s two biggest signings are still Colombian duo James Rodriguez and Radamel Falcao, both of whom they signed in 2013 for more than €40m each.
Folarin Balogun has been their biggest post-2020 signing, for €30m.
Real Betis
When Denilson signed for Real Betis in 1998, it was the most expensive deal in football history.
Despite them sealing a long-awaited return to Champions League football this year, you can’t imagine them making those sort of headlines these days, can you?
Even at an intrinsic level, Betis haven’t spent more on a player than they did for Denilson ever since.
Their biggest signing since 2020 has been Antony last summer for €22m plus add-ons.
Valencia
Nothing encapsulates Valencia’s financial struggles in recent years quite like a scan through their most expensive signings of all time.
You’d have to go all the way down to their 40th(!) to find one from the current decade.
That was Marcos Andre from Valladolid in 2022, with the €8.5m fee miles off their €40m record deal for Goncalo Guedes in 2018.
Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Club’s famous policy of only signing players from the Basque Country does limit who they can buy, but doesn’t entirely prevent them from spending.
The biggest fee they’ve paid for a player is €32m, which was the release clause they activated to sign Inigo Martinez from rivals Real Sociedad in 2018.
Sevilla
In their heyday, Sevilla had a reputation for buying low and selling high.
But they’ve been on a perilous slide down the La Liga standings in recent years and haven’t broken their transfer record since 2019, when they bought Jules Kounde from Bordeaux.
With a subsequent move to Barcelona, he became another player they made a profit on.
More recently, Sevilla signed five free agents and two players on loan last summer.
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