As Tottenham get set to break into the biggest spends by a club in a single window, we’ve taken a look at the current top 10 to see how they panned out.
While money does help, spending big is no guarantee of a club’s chance at success and Spurs fans should take warning from what has come in the past.
Here are the 10 biggest spends by one club in a window ranked on how well they turned out.
It was the first big transfer window of the BlueCo era and Chelsea seemed to operate with a policy of ‘if it moves, sign it’.
Chelsea bought eight new players and another in on loan, with Wesley Fofana the most expensive. He cost them £70m as well as £200k per week on a seven-year deal, but there is talk he could leave this summer given his wretched injury record.
Raheem Sterling arrived from Manchester City and initially did okay but his legs quickly disappeared from underneath him.
The best signing was Marc Cucurella, who overcame a poor start to become one of Chelsea’s key players. The club also made a profit on the Spaniard with his recent sale to Real Madrid.
But Kalidou Koulibaly and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were some truly awful signings.
If this was a summer window, Chelsea’s spend may not have even broken the top 10 but with winter windows pushing up the prices, Chelsea paid through the nose for some average players.
They signed Enzo Fernandez who is no doubt a good player, but is he worth the £106m he cost Chelsea?
Malo Gusto has been okay but Benoit Badiashile has not lived up to his price tag.
And then there’s Mykhailo Mudryk, who Chelsea bought for £88.5m only for him to be banned for doping. If we are being honest, even before he was suspended it looked like a waste of money.
In that same window, Chelsea paid a loan fee of £10m for Joao Felix, who got a red card in his first game.
Chelsea again spent big last summer but by and large, they have not proved to be worth the money.
On the plus side, Joao Pedro was the most expensive signing and scored 15 goals in his debut season. There was also the signing of Estevao, who looks to be a star of the future, while Jorrel Hato also has potential.
But then you have Liam Delap and Jamie Gittens, who were way out of their depth in their first seasons. At least in the former’s case, he was signed for £30m when Chelsea desperately needed a striker, but the west London club already had plenty of wingers when they bought Gittens.
And of course there’s £40m Alejandro Garnacho. They will be lucky to recoup half of that with reports he could be sold this summer.
Al-Hilal forked out an enormous £77.6m for Neymar but it proved to be just as big a waste of money.
His lack of game time due to injury meant he cost the club around £37m for every match he played and £610k per minute.
Still, the club did enjoy a record season with 32 consecutive wins and the league and cup double.
Away from the Brazilian, they bought Malcom, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Ruben Neves and Aleksandar Mitrovic, who were all in their prime.
The bulk of Madrid’s spending in 2019 was for Eden Hazard but he never looked like the player he was at Chelsea.
Injuries disrupted any momentum and he never scored more than three league goals in a campaign.
Away from the Belgian, Madrid also signed Luka Jovic, who did not last long before being shipped out on loan.
Rodrygo, Militao and Ferland Mendy were better signings.
After being spurned by him the year before, Barcelona went back in for Antoine Griezmann, but it was a player they just did not need.
The Frenchman, whilst brilliant, operates in the same areas as Lionel Messi, and so found himself without a natural position in the Barcelona line-up. His time in Catalunya is often harshly remembered – he scored 35 and assisted 17 in 102 matches – but he never looked as good as he did for Atletico.
Elsewhere, Barcelona spent €75m on Frenkie de Jong then spent the next few years trying to sell him, though he is now a crucial part of Hansi Flick’s team.
The signing of 16-year-old Pedri from Las Palmas has proven to be a great bit of business but the others that arrived that summer did not make much of a mark.
The jury is still out on Liverpool’s summer spending with just a year passed but the initial signs are not great.
Florian Wirtz has struggled massively since moving to the Premier League and contributed to just nine goals in the league.
Alexander Isak suffered a nasty leg break and so there are questions over whether he will return the same player.
Milos Kerkez looked poor and Jeremie Frimpong looked like he did not know his best position, while Hugo Ekitike was the only unquestionable success.
The Chelsea summer transfer window of 2023/24 has some notable hits but some just as notable misses.
On the positive side, it heralded the arrival of Moises Caicedo and Cole Palmer with the latter going on to be named PFA Young Player of the Season.
Since then, Palmer has stagnated but Caicedo remains one of the best midfielders in the league. Romeo Lavia too could still prove to be a good signing if he can overcome his persistent injury problems.
On the bad side, Christopher Nkunku and Nicolas Jackson were expensive forward signings but both spent last season away from the club despite costing Chelsea a combined £84m.
It was also the summer that Robert Sanchez arrived and there are still doubts surrounding him.
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Considering there was a future Ballon d’Or winner amongst PSG’s signings, it is fair to call this window a success.
Surprisingly, Ousmane Dembele was not their most expensive outlay that summer and if Randal Kolo Muani and Manuel Ugarte – who cost more – did not impress, Dembele became a key component of Luis Enrique’s side.
Away from the Frenchman, Bradley Barcola has impressed at this World Cup, although he has struggled to make it into the PSG line-up, while Lucas Hernandez was also a smart bit of business.
Elsewhere, PSG bought Hugo Ekitike but made a reasonable loss on him. The Parisians also exercised a buy-back clause for Xavi Simons, going on to sell him for a €44m profit.
If the goal of this transfer window was to get Arsenal over the line then it was without question a success.
Was Viktor Gyokeres the solution to all Arsenal’s problems? No. Is he truly an elite striker? Also probably no but he was part of a summer recruitment that brought Arsenal what they had missed for years – depth.
Martin Zubimendi arrived, as did Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Cristhian Mosquera. None of those bar the Spaniard may have been starters but they all played a part in Arsenal’s Premier League-winning season. Money well spent.
