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This summer’s transfer window promises to be one to remember. Premier League clubs have already spent a staggering €1.87 billion on new signings since the window opened and if reports are to be believed the biggest clubs in Europe are far from done with their spending spree. And one club in particular seems intent on breaking all the records.
So far this summer Liverpool have already spent €309 million on signing new players and even broke the record for the highest fee paid by an English club when they signed Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen for €125m. Add to that the arrival of Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Hugo Ekitiké and it means the Anfield club now sit sixth in the list for the most money spent by a club in a single transfer window. But they may be about to quickly jump to the top of that list.
Fresh reports from St James’ Park now suggest that Liverpool could add to their staggering list of new superstars by making a move for Newcastle striker Alexander Isak. The Swedish goalscorer has reportedly made his intentions clear about moving clubs this summer and should Liverpool oblige the player and Newcastle and sign the player for the proposed asking price of €172m, it would mean Liverpool had spent more money in a single window than any other club in the history of the sport and that the Premier League would have a new record transfer fee.
Remarkably, should Isak join Liverpool for the reported fee and become the league’s new record signing, he will overtake his new team mate Wirtz at the top of the list, shortening the German’s time as the record holder to less than a month. As things currently stand, Wirtz has been the record holder for 24 days, which is more than just two players to have broken the record since the introduction of the Premier League in the early nineties.
As we can see in the table above, just two players held the title for less time than Wirtz. The first was Darren Anderton, whose €2.7m move from Portsmouth to Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 1992 was overtaken by Alan Shearer’s €4.5m move from Newcastle to Blackburn just 23 days later. However, poor Ruud Van Nistelrooy spent even less time as the record holder following his €28.5m move to Manchester United in 2001, when the club signed Juan Sebastián Verón for almost twice his transfer fee just 12 days later.
The graph also underlines some historic Premier League deals that truly stood the test of time to some degree. For example, Fernando Torres’ €58.5m move to Chelsea in 2010 went unopposed for four seasons, Paul Pogba then held the record for slightly longer when his €105m move to Man Utd sat top for 1,822 days. But the deal that went the longest before it was overtaken was Rio Ferdinand’s €46m move to Man Utd in 2002, which went unopposed for 3,115 days, before the aforementioned Torres deal to Chelsea. And while nothing has been confirmed in terms of Isak’s move to Liverpool, it seems highly unlikely that Wirtz will enjoy as much time at the top of the table as these goliaths of Premier League history.
