Manchester City broke the £100M barrier in 2021 with the signing of Jack Grealish, setting a new benchmark for Premier League transfers. However, the real explosion occurred in 2023 with multiple £100M+ signings, followed by Liverpool’s record-breaking 2025 window. This suggests that what once seemed like an extraordinary fee has quickly become the normal for elite talent.
The 2023 window proved to be a turning point, with Chelsea making two massive signings in Moisés Caicedo (£115M) and Enzo Fernández (£106.8M), while Arsenal secured Declan Rice for £105M from West Ham. What had been a single outlier in Grealish suddenly became a trend, with clubs showing they were willing to regularly cross the nine-figure threshold.
Liverpool’s 2025 spending spree has pushed this trend even further. Their acquisitions of Alexander Isak (£125M) and Florian Wirtz (£116M) suggest that £100M is no longer the ceiling but rather the starting point for top-tier talent. The gap between Grealish’s record-setting fee and these new signings shows how quickly the market has inflated.
This rapid escalation reflects the increasing financial power of Premier League clubs and their willingness to secure the best players. The message is clear, in just four years, exceptional spending has become standard practice and the new benchmark for elite signings continues to climb higher.