The transfer of Neymar Jr from Barcelona to Paris Saint Germain for £199.8 million in 2017 changed the transfer market forever, sparking a number of high profile moves for over £100 million.
The Covid-19 pandemic saw a temporary halt on large spending, but as the world is beginning to move on from coronavirus, the transfer market is returning to crazy levels.
On Thursday, Jack Grealish joined Manchester City for £105.75 million from Aston Villa, the 7th largest transfer fee in football history.
Grealish is a good player but it is hard to see him living up to that price tag. Last season was the best of Grealish's career, scoring 6 goals and providing 10 assists in the Premier League has Aston Villa finished 11th.
How can you value a player with those stats playing for a bottom half team at over £100 million?
It is likely that there will be more signings worth over £100 million this summer with Manchester City interested in Tottenham striker Harry Kane and Chelsea interested in Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku.
Despite the pandemic and despite The Super League, teams at the top with the most financial power are once again free to rule the market and extend their dominance.
It is why teams like Leicester are so revered, because they have been successful through pure hard work and dedication in the absence of large sums of money.
Yet even with the spending this summer, the main story is Lionel Messi.
Nowhere near enough has been made of Messi’s situation this summer with the Argentine’s contract running out on June 30th.
It was expected that he would re-sign with Barcelona but on Thursday night the club released a statement announcing that a deal could not be done due to “financial and structural obstacles.”
The possibility of Messi leaving last summer was on the cards before he eventually stayed at Barcelona, and there is a chance that happens once again. But should he move this time, both Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain will be waiting in the wings as the most likely destinations.
For all of the ill feelings towards the way City and PSG have risen to success, the narrative of Messi joining and potentially winning either club the Champions League for the first time feels acceptable, despite the impact domestically.
With the return of large spending, Arsenal themselves have been involved this summer, signing Ben White from Brighton for £52.65 million.
The 23-year-old centre back has spent one season of his career at Premier League level, finishing 16th, enough to earn him a big money move.
Potentially it is a knock-on effect of other clubs spending over £100 million which makes Arsenal feel they need to spend that much on Ben White, potentially that is now the going rate for a player of his profile. Either way it is clear to see that the transfer market is returning to pre-Covid levels.
All prices according to Transfermarkt.
Adam Perry – 06/08/2021