Clubs have long spent big on world-class talents, but what we're seeing now is unproven players moving for crazy prices…
Back in 2016, Jurgen Klopp said he would never want to see his club spend £100 million ($127M) on a single player. "The day this is football," the Liverpool manager said, "I'm not in a job anymore." So, when it was confirmed that the Reds had bid a staggering £110m ($140m) for Moises Caicedo, some supporters from rival clubs cheekily asked if Klopp was about to resign.
Addressing that infamous vow, the German admitted that it wasn't the first time he had said something he later regretted – and probably wouldn't be the last. However, as well as pointing out that Liverpool were still trying to live within their means (unlike many other clubs), he also acknowledged that "the market is obviously crazy" and that he and his bosses were sometimes obliged to pay big fees in order to sign players that can help the club continue challenging for trophies.
Of course, one could argue that the transfer market has been out of control for some time now, because of 'The Neymar Effect', with Paris Saint-Germain's genuinely shocking decision to meet the €222m (£190m/$242m)) buy-out clause in the Brazilian's Barcelona contract – something the Blaugrana understandably considered unthinkable – creating a knock-on effect that saw several world-class talents switch clubs for colossal fees. It's worth noting that nearly all of those deals proved disastrous, primarily because they made no sense.
However, what we're seeing now is different, even more illogical. Indeed, as GOAL illustrates with the ridiculous deals listed below, in 2023, inexperienced, unproven players are moving for mad money, meaning Klopp is quite correct: the transfer market has now completely lost its mind…
Getty Images10Harry Kane (Tottenham to Bayern Munich, £100m)
Harry Kane was always going to command a colossal fee if ever he left Tottenham. So, the fact that he's finally gone for more than £100m ($127m) is no great shock. He's a world-class player, and has been for years.
However, the reason why Kane has been included on this list is the identity of the buyer. Bayern Munich are the richest club in Germany by some distance. They've a well-earned reputation for nicking their rivals' best players. They have also occasionally spent big in the past – most notably on Lucas Hernandez, whom they paid a staggering €80m for in 2019. However, Bayern have always prided themselves on being relatively prudent in relation to the other members of Europe's elite.
Remember, former CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge famously claimed that Bayern would never have paid €100m for a 33-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo – as Juventus did in the summer of 2018. The legendary Lothar Matthaus also claimed just a few months ago that Kane was "too expensive and too old" for his former club.
So, when you see Bayern going out and paying €117m for a 30-year-old Kane, who has a long history of injury issues, because of their desperation to sign a proven goalscorer, you know that the transfer market really has gone mad.
AdvertisementGetty9Enzo Fernandez (Benfica to Chelsea, £107m)
Enzo Fernandez was hot property after the 2022 World Cup – and rightly so. The midfielder was immense as a Lionel Messi-inspired Argentina triumphed in Qatar, with Lionel Scaloni's decision to bring Fernandez into his starting line-up having a transformative effect on the team.
Benfica are a selling club – and a quite brilliant one at that – but they had no intention of cashing in on Fernandez until the end of the 2022-23 season, particularly as they still had the knockout stages of the Champions League to look forward to.
Club president Rui Costa was also confident of holding onto Fernandez for two reasons. Firstly, they weren't stuck for cash, having sold Darwin Nunez to Liverpool the summer before for a whopping £64m. Secondly, Fernandez's buy-out clause was €121m (£107m/$131m) – Benfica understandably didn't expect any club to come close to matching that figure. Enter Chelsea.
Todd Boehly & Co. made it clear to the player and his representatives that they were actually willing to meet the buy-out clause if an agreement could be reached, which resulted in Fernandez kicking up such a storm that Costa gave up trying to negotiate a deal whereby the 22-year-old would have stayed at Estadio da Luz until the end of the season before leaving for a smaller sum.
The former Portugal midfielder subsequently admitted that he was disgusted by Fernandez's conduct during the negotiations – but the British-record fee he banked for a player that Benfica had bought just over six months previously for €10m certainly took the edge off his departure.
A new manager and an overhauled midfield should allow the World Cup winner to flourish at Stamford Bridge this season, but there’s no getting away from the fact that Chelsea, in their haste to wrap up a deal, paid far too much for Fernandez.
Getty Images8Mason Mount (Chelsea to Manchester United, £60m)
Nothing about the Mason Mount deal adds up. He obviously boasts a versatility that could prove useful to Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag. But was he an essential buy? In no way, shape or form.
United are well stacked in every attacking position bar No.9. So, £60m ($76m) was quite the outlay on a player that the club didn't badly need, particularly when one considers that there were superior attacking midfielders available for far less. World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister had a £35m ($45m) buy-out clause in his Brighton contract, while Leicester were willing to let James Maddison go for only £40m ($51m).
So, why on earth did United feel the need to invest even more money in Mount, who lost his Chelsea and England starting spots during a rotten 2022-23 campaign that featured just three goals in 35 appearances across all competitions?
United have made a big gamble on Mount rediscovering the form that marked him out as a decent Premier League player two years ago.
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Getty Images7Kai Havertz (Chelsea to Arsenal, £65m)
Kai Havertz scored one of the most precious goals in Chelsea's history but still proved a colossal waste of money, never coming close to living up to his £62m ($79m) fee. And yet, the Blues somehow ended up making a £3m ($3.8m) profit on a 24-year-old that Mauricio Pochettino immediately deemed surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge.
Arsenal's acquisition really was bizarre. Mikel Arteta evidently believes that Havertz can excel in a deeper role, having managed just 19 goals in 91 appearances for Chelsea in a more advanced position.
Havertz has many attacking attributes. He would have been worth a gamble for a fair fee. But the Gunners weren't short of quality or creativity in midfield as it was, so it's extremely difficult to work out why they felt compelled to spend so much money on a player that even Germany haven't worked out where to deploy.