Each season, we see the money spent on transfers during the summer transfer window swell beyond our wildest imagination and this season has not been any different. With the transfers of Neymar and Dembele, dominating the transfer news, some players have moved to various Premier League clubs for exorbitant prices.
Big Teams like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, etc., have seen their record transfer fee being broken along with various other bumper transfers which topped the £30 Million mark.
Let us see the top five expensive players in the Premier League this season and check whether they justify their price tag.
Kyle Walker – Manchester City – £45 Million
Signed as part of Manchester City’s all-new Full Back formula. Kyle Walker’s transfer from Tottenham to Manchester City could potentially rise to £50 Million with various add-ons.
Kyle Walker has played in 9 of the 10 matches played by Manchester City this season. The only match, he missed, was due to a refereeing error by Bobby Madley, whose second yellow card led to the suspension of Walker. In the 705 minutes of football played thus far, he has contributed 3 assists and received 2 yellow cards.
Walker has not been entirely satisfactory nor was he poor. The transfer fee cannot be entirely justified.
Alexandre Lacazette – Arsenal – £46.5 Million
Arsenal’s costliest ever player, signed from Lyon with 37 goals in the recently concluded season, is how everybody knows Alexandre Lacazette. Lacazette has already entered Arsenal’s folklore by becoming the first person since 1988 to score in his first three home matches.
But, apart from the above goals in home games, he has failed to score in any other game. With a tally of 4 goals in 557 minutes, Lacazette has yet to prove his mammoth transfer fee. A match-winning performance against any of the Premier League’s elite teams would make Lacazette the dream striker every Arsenal fan wanted.
Benjamin Mendy – Manchester City – £52 Million
Unavailable for the first two league matches due to a Thigh Muscle Strain, followed by a run of 5 games with 2 yellow cards and 2 assists in 389 minutes of football. This is the summary of Benjamin Mendy, the costliest defender in the history of Football.
But, unfortunately, the £52 Million player from the league winning Monaco, has suffered yet another injury, only the injury is a terrible Cruciate Ligament one, effectively making the costliest defender ever, unavailable for the best part of the season and only a miracle can see him back early.
A star for the future, but Mendy has to go down as one of the worst transfers of this summer’s transfer window.
Alvaro Morata – Chelsea – £67 Million
After lengthy discussions with Manchester United, Alvaro Morata, moved to Chelsea to replace another Spanish striker in the notorious Diego Costa. In signing for Chelsea, Morata has replaced Fernando Torres to become their costliest player ever.
In the 9 matches played since his bumper transfer from Real Madrid, Morata has scored 7 goals and assisted a further 2 in 590 minutes of football. With his hat-trick against Stoke, Morata has become the 17th player to score a treble for Chelsea.
It is safe to say, Morata is one of the very few transfer successes for Chelsea, this season.
Romelu Lukaku – Manchester United – £75 Million
Very few players can replace Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Romelu Lukaku has more than filled the shoes of Zlatan. With 87 goals in 166 Matches for Everton, Lukaku has been the subject of an intense transfer war between Manchester United and Chelsea, with the Red Devils coming on top. At a price tag of £75 Million, Lukaku has been the most expensive player in the Premier League this season.
A return of 11 goals and 2 assists in 10 matches, would remind everybody of Ronaldo or Messi, but, when the statistics belong to Romelu Lukaku, even £75 Million looks like a real bargain.
