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Chelsea will pray that Morgan Rogers succeeds like one of their previous £100million-plus signings rather than flop spectacularly like their biggest ever sale…
Rogers has completed a £117million move to Stamford Bridge, becoming the most-expensive English player ever.
Like Rogers, Elliot Anderson and Sandro Tonali have also gone for £100million or more this summer, but we’re a kind, tender sort, so we’ll allow them to kick a ball for their new clubs before we pin them as bargain buys or fraudulent flops.
When it comes to these eight other players at the centre of £100million-plus moves involving a Premier League club, we’ve seen enough to rank them…
8) Eden Hazard – £100m – Chelsea to Real Madrid
Given the way Hazard lit up the Premier League, most assumed £100million would be a bargain and the Belgian would shine at the Bernabeu.
He did not. In fact, there are many who make Hazard the club’s worst-ever signing.
The attacker has some mitigation. As soon as Hazard joined Real, his body seemed started to creak. He missed as many games in his first campaign in Spain – 2019/20 – as he did in seven seasons at Chelsea.
Though he didn’t help himself. He turned up to his first pre-season training overweight and certainly lacked the discipline of Cristiano Ronaldo around the buffet table.
Never in four seasons at the Bernabeu did Hazard play in half of Real’s league matches, giving the club a return on their £100million investment of seven goals in 76 appearances in all competitions.
7) Philippe Coutinho – £142m – Liverpool to Barcelona
Sadly for Barcelona, Coutinho was worth neither the wait nor the massive fee they paid in 2018.
Barca tried in the summer of 2017 to tempt Liverpool into selling the Brazil attacker, the Reds rejecting three bids and ignoring a transfer request from the player. Offers of £72million, £90million then £119million including add-ons were rebuffed in the hope the Catalans would take the hint.
But back they came in the winter of 2018 with an offer of £106million plus another £36million in add-ons. All of which Barca, apparently, were eventually liable for, despite Coutinho flopping hard at the Nou Camp.
Indeed, reports suggest Liverpool banked £4million from Barca when Coutinho won the Champions League – with Bayern Munich. For whom he scored twice against his parent club in a semi-final thrashing.
6) Alexander Isak – £125m – Newcastle to Liverpool
It’s not going great, is it?
Neither side was keen to confirm how much the fee paid by Liverpool was. Most reports suggest £125million – a British transfer record – with another £5million potentially due in add-ons.
Newcastle might be more motivated to make the information public since, right now, it seems they got the better end of the deal, despite compromising somewhat on their original demands.
They had little choice since Isak had downed tools for two months prior to some common ground being forcibly found between the Magpies and Liverpool.
Once he began his Liverpool career, Isak looked every bit the player that had skipped pre-season training. A series of injuries saw the Swede endure his worst goalscoring season since 2017-18 when he played only 12 games for Dortmund. In 22 appearances for Liverpool, he scored four goals.
As with so many things, Arne Slot has taken much of the blame and Liverpool hopes are high for Isak under Andoni Iraola. He certainly could not be much worse for a fresh start.
5) Jack Grealish – £100m – Aston Villa to Manchester City
With three Premier League titles as well as winner’s medals for the Champions League, the FA Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, would you tell Grealish that he has flopped at City?
It is a reasonable conclusion, though, since he spent last season away from the Etihad on loan at Everton having rarely – if ever? – recaptured his old Villa magic under Pep Guardiola.
It always seemed a peculiar bit of business from City. They often spent around £60million but rarely much more, so to obliterate their transfer record for a player that never seemed to fully fit Guardiola’s ethos was odd.
Guardiola craves control and demands his players move in very particular patterns at precise moments. Grealish was a maverick. Maybe Pep was as intrigued as the rest of us as to what a mercurial talent like Grealish could add to the City winning machine. But perhaps the manager should have seen this coming.
With Guardiola gone, what chance of Grealish still thriving at City? Slim, we’d suggest, since they have hired one of Pep’s disciples.
4) Florian Wirtz – £100m – Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool
The first of Liverpool’s two £100m-plus signings last summer, Wirtz struggled like Isak, but judging the German has been less clear cut than assessing the Sweden centre-forward.
By any measure, Wirtz made a slow start. He went 13 games with neither a goal nor an assist, and though he then had six goal involvements in eight games around the turn of the year, he recorded only one goal and one assist from the start of February.
Perhaps that wasn’t entirely his fault. Wirtz ranked ninth in the Premier League for chances created. But also joint 81st alongside Diogo Dalot and Marc Guehi for big chances created.
Having now had a season to acclimatise to the Premier League, much more will be expected of Wirtz this season.
3) Enzo Fernandez – £107m – Benfica to Chelsea
It’s crazy to think of a £100million-plus move as a stepping stone, but that certainly seems to be the way Fernandez views his time at Chelsea.
One of Fernandez’s flaws during his two-and-a-half years at Stamford Bridge is his less-than-subtle flirting with Real Madrid. So open about his desire to move to the Bernabeu has he been that he was suspended by Chelsea for ‘crossing a line’.
The Argentina midfielder has shown glimpses of why Real would want him. From midfield all-rounder, he has a canny knack of running from deep into the box to cause chaos. But that chaos seems to follow him around.
Fernandez was one of the faces of Chelsea’s woes last season – the sight of the vice-captain stood staring at irate Blues at Brighton in Liam Rosenior’s last game summed up a wretched campaign for the club.
But Fernandez has a problem: do Real want him as much as he wants them?
We certainly doubt Florentino Perez is prepared to offer Chelsea a profit on the then-record £107million fee they paid Benfica. Fernandez has shown this summer already that he’s not afraid to do what’s necessary to achieve his ends, so his behaviour towards the end of the window could be very interesting.
2) Moises Caicedo – £100m rising to £115m – Brighton to Chelsea
Chelsea may be wary of what trouble Fernandez brings with him to pre-season training but they need not worry about their other £100m-plus midfielder.
Caicedo has proved to be every bit as important to Chelsea as most of us expected when he chose the Blues over Liverpool in 2023.
The Ecuador midfielder has already earned a new contract, extending his stay to 2033, in which time he may well achieve his stated aim of ‘becoming a Chelsea legend’.
1) Declan Rice – £105m – West Ham to Arsenal
Arsenal fans may be pushing it by suggesting they got Rice half-price from West Ham. But they have certainly got decent value from their record signing.
Since moving to the Emirates in 2023, the Gunners’ growth has mirrored the midfielder’s. Rice has established himself as one of the best in his position in the world and was pivotal in dragging the Gunners over the line in the title race.
The poor lad is knackered now, though. Rice finished 2025/26 with 69 games for club and country. Can he go again with barely a rest before 2026/27?
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