The summer of 2025 brought about quite a few transfers in the English Premier League. And in today’s world, when big players move, it also means astronomical transfer fees are paid.
The top largest signings in summer 2025 amassed a combined total of£736 in transfer fees for Premier League clubs (transfers to Premier League clubs that is). With those kinds of figures, you have to ask yourself, “are they worth it?”
Well today, we intend to answer that question. At the time of writing this article, the 25-26 English Premier League season has passed the half way point.
So, let’s see how the ten largest signings by transfer fee have performed over the first 21-mathces of the 25-26 Premier Lague season. Keep reading below to find out more.
The 10 Most Expensive Premier League Transfers of Summer 2025
Ranking the Top 10 Transfers by Fee
The top 10 players by transfer fee are listed below. As I’m sure you are well aware, Alexander Isak had the highest transfer fee in the summer of 2025. Liverpool paid a reported £125 million to Newcastle United for Isak.
Two players, Martin Zubimendi and Eberechi Eze, were both transferred for £60 million, which was the lowest fee paid out of the top 10 transfers in the summer of 2025. Zubimendi and Eze both transferred to Arsenal.
- Alexander Isak (£125)
- Florian Wirtz (£100)
- Hugo Ekitike (£69)
- Benjamin Šeško (£66.3)
- Bryan Mbeumo (£65)
- Nick Woltemade (£65)
- Viktor Gyökeres (£63)
- Matheus Cunha (£62.5)
- Martin Zubimendi (£60)
- Eberechi Eze (£60)
Below you can see the top 10 transfers graphed by their transfer fee. The visual really outlines just how much more expensive Isak was than the other nine players.
A few things to point out from this top 10 list. Eberechi Eze is the only English player to be ranked as one of the ten most expensive signings in the English Premier League in the summer of 2025.
Additionally, only four of the above transfers resulted in a player moving from one Premier League club to another Premier League club. Four were from Germany (Bayern Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt, RB Leipzig, and VfB Stuttgart), with one from Portugal (Sporting CP) and one from Spain (Real Sociedad).
We make this comment as the English Premier League is known as a tough, competitive, physical, and fast paced league. There are many players who have thrived in other leagues in Europe but have never reached the same level of stardom in England’s top division.
Considering the significant sum of money that clubs are paying for transfer fees, you might think that they would want a proven Premier League player before splashing the cash. It appears not.
Minutes Played After 21 Premier League Matches
Out of the top 10 highest transfers in the summer of 2025 in the Premier League, to date (after matchweek 21) Martin Zubimendi has played the most. He’s played 1,769 minutes and has taken part in all 21 matches for Arsenal (starting 20 of them).
The player with the lowest minutes played so far is Alexander Isak, who has struggled with injury. To date, he’s only played in 10 matches for Liverpool in the Premier League. And only started six of those matches.
In total Isak has played 504 minutes. We’ll let you do the math on a price per match calculation for Isak but so far, it’s an expensive number for Liverpool.
You can see in the graph below the playing time of all 10 players. Other than the two players already mentioned, most players have played a part in 15 to 20 matches for their respective clubs.
Goals and Goal Scoring Efficiency
Goals Scored and Goals per 90 Minutes
As all these players are more attacking minded, we’ll focus this section on goal scoring ability. Let’s start with Hugo Ekitike, who’s scored the most goals out of the top 10 transfer list.
After matchweek 21, Ekitike has scored eight goals and also has the highest goals per 90-min metric at 0.64 . This means he scores a goal about once every 1.5 matches on average (with a match being a full 90-minutes of play).
In the graph below, the blue bars show total goals (left-axis), while the orange line shows the goals per 90-minutes (right axis).
The next highest for total goals scored is Woltemade with seven goals scored and a 0.5 goals per 90-minutes metrics (a goal every two matches).
Isak and Wirtz both have the lowest total goals of the ten players on the list, both with two goals. However, given the significant less football that Isak has played, his goals per 90-minutes played metric is 0.36 (a goal per 2.8 matches) and quite a bit higher than Wirtz’s at 0.15 (a goal per 6.7 matches).
Despite the high transfer fees for all these players, their goal scoring ability is yet to put them amongst very top in the Premier League so far this season.
To put these numbers in perspective, Ekitike is the fifth highest goal scorer in the Premier League after matchweek 21. Haaland (20 goals), Thiago (16 goals), Semenyo (10 goals) and Calvert-Lewin (9 goals) all have more goals than Ekitike and the rest of the top 10 most expensive signings.
Expected Goals (xG) and Overperformance Analysis
Another metric that is discussed at length by analysts is xG or expected goals. We’ve also discussed it several times in different FVIDA articles.
If you’re not aware of it, xG is calculated by assigning a probability of scoring to each attempt on goal a player has. The probability is determined based on a model that has analyzed a vast amount of shot data.
Essentially the model is saying how likely a player’s shot is to result in a goal. Several factors help determine the xG rating such as the body part used for the shot, the distance from goal, build up play, etc.
An xG of 0.5 is saying that if the exact same shot happened 10 times, the model would predict (or expect) there to be 5 goals. For reference, a penalty kick always has an xG of 0.79.
When you sum up all probabilities for a single player or club over a match or season, you can determine the resulting total number of expected goals. If a player or club is scoring more than their xG rating, one can assume they are overperforming (i.e., more goals scored than they should have).
Alternatively, if the total number of goals scored for a player or a club is less than their xG rating, you can assume they are underperforming (i.e., less goals scored than they should have).
After the first 21 matches in the Premier League, only five of the ten players who had the highest transfer fee in summer of 2025 are over performing their xG rating. Seen in the graph below, there are four players who are underperforming, with one player (Isak) who is sitting equal (same number of goals scored and expected goals).
Again, Ekitike leads the charge. Ekitike has scored eight goals against an xG rating of 5.8, meaning his goals minus xG rating is +2.2 and considered quite strong.
Next highest is Eze, who has scored four goals and has an xG rating of 2.3. This results in a goals minus xG rating of 1.7.
At the other end of the spectrum is Wirtz, who has a negative 2.1 goals minus xG rating. This means he’s scored 2.1 goals less than expected. To date he’s scored two goals but has an xG rating of 4.1 (resulting in a -2.1).
Again, when comparing these ten players to the rest of the Premier League, they are far away from the top.
Newcastle’s Bruno Guimarães leads the Premier League with the highest goals minus xG rating after matchweek 21. Guimarães has a rating of +4.1, he’s scored eight goals with an xG of 3.9. And while Ekitike’s +2.2 is impressive, it only ranks him 13th best in the Premier League.
At the other end of the spectrum, Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta’s goals minus xG rating is -3.3 and the worst in the Premier League. So Wirtz’s -2.1 rating, although not great, still means he’s scored over one-goal more than expected when compared to Mateta’s rating.
Pass Completion and Ball Retention
Lastly, we’ll take a quick look at how accurate these ten players are with their passes.
Firstly to note, the Premier League average pass completion after the first 21 matches of the 25-26 season was 79.84%. Meaning, out all the attempted passes, 79.84% of them were received by a team member.
That means for every 10 passes, on average about two of them are misplaced and don’t meet their intended target.
Back to the top 10 most expensive transfers of summer 2025, Martin Zubimendi has the highest pass completion percentage with 88.8%. That’s 9% higher than the Premier League average and considering he’s played the most out of any of these 10 players, that’s quite an impressive stat.
Out of the 1283 passes that Zubimendi has attempted, 1139 were completed successfully.
Next highest is Eze, with a pass completion percentage of 84.3%, followed by Wirtz who is at 82.5%. These three players are the only ones who are performing above the Premier League average.
As seen in the graph below, the remaining seven players are below the Premier League average of 79.8%, with a few being considerably lower.
Isak, Šeško and Gyökeres are all in the range of 60% to 66%. Gyökeres has the lowest passing percentage out of these players at just 60.7%.
Again, when you break it down on a per pass basis, out of every 10 passes that Gyökeres makes, he is misplacing the ball on four of those passes. Considering the price Arsenal paid for him, that’s quite a few misplaced passes.
To think that after every 10 passes Gyökeres makes, four of those passes result in Arsenal losing possession and them having to work hard to win the ball back. While we recognize that passing is just one component of a football match, those misplaced passes do add up.
Final Verdict: Have the Most Expensive Transfers Delivered?
Well, that’s it for this article. In this post, we take a look at the ten most expensive singings in the Premier League during the summer of 2025.
Now we’re 21 matches into the Premier League season, we take a look at these ten players and how they have performed so far. Are they worth the millions of pounds that their respective clubs paid for them?
As we noted earlier in the article, Premier League clubs paid a combined £736 million pounds for these 10 players, with the highest being Alexander Isak at a reported £125 million.
After 21 matches, these 10 players have scored a combined 45 goals, with Ekitike leading the charge at 8 goals. Wirtz and Isak have the lowest number of goals scored out of 1o players, both with two goals each.
When looking at goals minus xG ratings, again Ekitike ranks high at +2.2, followed closely by Eze at +1.7. Wirtz and Gyökeres rank the lowest, at -2.1 and -1.4, respectively. Meaning that both Wirtz and Gyökeres have scored less goals than their chances would expect.
In summary, it appears that Ekitike has started the season strong and has definitely impressed the Liverpool faithful. Keep in mind that he was Liverpool’s least expensive transfer on this list (Isak and Wirtz both cost more than him).
Furthermore, Woltemade has had a strong scoring start for season after the first 21 matches and looks to be a strong presence up top for them.
Mbeumo has scored six goals so far for Manchester United in the Premier League. This is a strong start but he’s yet to hit the same level that the league has seen of him at Brentford previously.
For the rest of the players, it appears they have not yet reached their potential or expectations that have been put on these players when considering the large price tag.
What are your thoughts on these 10 most expensive transfers to Premier League clubs in the summer of 2025? Do you think they have reached the level that you expected? Who’s been a standout player for your and who has been a disappointment so far?
Let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Stay tuned for future posts and please send us a message if there is a specific topic you would like to see covered. Additionally, if you have any ideas on how to improve these articles, please send them our way too.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read these posts!
JC
The transfer amounts references in this article were from Wikipedia so, thanks to them!
All footballing data in this article is from fbref.com so, thanks to them!
Main image by Karolina Bobek on Unsplash.