The most expensive 30-plus Premier League signings ever reveals record Chelsea must beat for Xhaka | OneFootball

Chelsea must shatter a transfer record of their own to sign Xabi Alonso’s primary target, but spending big on stars over 30 can backfire.

Fabrizio Romano believes “Chelsea’s expectation is to pay less [than €30m to €40m]” for Granit Xhaka, but Sunderland might have a say in that.

It might be that the Blues will have to go bigger than the players on this list of the most expensive Premier League signings aged 31 or over.

10) Ashley Williams – £11m (Swansea to Everton, 2016)

As Britain’s best centre-half and a European Championship semi-finalist with ample Premier League experience, the only thing preventing Swansea captain Williams from reprising his role as an Arsenal transfer legend in the summer of 2016 was his age.

Everton, led by new manager Ronald Koeman and with Leicester title mastermind Steve Walsh appointed director of football, sensed that such a seasoned veteran could prove useful after the sale of John Stones.

By the time Williams was released three years later aged 34 – his final campaign being served on loan at Championship side Stoke – retirement already beckoned for a player whose last top-flight appearance came under Sam Allardyce.

9) Kieran Trippier – £12m (Atletico Madrid to Newcastle, 2022)

Of course Eddie Howe would treat himself to a new pair of oven gloves and some fresh bed linen if he ever won the lottery. Having hit the footballing equivalent of the jackpot with a Saudi takeover, he was never going to be anything other than sensible and pragmatic with the money.

“I’d read the rumours about Mbappe and Haaland and all that sort of stuff,” said Chris Wood, who added: “Newcastle wanted players to make an impact immediately. It’s all very well signing players from abroad, but maybe they will need time to settle.”

We’ll never know if Mbappe and Haaland would have got up to speed in enough time to match Wood’s two goals – one penalty – in 17 games in the second half of the 2021/22 campaign.

But it was Trippier who symbolised the culture shift at Newcastle, the relentless standard-setter whose arrival from La Liga represented a coup and heralded a new era at St James’ Park.

8) Cristiano Ronaldo – £12.8m (Juventus to Manchester United, 2021)

The most expensive 33-year-old in football history soon became the costliest 36-year-old – in more ways than one.

It was at great fiscal expense that Manchester United brought Ronaldo back to Old Trafford in a frankly embarrassing panic induced by interest from Manchester City.

Sir Alex Ferguson, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra were all mobilised in a charm offensive which was never going to fail to appeal to someone so egotistical that they are willing to befriend Piers Morgan just because he says he’s better than Lionel Messi.

But the damage incurred by all parties was even greater. A promising Manchester United project collapsed under the weight of such conceit, and Ronaldo rendered himself so petulantly untouchable that the only available career path left led straight to the relative obscurity of Saudi.

7) Fernando Llorente – £14m (Swansea to Spurs, 2017)

Already 31 when Swansea granted him the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Michu, World Cup winner Llorente took to the Premier League instantly.

A 15-goal debut season attracted interest from Spurs, and prompted a rare transfer meltdown from Antonio Conte.

Llorente certainly suffered as the latest player to embrace the role of Harry Kane’s eternal back-up. The Spain striker scored just two Premier League goals in 36 Spurs appearances, but a presumably dodgy hip proved useful in Europe.

6) Chris Wood – £15m (Newcastle to Nottingham Forest, 2023)

Having presumably decided not to pursue Mbappe and Haaland over concerns as to whether they could acclimatise quickly enough, Forest instead resorted to Plan B in the middle of their first season back in the top flight.

Wood, signed by Newcastle at least as much to weaken relegation rivals Burnley as to strengthen themselves, was deemed to be a spare part by the Magpies within a year. Forest borrowed before they bought their all-time Premier League top scorer but it quickly felt like a far more natural fit.

5) Claudio Bravo – £15.4m (Barcelona to Manchester City, 2016)

It is the “one regret” that Pep Guardiola, upon his Manchester City exit, confessed to having kept “deep inside for many years”. The Hart transplant performed in the Etihad goalkeeping department best captured the Spaniard’s early struggles in England.

The brilliance of Ederson ultimately proved Guardiola’s point, but the struggles endured by Hart’s actual replacement undermined them somewhat initially.

Bravo was a key footnote in the revolution, but not a particularly fondly remembered one. The Chilean was awful on “one of the best ever” debuts, was sent off in a 4-0 Champions League defeat to former club Barcelona and was dropped for Willy Caballero by February of his first season.

Hart didn’t die for any of that.

4) Granit Xhaka – £17.3m (Bayer Leverkusen to Sunderland, 2025)

If Chelsea and Alonso truly want Xhaka – Xhaka is certainly believed to truly want Chelsea and Alonso – then it might require that fee to be doubled and this record to be broken.

Sunderland are entirely justified in standing their ground. They lured Xhaka back to the Premier League, built a team around their new captain and had that faith vindicated with Europa League qualification.

They will continue to point to the two years remaining on the contract of one of the greatest newly-promoted transfer coups ever.

3) Olivier Giroud – £18m (Arsenal to Chelsea, 2018)

“Chelsea seem to be hell-bent on getting anybody that’s over 6ft 3in and a target man,” said Gary Neville of a “desperate” centre-forward pursuit that birthed a shortlist of Peter Crouch, Ashley Barnes, Edin Dzeko and Andy Carroll.

Through that prism, ending up with Giroud – who Arsenal promptly replaced with future fellow Stamford Bridge alumnus Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang that January – wasn’t half bad.

The generational French pundit never established himself as a regular starter for Chelsea but did win a Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup to go with his World Cup winner’s medal.

2) Niclas Fullkrug – £27m (Borussia Dortmund to West Ham, 2024)

1) Kalidou Koulibaly – £33m (Napoli to Chelsea, 2022)

The Chelsea transfer philosophy shift towards signing “more ready-made players at this part of the project” is heartening. But it does bring to mind the last window in which they did as such.

The first post-takeover summer under BlueCo saw Aubameyang, Raheem Sterling, Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana all join among the raft of imported youngsters. But Koulibaly might have been the worst of them all.

Chelsea made most of their money back when Saudi came calling a year later, but even just one season of a slow and slack Koulibaly being bullied was more than enough

A perennial Premier League transfer target he should have stayed.