Top ten Premier League gains of the season features Man Utd star and three Red Devils targets | OneFootball

Manchester United are all about signing Premier League players on the up these days, and ironically bloody love a good foreigner (almost exclusively, in fact) as The Club (important distinction from the the guy who part-owns it and is charge of footballing decisions) does not discriminate.

One such flourishing non-Brit makes it onto this list of the top ten Premier League gains of the season and is joined by three players (one Brit, two nons) heavily linked with a move to Old Trafford in the summer.

The value increases since July 1 2025 are courtesy of Transfermarkt – who deal in euros, not pounds – and players with the same decreases have been separated by the percentage rise.

Erling Haaland (€200m), Moises Caicedo (€110m) and Estevao (€80m) also enjoyed €20m increases but just miss out.

For the negative Nancies among you, we’ve already done the top ten declines of the season.

10) Bryan Mbeumo (Manchester United): €55m – €75m (+€20m)

Has there been a new forward bought by Manchester United (you’ll notice the phrasing there rules out Cristiano Ronaldo’s return and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s free transfer) since Sir Alex Ferguson retired who’s genuinely looked the part at Old Trafford?

Mbeumo looks at ease; a shirt that’s weighed heavy to the point of paralysis on the shoulders of most just looks like any old garment he’s thrown on. Feels very weird for United to have made an undeniably excellent signing.

9) Carlos Baleba (Brighton): €40m – €60m (+€20m)

A value increase based far more on the end of last season and the summer interest from United than Baleba’s performances this term, which have not merited Brighton’s £100m asking price.

8) Reece James (Chelsea): €30m – €50m (+€20m)

The rarity of a footballer forcing a value about-turn as Reece James has done shows just how hard he’s fought to rediscover his form at Chelsea. Having peaked at €70m soon after his key role in the 2021 Champions League win it feels as though there’e little doubt the 26-year-old will return to that mark or even surpass it if he remains fit.

He’s shown this season – specifically against Arsenal – that he can mix it with the best of them in central midfield but is nailed on to start at right-back for England at the World Cup if he’s available to Thomas Tuchel.

7) Max Dowman (Arsenal): €0m – €20m (+€20m)

Evidently a beautiful player to watch with what we fully expect to be a very bright future, but making five senior appearances totalling 143 minutes to be worth a cool €20m [£17.5m] is ‘game’s gone’ territory.

5=) Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City): €18m – €40m (+€22m)

Truly astonishing given how many academy players at Manchester City have made it to the first team and then fallen by the wayside under Pep Guardiola that having made his Premier League debut in January 2025, O’Reilly has already started 26 top flight games.

Left-back, defensive or attacking midfield, he looks very comfortable wherever he plays and stands a very good chance of going to the World Cup with England, possibly as the starting left-back or as a hugely useful versatile options for Tuchel.

5=) Malick Thiaw (Newcastle): €18m – €40m (+€22m)

Absolutely fair for people to have questioned why Newcastle paid €40m [£30m] for an €18m [£16m] centre-back who often couldn’t get into an AC Milan back three, but Thiaw has been among the Magpies’ best and most consistent players this season; handily scoring four goals as a bonus to his defensive prowess.

4) Iliman Ndiaye (Everton): €22m – €45m (+€23m)

A ‘makes things happen’ footballer in a very similar mould to Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha, which explains Manchester United’s interest ahead of the summer. Add the United tax to what he’s worth to Everton and the Red Devils are going to have to pay significantly more than €45m [£39m] to sign the 25-year-old.

3) Antoine Semenyo (Manchester City): €40m – €65m (+€25m)

We fully expect Semenyo to have doubled his value in a season come the end of it and maybe even approach the €100m mark depending what City go onto achieve. Five goals and two assists in nine appearances since joining in January suggests the 26-year-old will be key to any success and has pushed Phil Foden back into the doldrums.

2) Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest): €32m – €60m (+€28m)

A mad season in which he’s now had four different permanent managers at Nottingham Forest looks very likely to end with him starting for England at the World Cup having made his debut in September and moving to Manchester. But are Man Utd being fooled by energy over excellence? 

1) Nick Woltemade (Newcastle): €30m – €70m (+€40m)

Having been very well-suited to Newcastle thanks to his ability to drop deep, link the play and allow the speedy wingers to bomb on behind him, Woltemade is now not at all suited to Newcastle thanks to his obsession with dropping deep and linking the play as the speedy wingers bombing on behind him then have no-one to cross to.

The problem for those who see him as such is that the big German was scoring goals and now isn’t, with his drought now apparently such a worry that Newcastle are ‘open to his sale’ just 12 months on from signing him for a club-record £69m.

The Transfermarkt nerds at least believe he’s worth sticking with. That’s an extraordinary increase in value in a little over seven months, bettered only by Lennart Karl (Bayern Munich, +€58.5m), Arda Guler (Real Madrid, +€45m) and Yan Diomande (RB Leipzig, +€43.5m) in world football.