Elliot Anderson’s £116m expected switch to Manchester City would make him the Premier League’s second-biggest deal in raw terms, but when transfer fees are adjusted for inflation, Alan Shearer’s £236.9m-equivalent Newcastle move from 1996-97 still tops the cha
Elliot Anderson is preparing for the next step of his career with Manchester City, with a move worth £116m set to make him the Premier League’s second most expensive transfer in history.
The 23-year-old, an England international, is expected to complete a move from Nottingham Forest to City. He will have a medical in the coming days before becoming a Manchester City player, with the deal also positioned as the first signing of the post-Pep Guardiola era.
City were believed to have agreed an initial £106million fee with Forest last week. and earlier reporting from Daily Mail Sport said Evangelos Marinakis was looking to secure a British-record £130m after add-ons. On Thursday. Daily Mail Sport also reported that City sources stressed the Anderson deal is a straight one-off payment. while playing down the idea that they have overtaken the £125m British-record fee Liverpool paid for Alexander Isak last summer.
If Anderson does move for £116m, he would enter Premier League history behind Isak in raw figures. But he would land far lower when fees are adjusted for inflation and ranked against revenues of the top flight per season.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire released a list of the most expensive Premier League transfers of all time after inflation adjustments. and it is Newcastle’s £15m signing of Alan Shearer in the 1996-97 season that sits at the very top. Shearer’s move from Blackburn, which remained the top flight’s record transfer for four years, is adjusted to £236.9m.
The next two deals on Maguire’s inflation-adjusted list are Manchester United transactions. Rio Ferdinand’s move to Old Trafford in 2002-03 would now stand at £198.5m after being worth £33.3m at the time. while Juan Sebastien Veron’s transfer in 2001-02 would be £178.5m after starting life at £28.1m.
Liverpool’s Stan Collymore follows in the list after the 1995-96 deal, with the £8.5m fee adjusted to £176.8m. Chelsea’s Fernando Torres is fifth, his £50m from 2010-11 coming out at £157.8m when adjusted.
From the last decade, Paul Pogba is the only transfer to appear inside the top 10 of Maguire’s inflation list. His £89.9m switch from Juventus to Manchester United in 2016 is adjusted to £141.6m. Further down. Jack Grealish’s transfer to Manchester City in the summer of 2021—which was reported to be £100m at the time—is placed 14th after being adjusted to £132.7m.
Maguire’s figures also place Alexander Isak’s £125m record-breaking switch to Liverpool in 15th, adjusted to £132.6m. Moises Caicedo’s £115m move to Chelsea sits two places lower at 17th after being adjusted.
Recent Liverpool and Chelsea spending appears near the top of the inflation-adjusted rankings too. Enzo Fernandez’s £106m move to the Blues in 2023 is placed in 20th at an adjusted £127.5m. Florian Wirtz’s £116m transfer to Liverpool last summer sits three places below Anderson’s projected entry point. adjusted to £123.1m.
The list also includes Declan Rice, whose £105m move to Arsenal in 2023 is placed 27th after being adjusted to £119m—still far from the gulf between modern spending and the peaks of the 1990s when inflation is applied to earlier transfer values.
Once again, all of those numbers frame what happens if Anderson does complete his move to City. His £116m fee would place him 31st on Maguire’s inflation-adjusted list—four places behind his England midfield partner, whose own deal would sit higher on the chart.
For now. the immediate story sits on a more personal timeline: Anderson’s medical in the coming days. a change from Forest to City. and the pressure of being the first name in a new chapter at the Etihad—while the history books. when adjusted for inflation. still insist the grandest signing moments belong to Alan Shearer’s era.
Elliot Anderson Manchester City Nottingham Forest Premier League transfers Alan Shearer inflation-adjusted transfer fees Kieran Maguire Rio Ferdinand Juan Sebastien Veron Stan Collymore Fernando Torres Paul Pogba Jack Grealish Alexander Isak Moises Caicedo Enzo Fernandez Florian Wirtz Declan Rice Premier League record transfers
So City paid 116m and still not even the biggest once you do the inflation math? Sports articles always gotta bring in spreadsheets like it’s Congress.
Shearer was like 15 million and now it’s 236.9??? That just shows money has gotten ridiculous. Also Nottingham Forest really just let him go like that??
Wait I thought Isak was the highest British record? But they’re saying Anderson is behind Isak in raw figures? I’m confused, because inflation or whatever makes it totally different lol.
First signing post-Pep era already and it’s another big money guy. I don’t care about inflation adjusted rankings, 116m is still insane. This feels like City trying to win before the season even starts.