In years gone by, the competitive advantage in the Premier League was to scout and source players from overseas markets: France, Spain, Germany, Scandinavia and South America being amongst the most popular options. But it seems as though that tactic has been replaced by something altogether more surprising: Premier League clubs selling their prized assets to one another.
During the two transfer windows of the 2025/26 season, EPL outfits spent more than £1 billion – nearly £1.3 billion, actually – on fees for players signed from other Premier League members.
At the time of writing, with a few days of the 2026/27 summer window remaining, the combined total was closing in on £1 billion once more… with two of the biggest transfer fees ever paid by Premier League clubs being forked out on players from their rivals. Why are we seeing so many big money moves within the Premier League?
Locally Sourced
Every good fashion movement needs a trend-setter, with Alexander Isak’s move from Newcastle United to Liverpool ahead of the 2025/26 campaign seemingly the spark for what has followed. The Reds paid £125 million to secure the Swede’s services, which remains the British record transfer fee to this day.
Moving Up in the World
The so-called ‘big six’ clubs turned their crosshairs inwards, hoovering up talent from what we might term the ‘less prestigious’ EPL outfits (no disrespect intended):
- Bryan Mbeumo – Brentford to Manchester United
- Matheus Cunha – Wolves to Manchester United
- Joao Pedro – Brighton to Chelsea
- Milos Kerkez – Bournemouth to Liverpool
- Rayan Ait-Nouri – Wolves to Manchester City
- Christian Norgaard – Brentford to Arsenal
- Mohamed Kudus – West Ham to Tottenham
Incredibly, this pattern – big six clubs buying players from other Premier League sides – accounted for 39% of all transfers in the summer window of 2025. In addition to those deals, Noni Madueke swapped Chelsea for Arsenal and Anthony Elanga headed north from Nottingham Forest to Newcastle United; blazing a trail that had already been walked by the likes of Declan Rice and Dominic Solanle in their respective moves in previous windows.
Any notion that that was going to be a one-off has been kicked to the kerb in the summer of 2026. Morgan Rogers’ move from Aston Villa to Chelsea for £117 million is the second-highest fee ever paid by a Premier League club. Not to be outdone, Manchester City splashed £115 million on Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson, while Tottenham forked out £93 million on Newcastle’s midfielder Sandro Tonali.
Most Expensive Premier League Transfers
Savinho and Bruno Guimaraes’ moves from Man City and Newcastle to Tottenham and Arsenal respectively are amongst the top-25 most expensive Premier League transfers of all time. And the list goes on:
- Ezri Konsa – Aston Villa to Arsenal
- Jan Paul van Hecke – Brighton to Tottenham
- Maxence Lacroix – Crystal Palace to Chelsea
- Andrey Santos – Chelsea to Manchester United
- Luka Vuskovic – Tottenham to Brighton
- Brennan Johnson – Crystal Palace to Everton
- James Trafford – Man City to Leeds United
- Carlos Baleba – Brighton to Manchester United
- Youri Tielemans – Aston Villa to Manchester United
By the time you read this, more deals may have been completed, too. Although the spending may not quite reach 2025/26 levels in terms of pure monetary value, it’s likely that the percentage of spending on intra Premier League transfers will be the highest it’s been in over a decade. But why?
Tried and Tested
In an age of more restrictive financial rules, every penny counts. The Premier League will use a new Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) calculation in 2026/27, which will limit the amount that clubs can spend on transfer-related costs to 70% of revenue generated in UEFA competitions and 85% in the EPL. That means there has to be more of a balance between incomings and outgoings, which in turn means that transfers have to be a success – there is no margin for wastage anymore.
To increase the chances of a transferred player being successful, clubs look to minimise risk – signing a proven Premier League performer comes as less of a gamble than taking a punt on a player from Ligue 1 or La Liga, for example… even if the fee paid is lower in the latter case. Intra-Premier League transfers come with a hefty price premium – Isak, Rogers and Anderson are the third, fourth and fifth most expensive footballers in history. But those individuals should be able to hit the ground running in a division that is notorious for taking no prisoners.
Balancing the Books
SCR has a notable impact on clubs that have previously been a bit flash with their cash. Chelsea, Newcastle United and Aston Villa were all fined in 2025/26 for breaches of squad cost rules, and the upshot is that the latter two have had to become ‘selling clubs’, to some extent. The Magpies have sold Guimaraes, Tonali and Anthony Gordon for more than £200 million combined, replacing them with seven players aged 24 or younger – none being proven Premier League performers.
Aston Villa, meanwhile, banked nearly a £100 million positive net spend in the summer of 2026, shipping out Rogers, Konsa, Tielemans and Donyell Malen, amongst others. They may yet lose Ollie Watkins too, so a significant regression on the pitch is expected. The perks of selling these players to their fellow Premier League clubs is that they can charge a premium… aiding that SCR calculation.
What Is the Elite Player Performance Plan?
Another reason that Premier League clubs are selling to one another is that youngsters coming through EPL academies are getting better and better. There was a perception that English youngsters lacked the technical ability and tactical knowhow of their counterparts on the continent, which is why so few were breaking through into the first team – and why young assets in Ligue 1 in particular have been so prized by Premier League clubs.
But the introduction of the elite player performance plan (EPPP) has had a clear impact on the quality and quantity of youngsters that are breaking through from Premier League academies. Football clubs will largely always prefer signing younger players; they offer more longevity, by and large, and can also command higher transfer fees down the line.
Premier League clubs signing youngsters that have graduated from EPPP programmes, especially from the most successful talent-producing academies, has also facilitated the rise in intra-league transfers.
