FOOTBALL didn’t start in 1992 but Oldham’s ambition in the transfer market certainly ended then. The Latics received a seven-figure record fee from Aston Villa for Earl Barrett in February and then handed almost half of it back four months later for Ian Olney, a deal that remains Oldham’s record transfer almost 30 years later. Fortunately for fans of red hot deals, life moves much faster away from Boundary Park, so here’s a scarf rating [a raised scarf being the traditional and correct way to announce a new signing] for each Premier League club’s record arrival.

             

ARSENAL: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Five scarves for the joint-winner of the Premier League Golden Boot in 2018-19, the sixth Arsenal player to score 20+ goals in a single Premier League season, scorer of that Europa League semi-final hat-trick away at Valencia and the person who scored with 10 consecutive shots on target in autumn 2018. Good. Business.

ASTON VILLA: Wesley Moraes

Villa are the first of a few clubs in this list whose record could be broken as you are reading [indeed, some will rank another summer 2019 signing, Tyrone Mings, as higher although £6m of his fee is based on future performance]. That leaves Wesley Moraes who joined them for £22m earlier this summer from Club Brugge. A good debut season in England and Moraes could be the top scoring Wes in Premier League history (current leader: Hoolahan on 12 goals].

 

BRIGHTON: Alireza Jahanbakhsh

Became the seventh player in Premier League history to make his debut in the competition on his birthday (after Graeme Le Saux, Enrique De Lucas, Niclas Jensen, Leon Best, Henrique Hilario and Lucas Perez, obviously) but that was about as good as it got for Jahanbakhsh in a difficult campaign for club and individual.

 

BURNLEY: Ben Gibson / Chris Wood

Traditionally pragmatic from Burnley and of the two, Wood has been the solid & polished option, scoring 10 Premier League goals in each of his two seasons at Turf Moor. Gibson, in contrast, has made just one appearance for Sean Dyche and is likely to depart this summer.

 

BOURNEMOUTH: Jefferson Lerma

Of players to feature 30 or more times in the Premier League, Lerma has the highest rate of yellow cards (12, or 0.4 per game) in the competition’s history. 12 bookings is one more than Aaron Hughes collected in 455 Premier League appearances (425 more than Lerma), in what experts are calling “a different approach”.

 

CHELSEA: Kepa Arrizabalaga

Four scarves for the un-substitutable Chelsea goalkeeper who won a European trophy in his first season at Stamford Bridge and kept twice as many clean sheets in the Premier League as David De Gea. You can’t take anything away from Kepa, just don’t try and take him off.

CRYSTAL PALACE: Christian Benteke

Two scarves for Benteke as, largely forgotten, he scored 15 times (11 of them away from home, it is Crystal Palace after all) in his first season with the Eagles. Since then he’s scored only four times in 47 games and has as uncertain a future at the club as the hunted mice that have swanned about the club’s training ground in Beckenham.

 

EVERTON: Gylfi Sigurdsson

A slow 2017-18 for Sigurdsson was followed by 13 goals and six assists under Marco Silva in 2018-19. Three scarves matches the three penalties Sigurdsson failed with last season, a less than ideal record for a man routinely named as a dead-ball expert.

 

LEICESTER CITY: Youri Tielemans

Four assists and three goals in 13 loan appearances for the Foxes was enough to convince them to make Tielemans’ move permanent in a transfer that is a lovely illustration of how Leicester’s title win in 2016 continues to grant them ripples of benefit even three years on.

 

LIVERPOOL: Virgil van Dijk

It’s Virgil van Dijk.

MANCHESTER CITY: Rodri

Three scarves is the base value for a player who hasn’t featured for his new club yet, but it would be a surprise if this didn’t increase to a cool five by the end of the campaign. Pep Guardiola doesn’t coach tackles but Rodri made 103 of them in La Liga last season, a figure which is equal to 20% of City’s entire total in the Premier League in 2018-19. So that’ll help.

 

MANCHESTER UNITED: Paul Pogba

Some would give Pogba one scarf, some five, so three seems like a fair compromise. Top scorer and top assist provider for Manchester United in the same league campaign used to guarantee hero status but these are different times.

 

NEWCASTLE UNITED: Miguel Almiron

Signed in January to end Newcastle’s awkwardly long run without breaking their transfer record (the previous holder was Michael Owen, set back in 2005), Almiron had scored 12 and assisted 11 more for MLS side Atlanta before moving to Tyneside. He is yet to provide one of either for the Magpies and now has to impress a new manager after the departure of Rafa Benitez.

 

NORWICH CITY: Steven Naismith

As Norwich spiralled towards relegation in 2016 they splashed hard and reasonably heavy on Everton’s Steven Naismith, a player who had recently scored a Premier League hat-trick as a substitute (he remains the most recent player to have done this). Sadly for the Canaries, the old maxim “never judge a player by one substitute appearance in a high-profile game against Chelsea” proved as infallible as usual and Naismith scored just one goal for City in the top-flight, and a handful more in the second tier.

SHEFFIELD UNITED: John Egan

No Premier League transfer record looks likelier to fall this summer than the one paid by Sheffield United for Brentford’s John Egan 12 months ago. Even so, fee paid, promotion sealed nine months later. You can’t say fairer than that.

 

SOUTHAMPTON: Guido Carrillo

No club has a vaguer grasp of its own transfer record than Southampton, with the likes of Guido Carrillo and Jannik Vestergaard vying for the title, along with recent addition Danny Ings. Basically, if you enjoy observing multiple footballers who cost in and around £20m then head to the south coast. Let’s go with Carrillo as a classic example of a Premier League import who simply didn’t fit. Seven appearances, no goals, and only four shots on target, which works out as about £4.75m per effort. Not ideal.

 

TOTTENHAM: Tanguy Ndombele

It turns out Tottenham were just saving up all that time. Ndombele had some of the most impressive dribbling numbers in the top five leagues last season (beating his man 68% of the time) and looks heaven-sent to reboot a Spurs midfield that had all but disintegrated by the end of 2018-19.  

 

Here he is!

Tanguy Ndombele's first interview as a Spurs player.

Watch the full version exclusively on our Spurs Official app. #WelcomeTanguy ⚪️ #COYS

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) July 3, 2019

WATFORD: Andre Gray

Watford’s record signing has still scored considerably more goals for Luton than he has for the Hornets and has made more substitute appearances for Watford in the Premier League than starts, which is possibly not what you want from your most expensive player. Even so, Gray has popped up with crucial late strikes on occasions, including that one after 89:31 against Southampton last season that cancelled out the fastest goal in Premier League history.

 

WEST HAM UNITED: Felipe Anderson

Like a weather-conscious dresser, Anderson gets five scarves for November and December, a period in which he was one of the best performers in the Premier League and although he tailed off towards the end of the campaign, it was still a solid start from the Brazilian.

 

WOLVES: Raul Jiminez

Jiminez scored or assisted 20 of Wolves’ 47 goals last season and so the club record fee the club paid to make the Mexican’s loan a permanent deal looks even more of a bargain after their man was crowned player of the tournament at the CONCACAF Gold Cup. No pressure, Raul, but that total of 47 goals by Wolves was the lowest by any team in the top half of the table last season so it’s no wonder that he has been given an extended summer break by Nuno Espirito Santo to recover. Second season syndrome is not an option.