Here's some interestink links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progression_of_the_British_football_transfer_fee_record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_association_football_transfers
Probably many people have already seen this: This is unrealThe spending in world club football over the last 28 years Must watch 💰 💰💰💰 pic.twitter.com/wfRB0TmmdR— atul kasbekar (@atulkasbekar) March 16, 2019 Be wary however about the early years. The figures are taken from transfermarkt, but a problem is here only 10 Milan incoming transfers have received a number behind them until 1991, Real Madrid 12, Internazionale 9, Juventus 17... Barcelona 41 players with a number.
Yes, it's a fun and interesting watch but dubious how accurate it is. Lots of the numbers on Transfermarkt are wrong (IMO), it isn't clear what period is under consideration. The numbers for Spurs for instance seem way out. Over £300m up to 2008/9 does not add up. Also it doesn't seem to factor in net spend at all, which is a far more meaningful number.
Since there wasn't one yet, I decided to create a database for high profile transfers. While I've been going through WS, I've also been collecting every major transfer announced in their pages. I didn't include everybody, as there were a lot of announced transfers of modest players between modest clubs. Disclaimer: take all these with a big grain of salt. At times, different articles gave different transfer fees. Some of them could be down to one journalist counting in signing-on bonuses and wages and such, but sometimes the numbers just differed wildly. I've included some of them in a separate column as an example. To make things interesting, I've also included some major transfer rumors (highlighted in orange). While they were rumors that never happened, they may give an inkling on what the player's estimated value was. For now the database is only post-war up to 1970, but I'll be adding to it later.
I've updated the file to include transfers up to 1980. Once again, take these with a huge grain of salt. WS is all over the place when it comes to transfer fees. Sometimes the fees are announced in pounds, sometimes in dollars. But then sometimes it's been given in dollars or pounds in different articles, but the number stays the same! My file has everything converted to pounds. My favorite was Tarantini's transfer to River Plate. It was first announced as something like 300k pounds. Next it was 300k in dollars. Then they went just kidding, it was only like 100k pounds, but then they narrowed it down to like 60k. Yeah, thanks for the info, guys. There were other funny shenanigans, too, like Fernando Morena to Rayo announced as 30k, which would be quite the bargain. I think it was a decimal error, but my own notes aren't the greatest, either.
File has been updated up to 1995. I also added separate charts for each decade so that it's easier to follow. The main one is getting cluttered.