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Alexander Isak may become the Premier League’s most expensive transfer ever this summer – but not when adjusted for inflation.
Liverpool made a bid worth more than £120million for the Swedish striker on Friday, but their offer has been rejected by Newcastle.
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The 25-year-old hasn’t travelled on the Magpies’ pre-season tour as he explores a potential move away from the club.
He is currently training at his former club, Real Sociedad in Spain, and Newcastle are understood to be aware of the situation.
Eddie Howe’s side ideally want to keep their star forward, who they value at £150m, or at least source a replacement before his exit.
Should Liverpool agree to match Newcastle’s price tag, then it would obliterate the British transfer record the Merseysiders have broken once already this summer.
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The Reds have forked out a total package worth £116.5m for Florian Wirtz to take their spending close to £300m.
talkSPORT.com have previously detailed how Arne Slot’s men can avoid PSR issues by completing a record deal for Isak.
Now, Liverpool’s spending can be put into further context by football finance expert Kieran Maguire when adjusted for transfer inflation.
His algorithm for comparing signings since the arrival of the Premier League over three decades ago in the 1992/93 season.
Fittingly, it is the competition’s all-time leading goalscorer, Alan Shearer, who also holds the record for the highest fee in real terms.
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Top 10 highest Premier League transfers adjusted for inflation
On July 30, 1996, Newcastle made the legendary striker the most expensive footballer in the world in a £15m deal with Blackburn.
Speaking from Bangkok that day, then-manager Kevin Keegan said: “This signing is for the people of Newcastle.
“It just shows you the ambition of Newcastle United. We are the biggest-thinking team in Europe now.”
So it’s no surprise that the title is still held at St James’ Park, with Shearer’s fee worth a staggering £225m in today’s money.
Ironically, nearly 29 years to the day later, news of Shearer’s successor as the club-record signing training alone broke on July 31, 2025.
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As per football finance experts, Valuball, had Newcastle accepted Liverpool’s £120m bid for Isak, he wouldn’t even crack the list of the top 20 Premier League signings ever when adjusted for inflation.
A £150m package would still only see the forward sit in ninth, just below Fernando Torres’ then-record move from Anfield to Chelsea.
Liverpool would still hold the second overall largest fee behind Shearer – but through Stan Collymore, not Isak.
The pair would hold a link if the latter joins the Reds, with Collymore’s 1995 transfer proving to be the first time the current champions broke the British transfer record in the Premier League era.
It was also the most recent up until the arrival of Wirtz, who doesn’t cut the top 20, leaving Liverpool with only one representative.
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Isak’s valuation may dwarf Collymore’s £8.5m switch from Nottingham Forest, but the fee was actually the equivalent of £219m.
Arsenal’s only inclusion on the list has the Gunners in third, with Dennis Bergkamp’s £7.5m move from Inter Milan now worth £189m.
Nearly exactly the £180m price prediction made by talkSPORT’s Darren Bent when assessing the Dutchman in the current market.
Meanwhile, Manchester United accounts for seven of the next 11 names, such is the club’s heritage for breaking transfer records.
Juan Sebastian Veron (£175m), Rio Ferdinand (£165m), Andy Cole (£159m) and Paul Pogba (£145m) would all be worth even more today.
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Why are Liverpool not breaching PSR?
“Liverpool are in an incredibly strong position,” football finance expert Maguire recently told talkSPORT.
“First of all, in terms of the money coming in at Anfield, they now have an expanded stadium and the new tickets and the new seats that are available are going to the hospitality, to going to corporate fans and the yield there tends to be very high.
“They’ve got the new shirt deal, which comes in on August 1 with Adidas, that’s going to be a substantial increase.
“They are incredibly popular with sponsors, and the sponsors will have paid bonuses for them winning the Premier League, so all of those are positives in terms of the money coming in.
“If you look at the players that have gone… Trent [Alexander-Arnold] has gone, he was on a very high wage, [Jarell] Quansah has gone – that will be pure profit. So they’re actually in a strong position.
“And then I’ve got the figures in front of me in terms of spending and all of the old-school ‘big six,’ Liverpool were sixth in the position [of net spend] over the course of the last three to four years.
“So they’ve actually been keeping their powder dry relatively to the other clubs.
“They spent a billion pounds less than Chelsea during that period.
“So they’re actually in the position to spend now because they’ve been quite cautious in the last couple of windows.”
