The top Premier League clubs have spent a fortune in the recent past to ensure they have prolific forwards to compete with the best clubs in England and across Europe.
Manchester City, Manchester United, and Chelsea have never shied away from spending big on forwards and while many of them have had the desired impact and have been worth the investment, there have been some big misses as well.
Below are the five most expensive forwards of the Premier League era and a short brief on how they fared during their tenure:
There has been a lot of pressure on the England forward since his big-money move to Premier League giants Manchester City last summer. The 26-year-old failed to hit the ground running and has taken quite some time to settle in. His shinbone injury has certainly hampered his progress but the wide forward has slowly picked up his game and is expected to be a vital player in Manchester City’s starting lineup for the upcoming 2022-23 campaign as City try and continue their Premier League domination and cross the final Champions League hurdle.
After a stellar season under Antonio Conte for Inter Milan where Romelu Lukaku scored 24 goals and assisted 11 times, the Belgian striker secured a move back to Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea. The 29-year-old has been lackluster, though, and has only managed to find the net 8 times for the London outfit. A tense relationship with his manager and a complete disconnect with the current tactical setup at Chelsea has seen his frustrations grow.
He is set on a loan move to his old club Inter, though, and will hope to rekindle a thriving partnership with Lautaro Martinez, which was cut short last summer.
After lengthy negotiations with Borussia Dortmund, which were drawn out for the majority of last summer, Manchester United were finally able to land Jadon Sancho for a fee in the range of $93.5m. Jadon initially struggled with the intensity of the Premier League but has slowly managed to squeeze in some impressive performances here and there for the Red Devils. With Erik Ten Hag coming in, many players including Sancho seem quite optimistic about next season.
It is safe to say that Nicolas Pepe has failed to do anything to justify the hefty price of $88m Arsenal paid for his services.
Arsenal massively overpaid for a striker who has only managed to score 16 goals and 9 assists in the last 3 seasons. There have been rumors of him wanting away a move away from Arsenal and it is completely understandable given his time at the Emirates has been torrid, to say the least.
Angel Di Maria endured a frustrating season at Manchester United after his $82.5m move from Real Madrid.
The Argentine has been outspoken regarding his falling out with the then United manager Louis Van Goal and doesn’t recall his time there too fondly. The now 34-year-old winger has been top class at PSG and has managed a whopping 93 goals and 119 assists in 295 appearances.
