Transfer fees in football have exploded over the last decade or so.
We are not all that far removed from the days when a £30million deal for a player was an extortionate amount of money, an amount teams in the lower half of the Premier League now hand out on a regular basis.
The market certainly seems to have been distorted by a few teams and transfers at the top. As a result, many of the most famous deals of yesteryear now look like massive bargains. Was that really the case though?
The Athletic, with the help of football finance experts, have now looked to address that question, revisiting a number of record deals from the past and converting them into the equivalent fee were the deal to be completed today based on how the market has changed. It produces some very interesting results.
Roy Keane's move from Nottingham Forest to Manchester United will go down as one of the best deals in Premier League history. The Irishman became captain at the club, guiding them through the most successful period in their history.
Fans at Old Trafford often love to point to Keane's transfer fee of £3.75million as proof the club's ability to pick up a bargain, with that certainly being a very low amount in today's market. However, what is often lost in that conversation is that the deal was actually a record fee paid by a British club at the time.
Roy Keane move to Old Trafford worth huge amount in current market
How much would the equivalent amount be in today's market?
According to The Athletic, that deal would be worth £94.2million in today's money. You couldn't argue that the Cork native wouldn't be worth it, although it far from the bargain basement move that many labelled it as over the years.
Here's what they had to see on the deal:
Keane moved to Old Trafford from Nottingham Forest in the summer of 1993, and his £3.75 million transfer fee turned out to be a bargain bearing in mind the part he would play in seven Premier League titles, four FA Cup final wins and, though he was suspended from the final itself, the treble-clinching 1999 Champions League triumph over his 12 full seasons.
At today’s price, he would still be a bargain, costing United not much more than they paid Juventus for Paul Pogba six years ago and probably less than West Ham United would want for Declan Rice now.
Pogba and Rice have many qualities — but Keane was on another level.
The article gives a breakdown of 90 of the most expensive transfers in Premier League history, with a couple more Irishmen making the list.
Damien Duff's move from Blackburn Rovers to Chelsea would be worth £72.1million in today's money, while Robbie Keane's transfer from Inter Milan to Leeds United comes in at £66.3million. The actual record fee for an Irish player remains Keane's £20million move from Spurs to Liverpool in 2008.
You can view the list in full here.
Certainly an interesting scope in which to view these deals.
SEE ALSO: Here's The Ireland Team We Want To See Against Lithuania
