Who are the most expensive Irish players from every transfer window?
It seemed like an easy undertaking, but you kind of forget how long the transfer window has been going. Nonetheless, we've gone back the whole way to 2002 and the dawn of the first transfer window. We've weeded out the loan moves, taken reported fees on the undisclosed deals and finally come up with the definitive Irish transfer list of the 'window' era.
Where fees are not official, we've taken the most widely reported figure so without further ado, here's the most expensive Irish transfer from every window since 2002. What you'll soon learn is that, despite inflation, fees for Irish players aren't a whole lot different than they were when the transfer window kicked off fourteen years ago.
Make of that what you will.
2002/03
The first transfer window was a taste of things to come. Having done what he did to Germany that summer, Robbie Keane was ripe for a move away from cash strapped Leeds. Spurs stepped up near the end of the window and he's go on to have a rather decent time of things in London. More of that to follow.
The first ever winter window was rather less notable in terms of Irish movers with a young Damien Delaney the big mover for the huge fee of £50,000.
Summer
Robbie Keane - Leeds to Spurs - £7 million
Winter
Damien Delaney - Leicester to Hull - £50,000
2003/04
Keane one year, Duffer the next. They were heady days for Irish football in terms of what we were expecting from the transfer window. It tapered off quite a bit and over a decade later, Duff's move to Chelsea is still the second most expensive deal involving an Irish player.
Once again, the winter window was a rather quite one with some scouser's move from Bolton to Hull barely registering on the Irish football radar.
Summer
Damien Duff - Blackburn to Chelsea - £17 million
Winter
Jonathan Walters - Bolton to Hull - £50,000
2004/05
A sharp decline in the value stakes this summer. The ever dependable Stephen Carr moved to Newcastle while the winter window jumped up a gear as far as Ireland was concerned with Andy Reid's move to Spurs, the first significant Irish move of the winter window. It's not the last we'll be hearing about him in this regard.
Summer
Stephen Carr - Spurs to Newcastle - £2 million
Winter
Andy Reid - Nottingham Forest to Spurs - £4 million
2005/06
Wigan were in the Premier League and they shelled out the relatively massive sum of £2 million on David Connolly plus another million if they stayed up. They did but Connolly, as tended to happen, was a bit crap in the Premier League and he didn't last long.
The winter window saw Dean Kiely move to Portsmouth for the princely sum of £200,000.
Summer
David Connolly - Leicester to Wigan - £3 million
Winter
Dean Kiely - Charlton to Portsmouth - £200,000
2006/07
Duffer again. Having won the Premier League with Chelsea and become Claudio Ranieri's mammy's favourite player, he was off to Newcastle for a slightly less spectacular spell on the wing. In the winter, a young rapscallion by the name of Anthony Stokes was making waves after tearing the SPL apart with Falkirk.
Summer
Damien Duff - Chelsea to Newcastle - £5 million
Winter
Anthony Stokes - Arsenal to Sunderland - £2 million
2007/08
This really was peak Sundireland time when you consider that for three window's in a row, the most expensive Irish player was off the the north east of England. Paul McShane followed Stokes and Andy Reid once again makes this list with his £4 million move from Charlton.
Summer
Paul McShane - West Brom to Sunderland - £2.5 million
Winter
Andy Reid - Charlton to Sunderland - £4 million
2008/09
The year of Robbie Keane. There may be some dispute over the exact figures but Keane pushed his cumulative transfer fees into the realm of Ireland's GDP that year when he moved to Liverpool and then moved back to Spurs less than half a season later. It was a golden time for Irish interest in the transfer window.
Summer
Robbie Keane - Spurs to Liverpool - £19 million
Winter
Robbie Keane - Liverpool to Spurs - £12 million
2009/10
Wolves broke their transfer record to take Doyle to Molineux while Ireland's strikers continued to prop up the market that winter with Leon Best's much talked about move from Coventry to Newcastle.
Summer
Kevin Doyle - Reading to Wolves - £6.5 million
Winter
Leon Best - Coventry to Newcastle - £1.5 million
2010/11
It was a bit of a convoluted deal involving James Milner but given wisdom would suggest that Aston Villa spent somewhere in the region of £8 million to take the mercurial Stephen Ireland to Villa Park. It didn't work out particularly well.
That winter was a rather quiet one with Andy Reid's move to Blackpool being one of very few Irish highlights.
Summer
Stephen Ireland - Man City to Aston Villa - £8 million
Winter
Andy Reid - Sunderland to Blackpool - £1 million
2011/12
The first of Shane Long's high profile moves. Whatever you can say about his goalscoring record, he certainly makes a profit for his clubs and West Brom did rather well after signing him for a bargain £5 million. Also in the bargain category, Everton may be trying to get rid of Darron Gibson but the half a million fee they paid Man United for him was a bit of a no-brainer.
Summer
Shane Long - Reading to West Brom - £5 million
Winter
Darron Gibson - Man United to Everton - £500,000
2012/13
Leon Best makes his second surprise appearance on the list. Newcastle managed to double their money after a not horrendous ten league goals in two seasons. In the long run, Robbie Brady's permanent move to Hull in the winter window was probably more significant for Ireland.
Both he and David Meyler were brought in on the same day with Brady thought to have cost slightly more.
Summer
Leon Best - Newcastle to Blackburn - £3 million
Winter
Robbie Brady - Man United to Hull - £2 million
2013/14
Back to the big bucks this summer when James McCarthy became only the third Irish international to move for more than £10 million. Shane Long's move to Hull at the start of 2014 continued a relatively high profile year in the Irish corner of the transfer market.
Summer
James McCarthy - Wigan to Everton - £13 million
Winter
Shane Long - West Brom to Hull - £7 million
2014/15
The fourth man to move for more than £10 million and Shane Long once again gets a mention. Hull saw a massive profit after half a season and duly snapped Southampton's hand off. It was a surprising figure at the time but, in retrospect, the Saints were well justified in splashing out. Eoin Doyle's move to Cardiff has gone quite as well.
Summer
Shane Long - Hull to Southampton - £12 million
Winter
Eoin Doyle - Chesterfield to Cardiff - £750,000
2015/16
After two and a half years at Hull, Robbie Brady made the move to Norwich for a reported fee of £7 million. The move would result in back-to-back relegations for the Dubliner.
Plymouth-born Ireland U21 international Joe Mason joined Wolves from Cardiff towards the end of the January window.
Summer
Robbie Brady - Hull to Norwich - £7 million
Winter
Joe Mason - Cardiff to Wolves - £3.5 million
2016/17
After some eye-catching performances at Euro 2016, Jeff Hendrick and Robbie Brady returned from the tournament as two of the most sought-after Irish players in quite a while.
Norwich reportedly put a valuation of £20 million on Robbie Brady which resulted in the player being priced out of the market.
Just before the close of the summer window, Jeff Hendrick made the move from the Championship to the Premier League by leaving Derby to join Burnley. The fee broke the club record £8 million which Burnley had paid for Steven Defour just a month earlier.
By January, Brady's inconsistent performances for Norwich saw his valuation dip enough for Sean Dyche to grow his Irish contingent further by breaking the club's record transfer fee yet again.
Summer
Jeff Hendrick - Derby to Burnley - £10.5 million
Winter
Robbie Brady - Norwich to Burnley - £13 million
2017/18
The 2017 summer transfer window will be looked back upon as the year transfer fees reached truly ridiculous levels, but Irish players could still be snapped up for next to nothing as Cyrus Christie joined Middlesbrough for £2 million, Celtic signed the best non-Celtic player in the league in Johnny Hayes for £1.5 million, and Jon Walters left Stoke to make Burnley even more Irish for just £3m.
The most expensive deal was for a goalkeeper as Darren Randolph left West Ham following the arrival of Joe Hart, and joined Middlesbrough in the Championship.
Summer
Darren Randolph - West Ham United to Middlesbrough - £5m
