Top 10 English Premier League bargains of the last 10 years

Premier League Clubs are responsible for the majority of the transfer amounts splurged during the transfer window. The word ‘bargain’ is a word you don’t generally associate with the top English clubs who end up over paying a very high premium.

Lack of proactivity in dealings, poor scouting structures, higher transfer kitty for spending, lack of patience to trust homegrown talent are a few reasons why the Premier League clubs pay sometimes exorbitantly high amounts during the summer.

However, over the past decade there have been a few instances wherein the PL clubs have been absolutely spot on and have managed to pull off a ‘bargain’. Given below are 10 such transfers (in no particular order) :

#1 Gareth Bale – Southampton to Tottenham Hotspur (£7 million), 2007

Gareth Bale operated at the Left back position for Southampton and in his debut season was awarded the ‘Football League Young Player of the Year’ award. Spurs won the battle for his signature for 7 million pounds as he signed a 4-year contract at the age of 17. He slowly developed his game over the first 2 seasons and shifted more to a winger’s role under Harry Redknapp.

He announced himself to the world when he tormented European Champions Inter Milan at the San Siro scoring a hat-trick in the process. His best season, undoubtedly was the 2012-13 season, in which he scored a whopping 31 goals and won both the PFA Players' Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year. Spurs also managed to make a huge profit on him when they sold him to Real Madrid the following season for a world record fee of 85 million pounds.