Premier league record buys: ranked! declan rice became arsenal’s most expensive player ever this summer, but every one of the other 50 clubs to have played in the premier league have also spent big. fft ranks each side’s record buy in the top tier since 1992, from the terrific to the tragic and even the one who managed to insult a whole town

DIDIER NDONG

SUNDERLAND (£13.6M)

If you fear arrest for merely stepping foot in the same country as your employer, things haven’t gone too well. That was the pickle in which Didier Ndong found himself when, two years and two relegations into Sunderland life, he fled to Africa and refused to return.

Having survived by the skin of their teeth the previous campaign, the Black Cats had high hopes the tough-tackling midfielder would prevent another Premier League relegation battle and, at least initially, the August 2016 record signing from Lorient looked the part. The combative Ndong made 31 appearances but the Mackems struggled and finished bottom, spending all bar two weeks of the season in the bottom three.

There was still a belief that Ndong’s energy could spark an immediate top-flight return but the 23-year-old’s 18th Championship appearance, which ended with a red card in a 4-0 January 2018 defeat at Cardiff, would be his last. With the player’s patience now as low as Sunderland’s league position (bottom again after 27 games), the tantrum to end all tantrums was about to commence.

First, Ndong engineered a loan move to top-flight Watford but failed to make a single Hornets appearance and the wantaway Gabonese was soon back at the Stadium of Light. Ndong, to give him his dues, was far from the only Black Cat who wanted out following relegation to League One, but his wages meant finding a new club wasn’t easy – Torino even had a bid accepted, but pesky personal terms proved prohibitive.

Stuck between a lucrative rock and a hard (poorer-paying) place, Ndong did what any self-respecting player would do in the same situation: he booked a flight to Morocco and outraged supporters by posting photos of his swimming pool on Instagram. Reports in Gabon suggested he feared arrest for breach of contract if he were to return to the UK, in a gross overestimation of police resources. Roundly condemned, absolutely. Arrested? Probably not.

When Ndong could finally be coaxed back, in late September 2018, Sunderland sacked him via a perfunctory statement declaring they retained “the right to pursue the