Jude Bellingham to Real Madrid, Erling Haaland to Man City and the 10 most impactful signings of the past 10 years

With Demba Ba leaving the club and Didier Drogba entering the twilight of his career, Chelsea needed a centre-forward to lead the line ahead of the 2014 season. Their response was to go out and get one of Europe's best. They paid the £32m ($40m) release clause set on Costa, and placed him into their starting XI from day one.
The results were impressive. Although he was bugged by a hamstring injury in the early goings of his Chelsea career, Costa made an immense impact. He scored on his debut, and bagged seven in his first four.

By November, he hit double digits, and although he saw his progress stunted by an injury picked up in -late April, Costa finished his debut season with 20 goals - and the highest goal-per-90 minutes tally of his career. His contributions were, in effect, the reason Chelsea won a final Premier League title under Jose Mourinho.

Suarez had wanted to leave for Arsenal at the end of the 2012-13 season, before being convinced by the Liverpool hierarchy to stay for at least one more campaign. Of course, he would end up having arguably, at that point, the best attacking seasons in league history, scoring 31 times in 33 starts - leading Liverpool to an unexpected second-placed finish.

His departure, then, was inevitable. And he wasn't bad in Catalunya, either. Suarez was the striker that Barca needed, and became the final piece of the formidable 'MSN' trio that tore through Europe for three years.

In his suspension-shortened debut season, Suarez scored 25, assisted 19, and finished the campaign with three trophies - including the Champions League. Messi, inevitably, took all of the plaudits for Barca that year. But Suarez's stream of goals in the second half of the season carried the Blaugrana to countless vital wins.

He is now regarded one of the game's greats - all thanks to a prolific spell in Catalunya.

Who would have thought that the driving force behind Leicester's 2016 Premier League win would be an unassuming French midfielder bought from a struggling Ligue 1 side? Kante was a relatively unheralded signing from Caen, and Leicester forked over a meagre £5.6m ($7.0m) for his services.

Now, one could easily argue that it was the greatest bargain buy in Premier League history. Kante was originally purchased as a replacement for veteran defensive-midfielder Esteban Cambiasso, whose departure made Leicester one of the favourites to go down.

Instead, Kante anchored a formidable midfield, his constant running and defensive nous allowing Mahrez and Jamie Vardy to run riot up front. Without Kante, one of the best stories in football history remains unwritten.

Leicester fans were devastated to see Kante leave after they won the Premier League in 2016. But his departure was inevitable. Big clubs were swirling, and Chelsea simply offered too much for the Foxes to refuse, shelling out £32m ($40m) for his services.

Chelsea presented a different challenge for the Frenchman, though. Indeed, it is one thing to boss the midfield for underdogs. Doing so for a team constantly at the top is another challenge altogether. But it was a task that Kante made light work of.

He formed a formidable midfield duo alongside Nemanja Matic for Antonio Conte's restructured Chelsea, functioning as a key cog in a 3-4-2-1 formation that tore through the Premier League. He finished his first campaign in London with a Premier League winner's medal and would go on to add a Champions League to his trophy cabinet three years later, cementing him as an all-time great.

Prior to the 2017-18 season, it was clear that Liverpool needed an extra attacking thrust. The Reds had qualified for the Champions League for the first time in three years, but with Sadio Mane inconsistent and Roberto Firmino not an obvious goalscorer, there was a real need for a third forward to round out what had the potential to be an immensely talented forward unit.

Enter Salah.

After a fine loan spell at Fiorentina, the Egyptian starred at Roma for two years after being abandoned by Chelsea. Subsequently, many wrote him off as a poor signing for Klopp. After all, how could a Chelsea flop bolster a side that had long-term title ambitions?

As it turned out, Salah was rather handy. He set the Premier League single-season goalscoring record in his first year in Liverpool and finished the season with 59 goal contributions in all competitions. But for a shoulder injury in the first half of the Champions League final, he could have ended the season with a winner's medal.

Of course, he'd end up winning one or two, and is now Liverpool's fifth all-time top goalscorer.

This was the move that turned Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool from Champions League outsiders to one of Europe's best sides. In truth, it was half a year in the making. Van Dijk had tried to force his way out the previous summer, but Southampton pumped on the brakes by publicly accusing Liverpool of making an illegal approach for their star centre-back.

The Reds wouldn't have to wait too long, though, and buoyed by the sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for a gaudy £142 million ($176m), they were able to bring in Van Dijk — and also eventually finance a deal for Roma's Alisson.

But it was the centre-back that started Klopp's revolution. In Van Dijk, they brought in one of the world's best defenders, just as he was entering his prime. The Dutch captain anchored Liverpool's backline as they made a run to the Champions League final in 2018, and was instrumental as Klopp's side became a formidable force.

He may have been the world's most expensive defender at the time, but a Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup and PFA Player of the Year Award later, the Dutch captain looks like a bargain.

Anyone would have done for Man United in January 2020. The Red Devils, enjoying their most promising run in two years, needed some attacking quality to bolster their chances of a top-four finish. But they deserved credit for finding precisely the right man for the job. Bruno Fernandes had been coveted by a number of top sides for a few months, and United were prepared to pay a premium for his services.

The hefty fee, around €55m (£47m/$60m), landed them not only a future club captain, but also a potentially decisive player in the turnaround of a struggling side.

Fernandes was almost unplayable for the second half of the 2019-2020 season, scoring eight and assisting seven in 14 starts. United finished third that year, and have gone on to qualify for the Champions League in two of his three full seasons at the club.

The Red Devils have a long way to go as an organisation - and have countless problems to confront - but Fernandes has been a near-constant source of satisfaction in a tumultuous era at Old Trafford.

City had mostly the same team that had pipped Liverpool to the title just a month before when they acquired the forward from Dortmund by paying his €60m (£53m/$64m) release clause.

And it turns out that adding the world's most prolific No.9 to a team already capable of winning the Premier League, is rather effective. Pep Guardiola didn't really need Haaland to win the Premier League; he'd done so without a recognised striker for two years straight. Instead, Haaland was brought in to give City some cutting edge in the Champions League.

He did just that. Haaland was the perfect signing at the right time for City. Questions were starting to be raised about Guardiola's inability to bring a Champions League to Manchester, and with his contract due to expire at the end of the 2022-23 season, it seemed that his time at the Etihad could be running out. Haaland gave City life, though, scoring 56 goals, and helping his side secure a historic treble - the culmination of the Sheik Mansour's relentless spending.

Napoli appeared to be in trouble prior to the 2022-23 season. They had lost attacking stalwart Dries Mertens, while the departure of captain Kalidou Koulibaly to Chelsea seemed to leave them short at the back.

But the replacements didn't disappoint. In fact, the duo of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Kim Min-jae made Napoli a far better side. Kvaratskhelia became a sensation in Naples, dubbed 'Kvaradona' for his mesmorising dribbling skill and incisiveness in the final third. Kim, meanwhile, had an even better nickname, dubbed 'the monster' for his stewardship of a rock-solid defence.

There was, of course, more to Napoli than the new signings. Victor Osimhen finally realised his potential through the middle, while Stanislav Lobotka and Piotr Zielinski starred in midfield.

Still, the duo's arrival propelled the Partenopei to their first Scudetto in 33 years.

Miami might not have been his first choice, but Messi has spent two months playing like he was born to wear South Florida pink. The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner was perhaps always going to be a success in America. He is, after all, the best to ever play the game. But no one could have expected him to turn MLS's worst team into one of its best.

The Herons are yet to lose since Messi first donned the shirt, and don't look like doing so anytime soon. And Messi has been at the centre of their success, scoring 11 and assisting a further eight across 11 contests.

Perhaps more impressive, though, is the way he has raised his teammates around him. Left winger Robert Taylor now looks like Pedro reincarnated. He has found his new right-back running mate in DeAndre Yedlin. Meanwhile, young American midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi has forced himself into the USMNT picture thanks to a handful of star showings behind the Argentine.

Add a first trophy in franchise history, and Messi looks like a sensational bit of business by David Beckham & Co.