For most of the last sixty years, when Manchester United wanted a player, the going rate went up. More than any other English club, United have been the ones to break the British transfer record, and the list doubles as a history of the modern game's spiralling money.
The record-breakers
It started with Denis Law, signed from Torino in 1962 for £115,000, a British record and the foundation of the Busby side that would conquer Europe. In 1981 Ferguson's predecessor Ron Atkinson made Bryan Robson the most expensive British player at around £1.5m. Ferguson himself broke the record for Roy Keane in 1993, paying roughly £3.75m to build his midfield.
The pattern carried into the modern era: Juan Sebastián Verón arrived from Lazio in 2001 for around £28m, and Rio Ferdinand followed from Leeds in 2002 for about £29.1m, both British records at the time.
The world record
In 2016 United went further still, re-signing Paul Pogba from Juventus for £89m, then the most expensive transfer on the planet. It remains the club's record fee. Either side of it sit the other modern outliers: Ángel Di María at roughly £59.7m in 2014, and Antony at around £85m in 2022.
Why it matters
A record signing is a statement, not just a purchase. Law announced United's post-war ambition, Robson and Keane built title-winning midfields, and Pogba marked the club's attempt to buy its way back to the top after Ferguson. The hits and the misjudgements both tell the same story: for six decades, United have been willing to set the market, and the rest of English football has paid the new price ever since.