10 Football Transfers That Could Eclipse Pogba's Record Fee

Transfer fees have gone mad. We know this because it's what football pundits have been telling us every summer for the past ten or twenty years. But this season it's starting to feel worryingly prescient.

Southampton's Virgil van Dijk at one point looked likely to move to Liverpool for a club-record fee, probably in the £50 million range. Meanwhile Chelsea look set to buy a big money defender of their own in Alex Sandro for upwards of £60 million - a fee usually reserved for 40-goal-a-season strikers or game-changing number 10s.

Last summer, the record transfer fee was broken again when Manchester United paid £89 million (most of it to Mino Raiola) to bring Paul Pogba back to Old Trafford. Many thought it was less a reflection of the player's on-field worth than it was his marketing value, alongside the club's wish to make a "splash" in the football world after its relevance - in the drab post-Fergie years - looked to be under threat.

If vanity buys are back in vogue, it probably won't be long before we see Pogba's record fall by the wayside - and here are 10 deals that could steal a march.

No sooner than Gareth Bale arrived in Spain in 2013 he was being linked with a return to the Premier League. The Welshman, who turns 28 later this month, has been one of Real Madrid's most important players over a hugely successful last four years (in which they conquered Europe thrice) but - after a host of injury problems - many believe the Galacticos could look to cash in while he still has some sell-on value.

The most likely destination would be Manchester United - the club to which Bale was heavily linked whilst he was still at Spurs - but City and Chelsea also have the financial resources to put together a move for the winger. Given that he cost them in excess of £85 million, Real will probably be looking to recoup at least that and probably more if he moves on.