From Ashley Young's £9.5m switch to Aston Villa to Oscar's £60m mega move to China: How the Premier League January transfer window has changed in just a decade
The 2006-07 season was a simpler time in English football. Manchester United were on their way to a ninth title in 15 years, Liverpool would make the Champions League final and Bolton, Reading, Portsmouth and Blackburn would all finish in the top half of the Premier League table.
A lot has changed since then - but few things have altered quite as much as the nature of the English transfer market, as this January has proved.
In 2007, the only former Premier League players you were likely to see in China were the likes of a later-career Paul Gascoigne, and £60million could reasonably be expected to buy you four or five Chelsea first-team players.
Sportsmail has looked back through the last 10 January transfer periods to explore the biggest Premier League transfers in each window, and how much has been spent on each occasion. With a couple of anomalies, it has been nothing but a steady upward curve from the expensive to the exorbitant...
2006-07
Most expensive transfer involving a Premier League club: Ashley Young, Watford to Aston Villa, £9.5m
Total transfer spend by Premier League clubs: £60m
In 2007 Ashley Young swapping Watford for Aston Villa was as outrageous as transfers got
A decade ago, a Premier League struggler's star young winger moving up to mid-table was as outrageous as January transfers got. Young was 21 and had been by far and away the stand-out aspect of the Hornets' seemingly doomed campaign.
While Young may now be out on the fringes of Manchester United's squad and set for a move to China himself, his switch to Villa was a triumph. He won three Player of the Month awards in 2008, and became a regular the England squad.
How much would a 21-year-old Young cost in today's market? With the inflated prices, particularly for talented, youthful Englishmen, Villa would have to pay at least triple what they did in 2007.
2007-08
Most expensive transfer: Nicolas Anelka, Bolton to Chelsea, £15m
Total transfer spend: £175m
Nicolas Anelka swapped Bolton for Chelsea in January 2008, and later moved on to China
Anelka, with his big-framed glasses and stand-offish demeanour, is the definition of a football hipster. He even moved to China before it was cool, leaving Chelsea for Shanghai Shenhua in the 2012 winter window.
His move before that was the biggest of January 2008 - having been brought in by Sam Allardyce in August 2006 from Fenerbahce, his 12 goals fired Bolton Wanderers to Europe, which was a perfectly normal football phrase at the time.
Avram Grant decided Anelka was the right man to support the goals of Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard, and spent £15m to get his man. Anelka repaid him by having the crucial penalty in the Champions League final saved by Edwin van der Sar.
2008-09
Most expensive transfer: Lassana Diarra, Portsmouth to Real Madrid, £20m
Total transfer spend: £170m
Lassana Diarra's photoshoot did not stop the Real Madrid groundsman carrying on his job
One of three occasions in the past decade where the most expensive transfer of January involving English sides was bought by a non-Premier League team, and it involved a man and a club whose dealings are very different eight years on.
Diarra's time in England was characterised by short stops - he had joined from Arsenal only a year previously, and played for only five months at the Emirates - but he won the FA Cup on the south coast and made the France squad for Euro 2008, which seemed to impress Madrid.
After falling down the pecking order at the Bernabeu, Diarra spent time in Russia and the now-31-year-old is currently at Marseille. Pompey, meanwhile, are a long way from doing dealings with Real from their place in the League Two play-off zone.
2009-10
Most expensive transfer: Adam Johnson, Middlesbrough to Manchester City, £7m
Total transfer spend: £30m
Adam Johnson was the most expensive signing of January 2010 but struggled at Man City
A low key transfer market, and a signing that nowadays City might like to keep rather hushed up too.
It's also a sign of the times that City, who were in full megabucks mode, were doing their shopping in the Championship - Johnson had ripped up the second tier in the opening months of the campaign, and Boro boss Gordon Strachan held out until deadline day before finally letting the winger go.
Johnson went straight into the City first-team, but as they became more of a draw he fell out of favour and joined Sunderland. He is now serving a prison sentence for sexual activity with an underage girl.
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