Bournemouth centre-back Nathan Ake is on the verge of joining Manchester City.Reports broke today that the Cherries had accepted a £41m bid from Pep Guardiola's side for the Dutch defender.Chelsea did have a buy-back clause inserted into the deal when they sold Ake, but Frank Lampard's side decided against re-signing him leaving the path clear for City.The 25-year-old was one of Bournemouth's bright sparks in an otherwise dismal 2019/20 campaign which saw the south coast side relegated from the Premier League.However, their chances of promotion from the Championship in 2020/21 will be seriously strengthened by the financial injection from the sale of Ake to City.
Amazingly, the Dutch international will be the 10th most expensive centre-back of all time, overtaking the £40.5m City coughed up for Eliaquim Mangala in 2014.
Guardiola's side love spending big on defenders, don't they?
Below, we've provided the 20 most expensive centre-backs in football history and for context, we've included the deal for Ake at number 10.
All data sourced from Transfermarkt.
20. Clement Lenglet, Sevilla to Barcelona - £32.31m
19. Konstantinios Manolas, Roma to Napoli - £32.40m
18. Lillian Thuram, Parma to Juventus - £32.54m
17. Eric Bailly, Villarreal to Manchester United - £34.20m
16. Davinson Sanchez, Ajax to Tottenham - £36.00m
15. Shkodran Mustafi, Valencia to Arsenal - £36.90m
=13. Thiago Silva, AC Milan to Paris Saint-Germain - £37.80m
=13. Leonardo Bonucci, Juventus to AC Milan - £37.80m
12. Nicolas Otamendi, Valencia to Manchester City - £40.05m
11. Eliaquim Mangala, FC Porto to Manchester City - £40.50m
10. Nathan Ake, Bournemouth to Manchetser City - £41.00m
9. Rio Ferdinand, Leeds United to Manchester United - £41.40m
8. David Luiz, Chelsea to Paris Saint-Germain - £44.55m
7. Eder Militao, FC Porto to Real Madrid - £45.00m
6. John Stones, Everton to Manchester City - £50.04m
5. Aymeric Laporte, Athletic Bilbao to Manchester City - £58.50m
4. Lucas Hernandez, Atletico Madrid to Bayern Munich - £72.00m
3. Virgil van Dijk, Southampton to Liverpool - £76.19m
2. Matthijs de Ligt, Ajax to Juventus - £76.95m
1. Harry Maguire, Leicester City to Manchester United - £78.30m
Man City crop up on five occasions in the top 20, with United also contributing with three deals of their own.
Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain are the other two teams to feature on more than one occasion with two apiece in the top 20.
From a selling perspective, Valencia, FC Porto and Ajax are the only three clubs to feature twice and they've all recouped some enormous fees over the past few years.
The transfer market has gone a bit bonkers of late and with a premium on centre-backs, it seems only a formality that we will soon see the first £100m+ deal for a central defender.