The January transfer window hasn't exactly been entertaining in the Premier League this year.
The world situation means that England's biggest clubs aren't able to spend as much money as they'd ordinarily be able to and players are always much harder to pin down in the New Year.
But that doesn't make it any less frustrating that we don't have the drama of winter windows like 2011 and 2018 where Fernando Torres, Andy Carroll and Alexis Sanchez were making headlines.
January transfer window
Now, if anything, those transfers probably underpin exactly why Premier League clubs are a little nervous to become pulled into the chaos of panic buying in January.
However, lest we forget that Manchester United also completed moves for Bruno Fernandes, Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic in the winter, while Liverpool bagged themselves Luis Suarez.
So, it's not all bad, but regardless of how the players turn out, you can probably be certain that fees will be driven higher and higher with clubs having much less time to replace their outgoing stars.
Premier League spending
And that got us thinking here at GIVEMESPORT: just who are the most overpriced signings in Premier League history?
Well, there's no perfect way of answering that question, but the data gurus at Transfermarkt offer a solution as close to perfect as possible using their advanced system of player transfer values.
As a result, we can compare the transfer fees that Premier League clubs paid for a player compared to their transfer value at the time of the move to judge how overpriced or not they really are.
Most overpriced signings
So, without further ado, you can check out the 15 most overpriced signings in Premier League, both from January and the summer, who, shall we say, had mixed fortunes after their moves:
15. Leroy Sane (Schalke to Manchester City) - £19.80 million difference
Transfer fee: £46.80 million
Market value at the time: £27.00 million
14. Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur to Manchester City) - £20.43 million
Transfer fee: £47.43 million
Market value at the time: £27.00 million
13. Raheem Sterling (Liverpool to Manchester City) - £21.33 million
Transfer fee: £50.22 million
Market value at the time: £36.00 million
12. Gylfi Sigurdsson (Swansea City to Everton) - £21.96 million
Transfer fee: £44.46 million
Market value at the time: £22.50 million
11. Angel Di Maria (Real Madrid to Manchester United) - £22.50 million
Transfer fee: £67.50 million
Market value at the time: £45.00 million
10. Alvaro Morata (Real Madrid to Chelsea) - £23.40 million
Transfer fee: £59.40 million
Market value at the time: £36.00 million
9. Fred (Shakhtar Donetsk to Manchester United) - £24.30 million
Transfer fee: £53.10 million
Market value at the time: £28.80 million
8. John Stones (Everton to Manchester City) - £24.84 million
Transfer fee: £50.04 million
Market value at the time: £25.20 million
7. Kevin De Bruyne (Wolfsburg to Manchester City) - £27.90 million
Transfer fee: £68.40 million
Market value at the time: £40.50 million
6. Ruben Dias (Benfica to Manchester City) - £29.70 million
Transfer fee: £61.20 million
Market value at the time: £31.50 million
5. Romelu Lukaku (Everton to Manchester United) - £31.23 million
Transfer fee: £76.23 million
Market value at the time: £45.00 million
4. Paul Pogba (Juventus to Manchester United) - £31.50 million
Transfer fee: £94.50 million
Market value at the time: £63.00 million
3. Harry Maguire (Leicester City to Manchester United) - £33.30 million
Transfer fee: £78.30 million
Market value at the time: £45.00 million
2. Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Bilbao to Manchester City) - £36.00 million
Transfer fee: £58.50 million
Market value at the time: £22.50 million
1. Virgil van Dijk (Southampton to Liverpool) - £49.19 million
Transfer fee: £76.19 million
Market value at the time: £27.00 million
Sometimes it's worth overpaying
I'm not sure anything could illustrate our point more than the world's best defender topping the list.
Sometimes you have to pay over the mark for the player you want and sometimes it's worth biting the bullet because Van Dijk might have cost a small fortune, but it was worth the hole in the wallet.
Besides, Van Dijk - who's now valued at £72 million - might not have been worth £76.90 million when he first put pen to paper, but you can guarantee that he was by the time he was challenging Lionel Messi for the Ballon d'Or.
That being said, it's not all sunshine and rainbows because I'm sure we can all agree that Morata and Di Maria were expensive mistakes, lasting no longer than 18 months in the Premier League.
Then there are examples such as United's Maguire, who's value has actually declined to £32 million, where the jury is still out on whether they'll actually justify their transfer fee.
It goes to show that, no matter how much you try, you can never be 100% certain you're getting good value for money.