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The current leaders in League Two have never really been famous for their extreme spending. What they are famous for, however, is their incredible academy and their ability to sell a player for massive profit. But let’s start with the purchases first.
Crewe Alexandra’s most expensive signing to date is still that of David Brammer, a midfielder who joined from Port Vale for £675,000 in the 2001/02 campaign. It is quite telling that they still haven’t dethroned him all those years later but it’s not for the lack of trying.
In 2008/09, they bought Calvin Zola, their second most expensive signing, but he could only muster a reported transfer fee of £270,000 when he arrived from Tranmere Rovers. In 2003/04, they also acquired the services of Anthony Tonkin from Stockport County for £203,000 and he rounds off the top three.
But the real fun begins with their top sales. The most impressive one is also the freshest on the list, dating back to 2012/13 when the Railwaymen sold Nick Powell to Manchester United for a reported fee of £6.7m.
His sum overtook the £5.4m figure Norwich City splashed out for Dean Ashton in 2004/05 and the forward had been the most expensive departure for many years until Powell came in.
Seth Johnson is the third name on the list with the £4m price tag that was paid by Derby County in 1999/00. But that’s not nearly all – Crewe Alexandra have multiple other players with huge price tags over their heads who left the club throughout the years.
And some of them were quite famous too…
Where to even start with their famous transfers over the years? Powell is certainly someone we have to mention as he is their most lucrative sale to date and his move to Man United was simply huge.
But the likes of Ashton and Johnson should also get a shout for a similar reason while Danny Murphy and Ashley Westwood were also sold to Premier League sides, former to Liverpool and the latter to Aston Villa.
There are more and the departures of Billy Jones, David Vaughan or Neil Lennon are surely some of the more memorable ones, alongside the ones mentioned earlier, of course. And not to mention David Platt who went on to have an incredibly illustrious career following his departure from the club.
Unsurprisingly, not many incoming transfers have gathered as much heat as the departures and most of those big-money sales were, in fact, also products of their own academy.