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Re-writing transfer history, midfielders part 2
Adam's Player Rankings

Re-writing transfer history, midfielders part 2

Re-live the past four seasons and take a look at the formula's most current thoughts

Adam Rae Voge's avatar
Adam Rae Voge
Jul 28, 2025
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Re-writing transfer history, midfielders part 2
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Fabio Vieira: Arsenal confirm £34m purchase of Porto midfielder | Football  News | Sky Sports

Welcome to part two — the past four seasons — of re-writing transfer history with my proprietary player rating formulas!

This chapter is solely tackling midfielders, and we’re through the 2020-2021 season and following summer so far.

A reminder if you missed the last edition:

In order to get the most authentic and valuable experience for myself, I had to set some ground rules:

  • You absolutely must use the formulas exactly as you use them today. Even if you hate who they spit out. Even if that player has completely busted. Tough.

  • We’re going to ignore the eye-test element of all this. Maybe the me of today would’ve had a scouting-related thing to say back then, but it’s too easy to “speculate” my way to a signing I know is the right one. No giving myself hints.

  • One season at a time. No re-running results or changing needs based on turning flops into hits, just sign whatever position was signed then.

A few other things that are less rules and more things to note as you read:

  • There are going to be times when the formula doesn’t particularly like a signing and recommends going another direction. In those cases, I’m going to try to avoid signing just anyone at the position, but will instead attempt to find the best “similar” player. That could mean a similar profile, age, from the same league, whatever. The reasoning will be there in the narrative, and it will be someone I deem “gettable” for the signing club. So, like, Everton can’t sign Toni Kroos.

  • For your reference: We’re starting in 2017-2018 because it is the first season for which we have data advanced enough for my formulas (and that’s just the big five leagues). Starting in 18-19, we add Portugal, Belgium, the Eredivisie, and the Championship.

  • Ooh! Also: It would take me forever to do charts for everyone, so I’m going to sit that out this time. Please understand.

  • I’m also gonna use some hastily generated AI slop. Please forgive me for that, and hire real artists when you have a budget :)

Alright, let’s pick up where we left off…

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