Jadon Sancho Photo: VCG

It's the transfer window and as always all eyes are on England when it comes to separating football club chairmen from the pages of their check books.

The English Premier League is the richest in the world thanks, in large part, to its huge global broadcast rights where football-mad regions such as China and Scandinavia have paid ever larger sums to secure English Premier League football in recent years.

Those deals have made the Championship playoff final come to be regarded as the richest single game in world football and the 20 clubs who make up the English top flight among the richest on the planet.

According to the last Forbes "The Business Of Soccer" list, published in 2019, nine of the top 20 most valuable clubs in the world are in the English Premier League. Arguably more impressive is that six of the top 10 - both Manchester sides, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Spurs - are from the English Premier League. Only Spain's La Liga, with top two ranked Real Madrid and Barcelona, has more than one club.

Money has flowed into the ­English game as it has grown in popularity over the last three decades.

That has led to the clubs of the English top flight being seen as easy marks in transfer business, both inside and outside of the country. If you look at the fees paid by English Premier League clubs they often ­appear in the top outlays ever.

Aside from fees paid by Real Madrid and Barcelona to English clubs, which are notably expensive exceptions for players such as Philippe Coutinho, Eden Hazard, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo, this often sees English clubs pay one another as well as the likes of Paul Pogba rejoining Manchester United from Juventus.

English players are at a premium too, as proved by Harry Maguire becoming the world's most expensive defender - ahead of Netherlands international Virgil van Dijk becoming the missing piece in Jurgen Klopp's title winning Liverpool side after joining from Southampton - when he moved to Old Trafford from Leicester City last season.

What stands out more is that the fees paid for English players to English clubs by overseas teams so often pales in comparison.

In fact the record fee paid to an English team from a foreign club remains the 24.5 million pounds paid by Real Madrid to Manchester United for David Beckham way back in 2003.

At the time Beckham was one of the most highly rated players in world football and was expected to command a fee to match, but having fallen out with his manager Sir Alex Ferguson and making it clear that he wanted to leave Old Trafford, the power rested with buying club Real Madrid rather than selling club Manchester United.

In the meantime, there have been 14 English football players between Maguire joining Manchester United and Beckham leaving the same club that have commanded higher transfer fees.

They are, in order, Raheem Sterling swapping Liverpool for Manchester City; John Stones moving from Everton to the Etihad; Aaron Wan-Bissaka going from Crystal Palace to Manchester United; Kyle Walker signing for Manchester City from Spurs; Ben Chilwell's move to Chelsea from Leicester City; Danny Drinkwater making the same move; Andy Carroll's arrival at Anfield from Newcastle United; Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain swapping Southampton for Liverpool; Rio Ferdinand trading Leeds United for their Manchester namesake; Luke Shaw going from Southampton to Old Trafford; James Milner's move from Aston Villa to Manchester City; Michael Keane trading up from Burnley to Everton; Jordan Pickford to Everton from Sunderland; and Adam Lallana treading the well worn path from Southampton to Liverpool.

England internationals of varying degrees of success they all may be but Beckham went on to be captain for his country 58 times among 115 appearances - the highest of an outfield player - and he had already won the UEFA Champions League, English Premier League and FA Cup by the time he moved to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. He had also been named as the runner-up in the Ballon d'Or in 1999.

A sign of the skewed sales of English players to foreign teams comes in the next closest fee to Beckham's.

That came this summer when Jude Bellingham joined Borussia Dortmund from Championship side Birmingham City for 23 million. The teenager is highly rated but the fact remains that there is a disparity between the fees paid by English clubs and those commanded by English players when moving abroad.

Ever more players from England are moving overseas to further their careers. 

Another who moved to Borussia Dortmund, Three Lions winger Jadon Sancho is regarded as one of the most valuable in world football - not bad when he was procured from Manchester City for as little as 8 million once he found his pathway to Pep Guardiola's first team blocked and went looking for a starting berth in the Bundesliga.

Perhaps Bellingham will develop as remarkably and as rapidly as his current teammate, but the disparity between a player who had yet to be capped for the England under-21s when he moved and Beckham's impressive CV is striking.

Of the five highest fees paid for English footballers only three more have been in them signing for foreign clubs - Kieran Tripper to Atletico Madrid from Spurs for 20 million in 2019; Ademola Lookman leaving Everton for RB Leipzig for 16 million in 2019; and Jonathan Woodgate swapping the white of Leeds United for that of Real Madrid for 13 million in 2004.  

Even accounting for inflation it is remarkable on two counts: firstly that English players for such a long period rarely left the country between the 1980s and early 1990s lure of the lira in Italy's Serie A and the latter day moves by young, hungry players eager for first-team football opportunities that appeared to be off the table back home.

Secondly, it hints at a naivety in the market when it comes to selling to clubs who always seemed to hold all the cards when it came to transfers.

This may change in the future but for now it seems that when it comes to sending English talent abroad, English clubs have more money than sense.