Winning and losing is not just for the pitch.
Transfers are the battlefield of Gen Z. If before you used to learn about your club’s signing of a Peruvian right-back when they were photographed on the pitch with a club shirt tucked into their trousers and scarf above their heads, now there are 24/7 updates on players ‘only wanting’ to join clubs. ‘Here we go’ can bring more joy than the sound of the ball smashing into the net.
This summer was no different. £3bn was spent by Premier League clubs and even before a ball had been kicked, titles were being handed out and teams were told to prepare for life in the Championship.
But the beauty of football is its ability to make all predictions look stupid and seven games into the new season, teams that had ‘won’ the transfer window are now wondering where they left the receipt.
Liverpool: Losers
After signing some of the brightest (and most expensive) talents from the Premier League and Bundesliga, Liverpool’s second consecutive title seemed like a matter of ‘if’ rather than ‘when’.
Alexander Isak’s arrival was the cherry on an already decadent cake and had their summer signings not included the Swede, Anfield fans would still have been more than happy with their new arrivals.
And yet, something has not clicked with Liverpool. They arrived at the second international break of the season with three consecutive defeats and the late goals that had saved them earlier in the season have suddenly dried up.
If fingers are being pointed at the likes of Mo Salah for failing to recapture his form of last season, there are also questions surrounding the new arrivals who were supposed to be nailed-on successes.
The Liverpool players with the four highest average ratings this season according to FotMob were all there last season. Only one new signing features in the top nine.
Isak, who joined on deadline day having been on strike all summer, has been eased in gradually but in the 181 minutes of Premier League football he has played, he has produced one assist with question marks as to whether he even meant it.
Full-backs Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong have also found it hard to slot into their new team. The ex-Bournemouth man has been hooked on more than one occasion while Frimpong has provided zero assists from a position formerly occupied by creative machine Trent Alexander-Arnold.
But it is Florian Wirtz that has created the greatest frustration. If Isak’s slow start can be blamed on a lack of fitness, Wirtz has been with the squad since the summer and has played 486 minutes of football for his new team.
In that time, he has created zero goals and scored the same number. Bundesliga experts have defended their export by saying his game is about more than assists and goals, but do you really pay £116m for that?
Liverpool’s only clear transfer success has been Hugo Ekitike, who showed Arne Slot that they did not need Isak with a goal and assists in the club’s opening game against Bournemouth. He would score three in three in his first games for the club but Isak’s arrival now means that the security a number 9 can need to thrive has disappeared and he has now gone four games without a goal.
Is a month and a half too early to be judging players signed to multi-year deals? Of course, but already Liverpool’s summer signings are causing more problems than they solved.
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Newcastle United: Winners
When Isak’s move to Liverpool was confirmed, there were plenty of rival fans queuing up to laugh at the Geordies.
From a PR perspective, their summer was a nightmare for the Newcastle hierarchy as it seemed like their forward targets would rather move to the ninth circle of hell than Tyneside. But away from the ‘vibes’, Newcastle actually had a very good window and one that filled holes in their squad.
Malick Thiaw was taken from Milan to bolster the defence; Jacob Ramsey was the latest player to be sold due to PSR reasons with Newcastle happy to receive a promising midfielder for a reasonable fee; Anthony Elanga was an early signing and one made before Mr. Marinakis decided he didn’t much like the idea of selling his best players. Yoane Wissa was perhaps on the expensive side but came at a time when Newcastle were bereft of strikers.
But their biggest success has undeniably been Nick Woltemade, who has that Erling Haaland quality of being completely not-arsed about the so-called pressure around him.
The 6ft 4 colossus scored on his debut and has three in total. Only Haaland has a better goals-per-90 ratio in the league’s top 10 scorers. He is still getting up to speed with the uber-demanding Premier League and has yet to play a full 90, but if that is the only accusation you can throw at him so far, it is the tell of a very good signing.
Senior Bayern Munich executives have once again been embarrassing themselves in front of a microphone, taking a break between eating their sour grapes to label Newcastle ‘idiots’ for spending £65m on the player, but the facts are that the club needed a striker and had more than enough money to do it.
Newcastle took a while to get motoring, not registering their first win until the second week of September, but now look set to move up the table and are a much stronger squad than they were last season, even after losing the quality of Isak.
Chelsea: Losers
To describe Chelsea’s transfer window as ‘busy’ would be like saying the piping hot magma of a volcano is ‘a bit warm’.
Including returning loan players, 24 players arrived with 26 heading out the other way, the most turnover of any club, as BlueCo continue with their ‘flipping players for profit’ model.
The only problem is the pesky playing football part.
Chelsea strengthened most heavily in attack, bringing in Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens, Alejandro Garnacho, Estevao and Liam Delap with Noni Madueke, Christopher Nkunku and Nicolas Jackson leaving the other way, and yet it is two defensive midfielders that top the club’s scoring charts.
Joao Pedro pleased his new bosses by scoring three times in Chelsea’s Club World Cup tour and two Premier League goals in August made it appear that the £55m they paid for him was not the latest Brighton inflated price tag, but the Brazilian did not score once in September despite having five games to do so. His final game of the month saw him make a 29-minute cameo where he managed to get himself sent off.
Jamie Gittens and Alejandro Garnacho cost a combined £88.5m but are either of them clear upgrades on what Chelsea already had? Noni Madueke’s early success at Arsenal would suggest not.
Delap’s injury explains his lack of goals but it also resulted in Chelsea’s hierarchy panicking and initially blocking Jackson’s move to Bayern only for the player to refuse to leave Munich. They then recalled Marc Guiu from his loan at Sunderland and the 19-year-old has played a grand total of 16 minutes since returning to the Bridge. Not to mention the £325,000-a-week Raheem Sterling rotting in the reserves.
Chelsea’s transfer approach has felt like a ‘buy them because we can’ style but if that is a strategy that can work in normal business, the club being behind Crystal Palace and Bournemouth in the league shows football does not work like that.
Sunderland: Winners
Go big or go home was the maxim that two of the three promoted clubs followed as they looked to stop a run of six teams returning immediately to the Championship.
Only Chelsea brought in more players than Sunderland and Burnley but it is the Black Cats who have had the most success.
One fan writing for the BBC described it as the club’s ‘greatest transfer window’ in their history with a mix of new signings and tying down promising players to long-term deals. Their four best players so far this year are all new signings with Granit Xhaka recently winning a poll to be named the club’s best signing since 2020.
Xhaka is a perfect example of the club’s smart spending with his experience key to ensuring a newly promoted team does not drown under the pressure of playing in the top flight.
He is also an example of the club’s ability to react quickly in the market. Initial hopes that local hero Jordan Henderson would return to the club were dropped when he moved to Brentford and instead, Sunderland signed a better option in Xhaka. When Marc Guiu was recalled from his loan by Chelsea, Sunderland reacted by signing Ajax’s number nine.
As the play-off winners that finished 14 points off Burnley and Leeds, Sunderland’s squad needed a major revamp and their current position of ninth in the league, seven points off the drop, suggests the Black Cats have pulled it off.
Arsenal: Winners
‘Haha, look at Arsenal buying more Chelsea cast-offs’ was the buzz on social media when the Gunners forked out £50million for Madueke.
A minority of Arsenal fans joined in, starting an embarrassing trend on social media saying they didn’t want to sign him (it’s not your money lads) but since then, the winger has proved to be part of a summer of smart business from Mikel Arteta and co.
They captured long-term signing Martin Zubimendi, who – when he’s not scoring bangers – is controlling the midfield and freeing up Declan Rice.
They finally filled the hole at number 9 with Viktor Gyokeres and reinforced the squad in the form of Cristhian Mosquera, Christian Norgaard and Kepa Arrizabalaga.
They even ended the window by gazumping Tottenham to the signing of Eberechi Eze with the former Palace man looking like the final piece of the puzzle.
All in all, Arsenal had an excellent window and one that has given them possibly the best squad in the Premier League, which means there can be no more excuses…
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