The summer transfer window has now officially closed all across the continent, and a few Premier League games have also been played to give us all a chance to take a look at the many fresh new faces.
Most of the new arrivals in the English top flight have made their debuts by now, and a few have managed to impress very quickly.
Now is the time to take a look over what every club got up to during the transfer window and consider whether or not it’ll prove enough to see their ambitions realised.
Certainly, over the course of the coming campaign, for many, all the hope and optimism that was built up by new signings will be dashed. For others, the good business done pre-season shall prove to be their salvation.
We’ve been through every club’s summer business and assessed their incomings and outgoings in order to determine whether or not it’ll prove enough to keep their fans free of despair this season.
It was a summer of drastic change at Arsenal, and for the first time in 22 years, the Gunners have kicked off a Premier League campaign with a new man at the helm. That man is Unai Emery, and he has begun life in North London with some smart signings.
Lucas Torreira has been brought in to add bite to the midfield, whilst Stephan Lichtsteiner and Sokratis Papastathopoulos will bring experience to the back line. Mateo Guendouzi looks a good prospect for the future, and Leno could go down as this summer’s most cost-effective goalkeeping acquisition – if he ever gets to play, that is.
With Calum Chambers on loan at Fulham, and Laurent Koscielny out with injury until at least Christmas though, the Gunners could yet come to rue not having made a real push to bring another top class centre-back to the Emirates Stadium.
It was a relatively quiet summer at the Vitality Stadium, with Eddie Howe opting to add only a handful of new arrivals to his squad. Amongst them, new club-record signing Jefferson Lerma looks like an exciting, and very solid, addition to the centre of the park.
The Cherries managed to hold on to their key players, such as Lewis Cook and Nathan Ake, and were also able to move a few others on, including Benik Afobe and Max Gradel.
Plenty of Bournemouth fans will have been sad to see Harry Arter depart, albeit on loan, having been with the club since they were a League One outfit in 2010. Generally though, Bournemouth look to have strengthened well over the summer but another injury hit campaign for Callum Wilson could leave them struggling for goals.
Last season, the Seagulls were hugely reliant upon Glenn Murray for goals. Now, at the age of 34, Chris Hughton has to be able to rely upon others to find the back of the net with regularity. Big things must now be expected of January signing Jurgen Locadia.
Further end product should also be provided by the exciting Alireza Jahanbakhsh, who racked up some stunning figures – 21 goals and 12 assists – in 33 Eredivisie appearances for AZ Alkmaar last time out.
Further incomings include the central midfielder Yves Bissouma, striker Florin Andone, and full-backs Bernardo and Martin Montoya. The Brighton faithful will be hoping that these additions can prove enough for the club to build upon their 15th placed finish of last season.
After a slow start, Burnley’s transfer window burst into life with the recruitment of Ben Gibson, closely followed by the arrivals of Joe Hart and last season’s Championship top scorer, Matej Vydra.
Although the Clarets’ Europa League dream died a premature death, the small squad in place at Turf Moor would’ve struggled with the bloated schedule that comes with continental competitions.
After surpassing all expectations last time out, Sean Dyche’s men could be in for a tough campaign this time around and they may come to rue not having bolstered their ranks further this summer.
Neil Warnock was always going to have to shop exceptionally well to give Cardiff City any chance of survival in the Premier League this season. However, with a limited budget to work with, the experienced boss opted to bring in a few loanees and proven Championship grafters.
Bobby Reid and Josh Murphy joined permanently from Bristol City and Norwich City respectively to add some intricacy to the Bluebirds’ attack. Meanwhile, Harry After and Victor Camarasa have come in on loan to reinforce the midfield. Left-back Greg Cunningham and ‘keeper Alex Smithies round off the new arrivals.
A few fringe players were released or loaned out too. Overall, this is unlikely to be enough to keep the Welsh outfit up but if (and when) they do go down they ought to be able to keep the majority of this group together.
After last season’s Kante/Fabregas/Bakayoko/Drinkwater midfield hodgepodge, Chelsea have refined their midfield contingent into one of the most impressive in the league. Kante is now joined by Jorginho, who followed new boss Maurizio Sarri to Stamford Bridge from Napoli, and Mateo Kovacic on loan from Real Madrid.
Dead wood in the form of Tiemoue Bakayoko, Michy Batshuayi and Kurt Zouma has all been moved on – if only temporarily – whilst Thibaut Courtois was replaced with the world’s most expensive and pleasingly named ‘keeper, Kepa. There’s plenty of pressure on the young shot-stopper’s shoulders now, especially as his back up comes in the form of fellow new face, Rob Green.
Overall, this all looks to be good business, but if Alvaro Morata doesn’t remember how to score soon enough the calls for a new star striker to be signed will only grow louder.
Crystal Palace fans have every reason to be tremendously excited about the arrival of Max Meyer. The former wonderkid is a major coup for the South London outfit. Goalkeeper Vicente Guaita and forward Jordan Ayew also look like astute signings, whilst Cheikhou Kouyate ought to add some much needed steel to the Eagles’ midfield.
However, the highlight of the club’s summer was surely retaining the services of the talismanic Wilfried Zaha. Meanwhile, Damien Delaney, Yohan Cabaye and Bakery Sako were the biggest names to be let go by Roy Hodgson.
Despite the positives though, Palace’s summer can’t be qualified as a success as the club failed to replace Christian Benteke. The lumbering striker is less than useless these days and relegation could well be the price paid at Selhurst Park for having neglected to add an actually competent goalscorer to the squad.
Finishing between 7th and 9th in the Premier League is an expensive business, as Everton look set to prove once again this season. The Toffees brought not one, not two, but three players in from Barcelona in the form of Yerry Mina, Andre Gomes and Lucas Digne. It may be a slight worry that, in the case of the former pair, the Spanish club were desperate to give them away. Both have arrived on Merseyside injured too.
Elsewhere, Brazilians Bernard and Richarlison arrived – with the latter making an immediate impact – and Kurt Zouma swapped one blue kit for another by joining on loan from Chelsea. The services of Ademola Lookman were also retained, but it remains to be seen what kind of involvement Marco Silva will grant him.
Davy Klaassen, Ramino Funes Mori, Kevin Mirallas, Joel Robles, Wayne Rooney, Ashley Williams, Cuco Martina, Sandro Ramirez, Luke Garbutt, Yannick Bolasie and Muhamed Besic, amongst others, were all offloaded in one manner or another.
It feels like an awful lot of change has taken place at Goodison Park just to ensure that things largely remain the same.
This summer, newly-promoted Fulham brought in a former World Cup winner, a Barcelona target and a £20 million striker. Craven Cottage welcomed a dozen new face in total this summer, including loaned in arrivals. However, it is the aforementioned trio of Andre Schurrle, Jean Michael Seri and Aleksandar Mitrovic which really stands out.
With over £100 million spent and only really Ryan Fredericks lost from the first team picture, Slavisa Jokanovic ought to be delighted with his window’s worth of business. If the West London club don’t stay up after this then something has gone badly wrong.
David Wagner pulled off a minor miracle in keeping Huddersfield Town clear of the drop last season, largely thanks to an exceptionally strong start to the campaign. To imagine the Terriers can repeat the feat is fanciful and becomes even more so once a look has been taken at their summer spending.
Last season’s on loan ‘keeper Jonas Lossl has been retained on a permanent basis and Ben Hamer has come from Leicester to provide competition between the sticks. Defender Terence Kongolo is another former loanee made permanent, this time for a club-record fee.
Beyond that, further new signings come in the form of full-backs Florent Hadergjonaj and Erik Durm, midfielder Juninho Bacuna, and attackers Ramadan Sobhi, Isaac Mbenza and Adam Diakhaby.
With no real standout quality incoming this summer though, it’s unlikely that the Yorkshire club can repeat the trick of survival a second time around.
Despite having lost their brilliant playmaker Riyad Mahrez, Leicester City genuinely have reasons to be cheerful following a productive summer spending spree. Hanging on to Harry Maguire and Kasper Schmeichel is also a massive bonus.
Jonny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu, Ricardo Pereira and Nampalys Mendy ought to improve the Foxes defensively, whilst James Maddison and Rachid Ghezzal look as though they could be inspired attacking additions.
As ever, Leicester have shown themselves to be very canny operators in the transfer window and Claude Puel will have an eye on Europa League qualification this season.
The Premier League’s biggest summer spenders only made four first team aditions, but they were big ones. Alisson Becker was briefly the world’s most expensive goalkeeper and Xherdan Shaqiri was able to trade the prospect of Championship football for Champions League involvement when he jumped ship from Stoke City to Anfield.
Fabinho and Naby Keita also came in to make the fight for first team selection in the Liverpool midfield amongst the most competitive scraps in the division.
Of perhaps far greater importance though, Jurgen Klopp’s fabulous front three of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah remains in tact.
Emre Can, Loris Karius and Danny Ings mark the most significant departures but none are likely to be hugely missed.
The Reds have built a squad for a single purpose, to challenge Manchester City for the title. If they fall short of that from here on in then blame cannot be placed upon a lack of summer transfer ambition or activity.
The reigning champions weren’t far off faultless last time out so this was never going to be a summer of wholesale changes. Riyad Mahrez’s belated arrival from Leicester City was the only major addition to Pep Guardiola’s group.
Nor were there any major outgoings, but the exits of Joe Hart and Yaya Toure do mark something like the end of an era at the Etihad Stadium.
Perhaps a twinge of regret may also be felt at the failure to sign a new holding midfielder. Fernandinho, now 33-years-old, can’t go on forever, and Jorginho, now of Chelsea, really would have been an excellent addition.
If anyone thought that Manchester United could’ve done with a new centre-back this summer they really ought to have mentioned it to Jose Mourinho.
As it was, the Brazilian midfielder, Fred, who has looked lacklustre so far, was the only major addition to the Red Devils’ first team. The Old Trafford faithful must now stomach a series of increasingly unappealing centre-back combinations of Victor Lindelof/Eric Bailly/Phil Jones/Chris Smalling/Marcos Rojo until January at least.
For that, there will almost certainly be consequences. Both on the pitch and off it.
When you have a manager, in this case Rafa Benitez, capable of making the most out of meagre resources, why not see what he can do with less? The threat of relegation. That’s why.
Yet, even so, Newcastle chairman Mike Ashley has seen fit to force the Magpies to make do in the English top flight despite having turned a profit in the summer transfer window.
Kenedy has returned on from Chelsea again, whilst Martin Dubravka’s post between the sticks has been made a permanent one. Elsewhere, Federico Fernandez and Fabian Schar have come in to enhance the rearguard and midfielder Ki Sung-yeung was picked up on a free transfer.
The headline news though is the loan swap deal sending Dwight Gayle to West Brom and bringing Salomon Rondon in the opposite direction. The Venezuelan target man found the net 7 times in the Premier League last time out as he failed to stave off relegation for the Baggies. Newcastle need him to do better this season.
In all honesty, 10th again looks very, very unlikely.
It’s hard to look beyond Danny Ings as being anything other than a season defining signing for Southampton. The Saints were lucky to avoid the drop last season, but the goals of the striker in on loan from Liverpool could see them through a much more comfortable campaign this time.
Unless, of course, Ings succumbs to injury as he so often has in recent years. That would be disastrous for Mark Hughes and could potentially seal the South Coast club’s fate.
Other arrivals include Angus Gunn as back up ‘keeper, Jannik Vestergaard at the back, Stuart Armstrong in the middle and Mohamed Elyounoussi out wide. Meanwhile, Dusan Tadic and Guido Carrillo are the most significant departures. The latter was a £20 million panic purchase made less than a year ago and is utterly indicative of why Saints are in survival mode in the first place.
N/A.
Spurs just became the first club in Premier League history to fail to sign a single player during a summer transfer window. Nobody of note left either. Which makes it hard to review their business.
Still, Mauricio Pochettino will have a plan. Probably.
Moving swiftly on…
Watford have made a superb start to the new Premier League season, but looking at their transfer business it’s hard to say why. Few of the new signings have really had any impact at Vicarage Road as of yet, and if Javi Gracia’s side continue in this form then the new boys will have a job just getting a kick.
Only goalkeeper Ben Foster has made his presence felt in the league so far, and he was a smart acquisition by the Hornets. Other arrivals, at this stage still shrouded in enigma, include Gerard Deulofeu, Adam Masina, Ken Sema and Domingos Quina. Richarlison was the major departure.
Watford have made a great start in football terms, but the quality of their summer business, really, remains to be seen.
Four games in and Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham have suffered four defeats. After the best part of £100 million having been spent this summer, this isn’t the start that Hammers fans were dreaming of but it’s not quite panic stations yet.
Lukasz Fabianski is a solid ‘keeper; Issa Diop, Fabian Balbuena and Ryan Fredericks are all smart additions on paper; Jack Wilshere is the kind of marquee signing the Irons have been crying out for; and Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmolenko and Lucas Perez should add real quality in the final third.
Those hypothetical terms are a problem, but this lost should come good. It really is squeaky bum time for the West Ham board otherwise.
Like Fulham, last season’s Championship winners have produced a remarkable summer’s worth of transfer activity ahead of their return to the top flight.
Goalkeeper Rui Patricio and midfield maestro Joao Moutinho, both experienced Portugal internationals, add proven quality alongside exciting young prospects such as Adama Traore, Diogo Jota, Leander Dendoncker and Ruben Vinagre.
Wolves aren’t just in the Premier League to survive, but thrive. Their summer signings reflect that ambitious goal.