Ah, the summer transfer window of 2024. What a time we all had. Twenty English football clubs spent just shy of £2billion ($2.6bn) on hundreds of humans who are proficient at kicking, heading or catching a bag of wind.
Was it all worth it? Probably not. Did we have fun along the way? Not really. But are we intrigued to see how these sporting millionaires fare when they take to the field in their new clubs’ shirts? Well, kinda, yes.
Some teams shopped in Harrods, some went to the reduced section of the supermarket and one club treated real life like Football Manager (Looking at you, Chelsea).
Anyway, let The Athletic be your guide with a handy countdown from 20 to one as we rank who had a shocking window and who did rather well out of it…
20 – Newcastle
Alan Shearer described Newcastle’s summer business as “embarrassing”, while head coach Eddie Howe said he couldn’t argue against the accusation his squad is weaker now than a year ago.
The basic requirement of any summer window is to improve your team or your squad. Newcastle did neither of those things.
They signed Lewis Hall, who was already with them on loan, a young backup striker in William Osula who failed to score in 21 Premier League appearances for Sheffield United last season, plus a couple of reserve goalkeepers.
Osula moved to Newcastle after an underwhelming season at Sheffield United (Nigel Roddis/Getty Images)
They also sold Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh for PSR reasons, duly strengthening two Premier League rivals in Nottingham Forest and Brighton.
As bad as it gets. Fortunately, they still have a decent first XI.
Describe it in one word: Abomination
It was a fairly chaotic summer for Leicester, who lost their manager and one of their best players when Enzo Maresca and then Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall left for Chelsea.
With financial concerns over their newly-promoted heads, they signed nine players and moved 13 on. There is excitement in Facundo Buonanotte (on loan from Brighton) and Abdul Fatawu, who excelled in the Championship on loan last season and has now joined on a permanent deal.
And while Moroccan youngster Bilal El Khannouss looks lively, it’s hard to look at the additions of Odsonne Edouard, Jordan Ayew, Oliver Skipp and Bobby De Cordova-Reid and think anything other than a long, hard season lies ahead for Steve Cooper’s side.
Describe it in one word: Finite
If you’re anything like The Athletic, you’ll discover at this precise moment that Asmir Begovic 1) still plays professional football and 2) is now at Everton.
The 37-year-old backup goalkeeper’s arrival on a free transfer kind of sums up Everton’s window: cheap and underwhelming. Loan signings may dictate whether they have done enough; they have borrowed Orel Mangala (who had only joined French club Lyon from Nottingham Forest in July), as well as Jesper Lindstrom, Armando Broja and Jack Harrison (for a second year running).
Begovic in action for QPR last season (George Wood/Getty Images)
They didn’t sign Ernest Nuamah on deadline day, or Kieran Trippier, but they did keep the widely-admired Jarrad Branthwaite.
With Everton still severely restricted by their financial situation, they probably couldn’t have done much more. But when you consider what the rest of the Premier League spent, they basically turned up to a knife fight armed with a banana.
Describe it in one word: Hamstrung
Brazil international striker Evanilson was Bournemouth’s big summer buy in a £40million deal from Porto and his adaptation to the Premier League will define whether this was a good window for the club, who of course sold their best player, striker Dominic Solanke, to Tottenham Hotspur.
They also signed Kepa Arrizabalaga on loan from Chelsea to replace Neto, who went on loan to Arsenal, in the summer of the odd goalkeeper merry-go-round.
Describe it in one word: Meh
Most of Palace’s summer revolved around which members of the current squad would stay or go.
As it went, they said goodbye to Michael Olise and Joachim Andersen but kept Marc Guehi and Eberechi Eze. Swings and roundabouts.
Up until the final day of the window, you would have said Palace’s squad was significantly weaker than last season’s one, but the late signings of centre-backs Trevoh Chalobah and Maxence Lacroix, goalkeeper Matt Turner and striker Eddie Nketiah have beefed them up.
Ismaila Sarr from Marseille for £12million looks like a bargain, but until we find out just how good Chalobah and Nketiah are when asked to play every week at Premier League level, it’s hard to judge how well Palace have done.
Describe it in one word: Dunno
Bit of a weird one, really.
In a sell-to-buy window, Wolves sold two of their best players to generate funds (Pedro Neto to Chelsea for £54million and Maximilian Kilman to West Ham for £40m) but their replacements are the club’s contractually-obliged annual new Portuguese wingers in Rodrigo Gomes and Carlos Forbs (both young and experienced), while another top-level novice in Yerson Mosquera has been introduced at centre-back having spent a couple of years out on loan.
They did finally sign a pivot-like striker in lofty Norwegian Jorgen Strand Larsen, plus exciting young Brazilians Andre (a central midfielder) and Pedro Lima (right-back), but central defence in particular looks like the pressing area they may regret not strengthening in.
Describe it in one word: Hmmm
Ivan Toney is gone, but Brentford won’t feel his absence too keenly, seeing as he missed most of last season through suspension and then failed to score in his final 12 appearances during it.
Signing Sepp van den Berg and Fabio Carvalho from Liverpool could be masterstrokes or they could be duds. You suspect the former. Brazilian forward Igor Thiago, a £30million addition from Club Bruges, looks tasty but is currently injured.
Brentford probably haven’t done enough to avoid a relegation battle.
Describe it in one word: Insignificant
13 – Tottenham
Spurs looked to the future with Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray and Wilson Odobert, but did they take care of the present?
Dominic Solanke was the most expensive Premier League signing of the summer at a whopping £65million and, while he is exactly the kind of striker they need in theory, that is basically going off the back of one really good season when scoring 19 in 38 for Bournemouth (he took 96 appearances to get to 10 Premier League goals before that).
(Warren Little/Getty Images)
He wasn’t good enough to get into the England squad for the Euros, but is good enough to be the missing piece of Spurs’ attacking puzzle…?
Describe it in one word: Treacherous
As with frequent title rivals Liverpool, City elected against doing much business, negotiating with themselves to sign Brazilian winger Savinho from City Football Group affiliate Troyes, and re-signing Ilkay Gundogan after his year in Barcelona.
Unlike Liverpool, they did have one very significant departure in Julian Alvarez and actually made a huge profit this summer. Basically, in the year when their 115 charges for alleged financial wrongdoings will finally be heard, City saved themselves some cash. Probably wise.
Describe it in one word: Fine
11 – Liverpool
Did new head coach Arne Slot give Liverpool’s recruitment team the summer off, and if so what did they do with their time? Four weeks in Berlin for the Euros? A five-day bender at Glastonbury?
Either way, other than signing a goalkeeper for next year (or perhaps beyond) in Giorgi Mamardashvili and a failed attempt to bring in Martin Zubimendi, they did diddly-squat until buying Federico Chiesa as a backup forward.
Chiesa joined from Juventus in the final week of the transfer window (Nikki Dyer – LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
You can admire the prudency and restraint or accuse them of kicking the can down the road, especially in terms of not yet sorting the futures of Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk, all now into the final season of their contracts, but what can’t be denied is that Liverpool still look in very good shape.
Describe it in one word: Circumspect
A Chelsea/Nottingham Forest-esque splurge of almost 20 new signings from last season’s Championship play-offs winners, reflecting the job at hand for manager Russell Martin — who will need plenty of time to pull it all together while maintaining a style of play that sees them keep the ball more than Barcelona in their tiki-taka heyday.
Southampton old boys Ryan Fraser and Adam Lallana came back, Aaron Ramsdale was an excellent signing who could prove the difference in their anticipated relegation battle and someone had to sign Maxwel Cornet (so Southampton did). Meanwhile, Ben Brereton Diaz at just £6.5million could be the bargain of the summer.
Overall, pretty decent.
Describe it in one word: Feverish
9 – Arsenal
Arsenal fans who wanted their club to go all out this summer to seriously take the title fight to Manchester City with a glut of quality first-team additions were left disappointed.
Instead, with a week to go of the window, Arsenal had only signed one new player in Italy defender Riccardo Calafiori.
(Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images)
Arsenal clearly watched the Euros, as they then signed Mikel Merino from eventual champions Spain, who like Calafiori had a great summer. The slightly random loan addition of Raheem Sterling — a player discarded by Manchester City, Chelsea and England in the past two years — felt a bit desperate, albeit not loaded with risk.
Describe it in one word: Restrained
8 — Chelsea
Where to start…?
Remember when Chelsea finally found consistency and won nine of their final 15 matches of last season and you sort of thought that with a few sensible summer additions they could really kick on under Mauricio Pochettino in 2024-25?
Nope, scrap all that. New head coach with no top-level managerial experience but on a five-year contract, 14 new signings, 18 departures, more money spent than any club in the world, more money received than any Premier League club, throw absolutely everything at a wall and see what sticks.
Everything might work. Everything might implode. Who knows?
Describe it in one word: Unhinged
7 – Nottingham Forest
Forest only signed a team’s worth of players this time, not a whole squad, bringing in just the 11 new faces, with the standouts being Elliot Anderson, Nikola Milenkovic and James Ward-Prowse.
They didn’t add a new striker, which means relying on Chris Wood to lead the line, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing and they have shown enough positive signs at the end of last season and the start of this one to suggest they’re a club heading in the right direction.
Probably.
Describe it in one word: Rosy
Seeing Douglas Luiz go was a blow, but Amadou Onana comes into the midfield for him and looks like being one of the top-tier signings of this summer by any club.
(Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
Elsewhere, the arrivals of Jaden Philogene from Hull City and Ian Maatsen from Chelsea for a combined £55million seem expensive, but Villa are convinced they have bought players for the present as well as the future.
They didn’t do enough to put together a squad ready to compete full throttle in both the Champions League and the Premier League, but PSR restrictions rendered that extremely difficult. Rome wasn’t built in a day, etc.
Describe it in one word: Witty
5 – Ipswich
A smidgen over £100million spent on a range of alluring additions, mostly in the ‘Too good for the Championship but we’re not sure if they can crack the Premier League’ range. Which is exactly what being a new top-flight club dictates you do.
One would imagine at least two or three from Sammie Szmodics, Omari Hutchinson, Ben Johnson, Liam Delap, Jack Clarke and Dara O’Shea will thrive in the months ahead, while signing Chiedozie Ogbene from Luton Town after their relegation from the Premier League looks smart.
Installing Arijanet Muric from Burnley, another of last season’s relegated sides, as their No 1 ‘keeper might prove a misstep but, otherwise, Ipswich’s business looks pretty good on paper.
Describe it in one word: Fruity
4– Brighton
Given Brighton’s track record in the market and their exciting start to the season, we should probably all assume they’ve done great business. But, for example, they spent £50million on Brajan Gruda and Ferdi Kadioglu, players who have shorter Wikipedia profiles than Oasis guitarist Bonehead so, in many cases, we don’t know they’ve done great business.
What we can say is that Yankuba Minteh looks like a fine signing from Newcastle, while Georginio Rutter from Championship side Leeds seems an excellent acquisition.
Georginio Rutter (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
All of Brighton’s nine signings are aged 18 to 24, so this was a window that looked to the future as much as the present.
The early signs are promising.
Describe it in one word: Brightony
3 – Fulham
You can’t say they won the window, because they’ve sold their best player in Joao Palhinha (to Bayern Munich), but Fulham’s additions all look ready-made to make a positive impact on their first XI, let alone the squad.
Sander Berge is no Palhinha, but he’s performed well in the Premier League before, as has Joachim Andersen, while if Ryan Sessegnon is fit — that’s a big if — he can get his career back on track.
Emile Smith Rowe has the potential to be the signing of the summer, while his Arsenal team-mate Reiss Nelson should thrive with more game time than he was getting across London.
Describe it in one word: Intriguing
2 – West Ham
Who are you, and what have you done with West Ham United?
This was a summer of bold, decisive work in the transfer market from the east Londoners. They got their business done early, spending well north of £100million on obvious upgrades in several positions.
Maximilian Kilman and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are really solid defensive additions who can also help start attacks, Niclas Fullkrug could be an inspired signing up front, although needs good service for that, and Crysencio Summerville looks a Premier League star in the making.
They also had the confidence to dispense with James Ward-Prowse, who doesn’t fit into new coach Julen Lopetegui’s thinking.
The whole thing will need patience, but Lopetegui and technical director Tim Steidten appear to be working to a plan.
Describe it in one word: Purposeful
There is logic in each of United’s five additions.
An in-form Matthijs de Ligt would be one of the best defenders in the league, Leny Yoro’s potential is enormous, Noussair Mazraoui solves a problem at full-back, Joshua Zirkzee adds much-needed depth in attack and Manuel Ugarte, as Sunday’s horrific 3-0 defeat against Liverpool showed, might just be exactly what they need in defensive midfield.
United’s problem for years now has been taking talented individuals and forging them into a cohesive unit playing to a solid tactical plan. That is manager Erik ten Hag’s task and, well, he hasn’t cracked it yet. But their summer 2024 window, which also included discarding Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood, was excellent on paper — probably the best of any Premier League club.
It’s just a shame for them that their football is played on grass, and directed by Ten Hag.
Describe it in one word: Inconsequential
(Top image, Kilman at West Ham and Forbs at Wolves: Getty Images)
Read the full article here