English football clubs spent a record £1.4 billion this transfer window, with £210 million was spent alone on deadline day – also a new record.
This whopping amount of money spent by Premier League clubs could have been higher if a number of high profile signings had gone through.
The likes of Alexis Sanchez, Virgil Van Dijk, Ross Barkley, Riyad Mahrez and Thomas Lemar, were all eager to move away from their clubs, but the eye-watering sums offered on these players were not enough to tempt their clubs.
Some teams had a particularly successful transfer window, with the likes of Manchester United, Everton, Swansea and West Brom standing out. Man Utd got their business done early with the biggest buy in the Premier League of £90 mill for Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku from Everton. Chelsea seemed Lukaku’s likely destination, but with the help of friend Paul Pogba, Lukaku came to Old trafford. Along with Zlatan Ibrahimovic resigning with Mourinho’s side, the Portugese manager has every reason to feel confident that his team can challenge for the title,especially after winning their first three games.
Everton too had a very productive window, despite losing Lukaku. Ronald Koeman signed promising young England prospects Michael Keane and Jordan Pickford, along with securing the return of recently retired England international Wayne Rooney to Merseyside. Iceland international Gylfi Sigurdsson also joined the Toffees on a club record fee of £45, and already seems to have made a good impact. The Dutch manager will be confident and hopeful his new look team can reach the top four this season.
Another two teams who had positive windows are West Brom and Swansea. Swansea especially by resigning Wilfried Bony and securing an astonishing deal for Renato Sanches on a season long loan from Bayern Munich. Paul Clermont has previously worked with Sanches, which may have been key in the Portugese youngster moving to the Liberty stadium.
Tony Pulis will also be a happy manager, managing to fend off interest from a number of Premier League clubs who tried to sign club Captin Jonny Evans, while keeping a hold of Belgian winger Nacer Chadli after strong interest from Swansea. Pulis also managed to sign Arsenal left back Kieran Gibbs, Southampton forward Jay Rodriguez and Grzegorz Krychowiak on loan from PSG, showing that the Baggies will be hoping for a top half finish this season.
Other clubs that will be satisfied with their dealings will be Tottenham, Liverpool and Man City, all of whom have improved their squads, with City in particular bulking up their defence by capturing France international Benjamin Mendy and former Spurs right back Kyle Walker.
Liverpool meanwhile have a strong attack, after capturing former Chelsea man Mohammed Salah, and beating the blues to the signature of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from rivals Arsenal.
Meanwhile Tottenham replaced Walker with PSG right back Serge Aurier, while securing Fernando Llorente, who also looked to have been heading to Chelsea.
Though these clubs made positive signings, they will feel disappointed to have missed out on their main targets. City’s pursuit of Sanchez looked to be going ahead after a £60 million bid was likely to have been accepted by Arsenal. However, the transfer descended into shambles as Arsenal were unable to find a replacement, leaving City and Sanchez both fuming after the Manchester club had sent representatives to Chile to sort out a deal. This ironic photo appeared on the Chilean star’s instagram account:
Liverpool had all summer publicly expressed huge interest in Southampton centre back Virgil Van Dijk. The Dutch defender looked to be heading to Anfield earlier in the summer, before the deal fell through. Klopp was very keen to sign Van Dijk, but wasn’t willing to pay Southampton’s price tag of £70 million, who were very stubborn throughout, leaving the German manager very frustrated.
Tottenham fans meanwhile had to wait an age for their side to get active this summer, but eventually had a good transfer window. Their defence has been boosted with defenders Serge Aurier, and young Colombian prospect Davinson Sanchez for a club record fee of £42, while beating Chelsea to Llorente will please many Spurs fans. They did however still miss out on Everton star Ross Barkley, who they had been linked to all summer, and Portugese midfielder Andre Gomes from Barcelona. This may be leaving Mauricio Pochettino feeling his midfield is lacking slightly.
While their rivals have had good transfer windows, champions Chelsea will certainly not be happy. Conte’s surprising decision to sell Nemanja Matic to rivals United seemed to leave Chelsea lacking in midfield. However deals for France’s Tiemoue Bakayoko and a last minute deal for Leicester’s Danny Drinkwater have given Chelsea a lot of midfield options with a packed season to come. Up front, the whole drama with Diego Costa, has overshadowed their signing of former Real Madrid man Alvaro Morata, who many Blues fans will hope provide the goals that Costa will no longer be scoring. Conte might be concerned about his defence, even after the arrivals of German defender Antonio Rudiger, and Torino wing back Davida Zappacosta. Chelsea fans will also worry thagat they are lacking at the back after departures of youngster such as Kurt Zouma to Stoke and Chelsea legend John Terry. What will mainly concern Chelsea fans, was their inability to capture the likes of the ‘Ox’, Llorente, Barkley and Mahrez.
If Chelsea fans feel they had a rough summer, how do Arsenal fans feel right now? As calls of ‘Wenger Out’ seem to never end, Arsenal had a number of their high profile names all linked away from the club. While Chamberlain was sold, all of Sanchez, Ozil, Wilshere, Giroud and Mustafi were all rumoured to be leaving the Emirates. While all remained, it is definitely concerning that all were said to be leaving. The whole Sanchez saga has left everyone unhappy. The deal should have been complete a lot earlier in the summer, with the Chilean very keen to move to the Etihad. If Arsenal had sold him earlier, they could have found a capable replacement, instead they’ve missed out on their main targets Thomas Lemar, Julian Draxler and Riyad Mahrez, while being stuck with an unhappy Sanchez. Their £92 mill bid for Lemar striked of desperation from Wenger. It’s not all doom and gloom though, the signing of France’s goal scoring machine Alexandre Lacazette received good reactions from Gunners supporters, although many will hope the former Lyon man will get the opportunities after being left on the bench in their recent 4-0 loss to Liverpool.
Other clubs that were busy this summer include Slaven Bilic’s West Ham. The Hammers made a new record signing with the purchase of Marco Arnautovic, along with the experience of former Man City players Pablo Zabaleta, and Joe Hart from Torino. With Andy Carroll regularly on the sidelines, former Man Utd star Javier Hernandez arrived at the Olympic stadium for a fee of £16 million. Bilic will no doubt be hoping the Mexican international will provde the goals, after losing al three games so far this season.
Stoke meanwhile made another big signing in Jese Rodriguez from PSG. Jese was said to no longer be needed at the French giants after theri headline captures of Neymar and French superstar youngster Kylian Mbappe. Leicester too did some tidy business. Keeping hold of both Mahrez and Jamie Vardy was probably their most important bit of business, but the Foxes did manage to sign Man City striker Kelechi Iheanacho and defender Harry Maguire from relegated Hull City.
New Crystal Palace manager Frank De Boer has not had an ideal start to life in the Premier League, having not won a point so far. The Eagles did manage to secure Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Timothy Fosu-Mensah, both on loan from Chelsea and Man Utd, both of whom De Boer will be hoping to show a lot of promise this season. Palace did also manage to sign Mamadou Sakho from Liverpool on a permanent basis on deadline day for £26 million, after the French international had a successful loan spell at Selhurst Park last season.
A number of Premier League clubs broke their previous record fees this summer. Southampton, under new manager Mauricio Pellegrino, will be pleased to have kept hold of Van Dijk, while also signing midfielder Mario Lemina from Juventus on a record fee of £18. Bournemouth too broke their transfer fee with the purchase of youngster Nathan Ake from Chelsea for £20, while also adding Premier League experience to their squad in the form of Jermain Defoe from relegated Sunderland. Watford’s new manager Marco Silva bought Andre Gray from Burnley in a record fee, while the Hornets also added both Tom Cleverley and Nathanial Chalobah to their squad, showing great positivity from their new manager. Burnley manager Sean Dyche meanwhile replaced Gray, by bringing in striker Chris Wood from championship Leeds. The New Zealand international’s arrival at Turf Moor meant that another Premier league club broke their record fee. All newly promoted sides also added to their squads to cope with life in the Premier Leagu, with Rafa Benitez’s signing of striker Joselu and Huddersfield’s buy of Steve Mounie from Montpellier being the most notable.
As the 2017 summer transfer window has come to an end, a total of 12 Premier League clubs broke their previous transfer record fees, adding to a record amount of spending, shows how rich the Premier League is becoming. All 20 sides have a lot of talent in their squads after this spree of spending, but now it’s time for the football to do the talking, instead of the money. We are in for a heck of a season with the amount of talent being added to, or remaining in this league ahead of an important World Cup year.
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