A journalist ranked all 155 Premier League transfers from best to worst.
The summer transfer window closed at 11pm on September 1, and just like every year, all 20 Premier League clubs can now look back on 78 days full of exciting and chaotic transfer action.
A huge £3.46 billion was spent on 155 players, smashing last year’s record of £3.14 billion.
Incredibly, the British transfer record was broken twice! Elliot Anderson moved from Nottingham Forest to Manchester City for £116 million, and then Chelsea paid Aston Villa £117 million for Morgan Rogers.
Anderson was one of nine new players at City this summer, but he wasn’t the most expensive. That was Enzo Fernandez, who joined City from Chelsea for £125 million on Deadline Day, matching Liverpool’s record signing of Alexander Isak last year.
Liverpool also spent big, paying £123 million to sign forward Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain after chasing him all summer.
Tottenham went all out too, spending around £300 million on 10 new players. They broke their club record twice signing Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali, and grabbed Tosin Adarabioyo and Mykhailo Mudryk from Chelsea in a double deal on Deadline Day.
So, which clubs made the smartest moves this summer? The Athletic ranked all 155 transfers from best to worst and explained why.
Topping the list was Emi Martinez, who joined Aston Villa for just £7.5 million on a two-year deal. Manager Xabi Alonso needed a top goalkeeper, and Martinez is one of the best around.
Second was Bruno Guimaraes, who moved from Newcastle to Arsenal for £75 million. The talented Brazilian midfielder is a key reason why Arsenal are favorites to win back-to-back Premier League titles.
The rest of the top five included Mamadou Sangare, who impressed at Brentford after a £38.5 million move from Ligue 1’s Lens, followed by Anderson and Barcola at City and Liverpool respectively.
While the top five made sense, some other rankings raised eyebrows. Morgan Rogers was 80th, mainly because of his huge transfer fee. But Rogers has already scored a goal and made an assist in his first two games for Chelsea, so that ranking seems odd.
Other big-name players were also ranked surprisingly low. Andrey Santos was 104th after moving from Chelsea to Manchester United for £50 million, Nicolas Jackson was 135th following his £65 million move to Aston Villa, and Tonali was 95th after joining Spurs for £100 million.
Liam Delap was near the bottom at 151st after a £50 million move to Nottingham Forest, having only scored once for Chelsea in the Premier League last season.
At the very bottom was Emmanuel Emegha’s £21 million move from Strasbourg to Chelsea on a seven-year contract. Loum Tchaouna, Mudryk, and Jonah Kusi-Asare also joined him in the lowest ranks.
You can check out the full rankings here!