The Athletic has launched a series of sports debates in which two writers break down a specific topic. In this edition, Nick Miller and Tim Spiers discuss which Premier League club ‘won’ the summer transfer window.
The summer transfer window is done for another year. There haven’t been many ‘blockbuster’ deals, quite a few clubs have been pretty quiet and there have been a number of moves that only look good/make sense on balance sheets.
But who will be satisfied with their work now that they actually have to play some football? We asked Nick Miller and Tim Spiers to debate who has done the best job in the market this summer…
Nick: Hello, Tim. The transfer window is over. The gossip columns have fallen silent. David Ornstein can get some sleep. The only thing left to do is debate which Premier League team ‘won’ the window…
Tim: Ornstein has been temporarily cryogenically frozen, I heard? The thawing process will automatically begin when he sonically hears a murmuring of the first manager sacking of the season. But yes, it’s definitely not satisfactory to simply let the window pass and move on with our lives. We must decide who won it. Right now.
Nick: I suppose we should talk about what constitutes ‘winning’. Is it just signing a bunch of good players? Is it getting rid of a bunch of players? Is it being terribly clever with amortisation and other things people pretend aren’t weird?
Tim: We can rule out what it isn’t — ie, it’s not about just spending lots of money (Chelsea), or signing the highest number of players (Chelsea), or selling your academy graduates for the biggest profit (Chelsea), or just chucking obscene cash and players into your crazy ideas machine, giving them all 10-year contracts and hoping a guy with no experience of managing in any top flight can bring it all together (*checks notes* yep, Chelsea).
In basic terms, if you’re going to win the transfer window, you need to have undeniably improved your squad/team as part of a clear, coherent strategy for the year ahead.
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Nick: So we’re ruling out Chelsea, then?
Some possible candidates in their place: Fulham have really beefed up their squad despite not directly replacing Joao Palhinha, Ipswich Town have done a minor Nottingham Forest by getting 12 players through the door (though most of them are a bit ‘too good for the Championship, maybe not good enough for the Premier League’), while Forest themselves have been pretty reticent by their standards with a mere nine first-teamers signed. Any others?
Tim: Agreed on Fulham, they had a great summer topped off by nabbing Reiss Nelson on deadline day. I can see them ‘doing bits’ this season, as they say.
West Ham United are definitely worth mentioning; Maximilian Kilman and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are strong defensive additions and Niclas Fullkrug and Crysencio Summerville almost get me excited to watch West Ham play football. Almost.
Tottenham Hotspurs’ success or failure rests on the biggest deal of the whole window, spending £65million ($85m) on a striker who took 96 appearances to reach 10 Premier League goals. Yeah, it feels risky, but if Dominic Solanke reproduces last season’s form, he’ll have done just fine.
Spurs have spent big on Solanke (Visionhaus/Getty Images)
Nick: I put it to you, Tim, that Brighton had the best transfer window. They have finally splurged after years of quiet smartness in the market, spending big chunks of the massive piles of cash they have been sitting on from selling your Moises Caceidos, your Alexis Mac Allisters and your Marc Cucurellas.
They’ve dropped nearly £200million and have essentially retooled their squad for their new manager, the revoltingly young Fabian Hurzeler (31). Tell me I’m wrong.
Tim: I’m not sure I can definitely tell you you’re wrong, but in all good conscience I just don’t think I can tell you you’re right, Nick, I’m really sorry.
Brighton seem to know what they’re doing. I like how they’ve exclusively signed players aged 18 to 24, but are we just saying they’ve had a great window because in the past they have bought guys no one has heard of who have turned out to be incredibly good?
It reminds me of when critics panned Oasis’ second album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, which turned out to be one of the most popular albums of all time, so they gave third album Be Here Now amazing reviews to be on trend but in reality, it was worse than listening to you sing in the shower.
Oh god, does this mean Tony Bloom is going to sell out and start charging £350 for tickets at the Amex? No, probably not. Anyway, Nick, tell me what you actually know about Brighton’s new players and I might be convinced.
GO DEEPER
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Nick: If the gauge of a new signing is how cross the other teams’ fans are to lose them, then Georginio Rutter is a no-doubter. Leeds supporters were wailing and grabbing onto him like a sniffling child refusing to let go of their mother on the first day of school.
Then there’s Yankuba Minteh, nabbed from Newcastle because they needed quick PSR (profit and sustainability rules) cash, who already looks mega lively. Throw in Ferdi Kadioglu who can play on either flank as a full-back or winger, plus the obligatory child who nobody has heard of but will go to Chelsea in 18 months for nine times the price (Mali 18-year-old midfielder Malick Yalcouye, in this case), and you’ve got an impressive summer of work.
(Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
Tim: It probably is impressive but we won’t know until Brighton have started to prove it on the pitch… (*checks league table*) OK, third place, not bad.
But I will retort with a club that has made quantifiably good additions — and given yesterday’s result, you are going to have to bear with me here.
The club in question made five signings, bringing in one of the most highly rated young defenders in European football (Leny Yoro), fixed a problem position by signing a very good defensive midfielder (Manuel Ugarte), signed one of the best defenders in the world this decade (Matthijs de Ligt) and added serious quality at full-back (Noussair Mazraoui) and up front (Joshua Zirkzee). That club is Manchester United and I think they won the window. Don’t @ me Nick.
Nick: If The Athletic top brass were expecting us to be at each other’s throats here, they’re going to be disappointed: I agree United’s summer has been really good, if only because it’s slightly alarming to see them act with anything approaching competence…
Tim: The decision-makers at INEOS are giving a good go at repairing the severe damage done over the last decade.
They’ve also made what appear to be very shrewd additions behind the scenes in senior positions, plus they’ve managed to offload some expensive, unwanted players in Jadon Sancho, Mason Greenwood and Donny van de Beek, plus Wan-Bissaka and poor Scott McTominay, to balance the books. Now, whether Erik ten Hag can actually do anything decent with his vastly improved squad is another matter. But on paper, United did good.
People may look at Sunday’s 3-0 humiliation against Liverpool and say this is folly, but I’m not sure you can argue that Ugarte looks anything other than a very necessary addition. Given Casemiro’s quite hideous performance, Ugarte had a great day.
The big question with United is whether they have a head coach who can organise these excellent signings into a coherent football team. On that, I’d argue there are two years of evidence (and counting) that he cannot. And therein lies United’s quandary. We’ve seen them sign countless players who look great either before or after (or both) they play for the club… but for whatever reason they struggle at Old Trafford.
Is Ten Hag the man to make the most of a good summer’s business? (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
I’m talking Van de Beek, Sancho, Anthony Elanga, you could even go back to Paul Pogba, Angel Di Maria, Alexis Sanchez… all players whose best football of their careers has been played elsewhere.
That’s a deep-seated cultural problem and one that INEOS is trying to change. It won’t be easy.
Nick: Since being mean about people is generally much more fun than being nice, what about teams who have stunk the place out this summer?
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I give you Newcastle, who spent months tip-toeing around Marc Guehi, signed a striker in William Osula who has two league goals in his career (all in League One) and are already shopping Odysseas Vlachodimos around on loan, a few weeks after his PSR-tastic arrival from Forest. They also left it to the last minute to try signing a winger, having apparently known for ages that the right side was an issue, eventually panicking before making a failed attempt to sign Anthony Elanga. Then there’s Liverpool, who bought a wide attacker when they already have loads and there’s a yawning great hole in their midfield. And Chelsea because… well, lads: it’s Chelsea.
Tim: I prayed for James McNicholas’ mentions when he reported on deadline day that Arsenal may have finished their business and was met with an angry cacophony of melodramatic Arsenal fans (no, honestly) saying it had been the worst window of all time and their squad had actually got worse.
I’m not sure the addition of Raheem Sterling, discarded by Chelsea and England, necessarily changes the mood there. But yes, the correct answer is Newcastle.
Nick: Good. I think we’ve got that boxed off quite nicely. Good work everyone.
Tim: Well done, Nick.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)