Who had the best transfer window?

[VinzentFTW]

United by far. Fixed the 2 main issues with exceptional players and added the much cried out for (from the pundits) clinical CF. When McTom comes back we will forget about the mid being weak.

RW was not a main issue imo. Greenwood played great there last season, and continue to play great there this season. It doesnt help that we`ve only used Sancho on the LW up to this point as well.
We had two main issues, the defense and in the midfield. We addressed one of them, but we should have fixed the midfield over buying Sancho imo. He is more of a luxury signing as things stands. Rice over Sancho and our transfer window would have been much better.

 

[CM]

Chelsea. They were in desperate need of a striker and the midfield was the only other position lacking in depth and they've addressed both of those issues. They weren't far away with the way they've restructured since Tuchel came in but they've now got two good players per position.

We are 2nd. I don't have any real complaints about the players we've brought in, all of them are very good players. We needed to make those signings in conjunction with another midfielder to have the best window though. Our starting midfield pairing will remain McTominay and Fred, and the depth beyond that is practically non-existent.

 

[HackeyC]

Imagine getting Varane and Ronaldo for basically the same price as Ben White. Just imagine it. Oh wait….

Transfer fees are the sticker price but keep in mind their combined salaries are about 10 times that of Ben white. It's not an apples to apples comparison.

 

[Red Royal]

A very good window for United, think we have done very well as well as Chelski, West Ham and Villa. Happy that City spunked £100M on Grealish rather than go all out on Kane... keeps the title race interesting.

 

[justsomebloke]

The reason they had a good window is that they spent £3.1m net and strengthened.

Even less, according to Transfermarkt (2,35 m Euros). I'll be damned.

 

[FootyGirl88]

 

[largelyworried]

Think we had the best window, on paper anyway. Obviously, let’s see how they do on the pitch. But we basically solved two problem positions long term and added an exceptionally high calibre short term option in Ronaldo. The squad is still deficient in the middle, but that's still the best window we've had in a long time. As exciting as the Di Maria/Falcao windows but actually strategic and sensible at the same time, instead of us just chucking shit at the wall.

Chelsea had a good window. Lukaku will bang in goals against average teams and Tuchel doesn't look like he needs a striker than can do it all against the big teams, just someone who can follow a narrow set of instructions designed to target opposition weakensses. Lukaku will probably do a job there. Saul adds a bit of depth to their squad.

Liverpool and City are both pretty meh in all honesty. Liverpool will be happy to tie down their major players, losing players on free contracts has suddenly become a big problem for clubs. And VVD coming back with another CB coming in means they'll be happy enough with their squad. But its been well documented that they have a lot of key players in the same age bracket. They've started to make moves with Konate and Jota, but still, they have Mane, Salah, Firminho, Henderson, Thiago & Van Dyke all 30 or over by the end of the season. I think they needed to be more proactive to avoid having to do it all in 1 or 2 summers.

City, well, not getting Kane is a major boost for all their rivals. Not getting any striker, even more so. Grealish is a lot of money for a player who I'm not convinced actually improves their first 11, though their squad is plainly stronger for him arriving. All in all a pretty poor window for City, which is weird given the relaxed FFP requirements. Thought they'd go big.

Arsenal are just unfathomable at the moment. Spent an absolute tonne of money on randoms. Fine by me, but Arsenal fans must be frothing at the mouth. Was that really the best they could do with the money? Spurs & Leciester Im not really up to speed with.

 

[Ikon]

The reason they had a good window is that they spent £3.1m net and strengthened.

In terms of sales, Chelsea were just on another planet.
Chelsea replenished the club's coffers with a cool £94.4m from sales: Tammy Abraham (£34m to Roma), Kurt Zouma (£29.8m to West Ham), Fikayo Tomori (£25m), Olivier Giroud (£1.7m, both to AC Milan) and Victor Moses (£3.9m to Spartak Moscow).

They even managed to get £4m for Victor Moses FFS...!!

 

[Bestietom]

We had a great window with 3 world class players coming in.
Just a pity we didn't improve the area that is the heartbeat of all great teams.

 

[BestRed]

Chelsea by miles. Filled holes in the squad and even signed players to positions that may be weak in a year or two. It's extraordinary.

Us second.

Arsenal 3rd, just have to wait a year or two for those players to mature/also get a good manager.

City 4th

Who else have they signed, I thought it was just Lukaku up front and Saul who they didn't particularly need, and the young Fulham keeper.

 

[Botim]

Someone PM'ed me asking about other leagues. Not an expert in that regard.

Seems like most of the big transfers were in England this summer (except for PSG off course).

In La Liga, I would say Real did pretty well, all things considered. Got Camavinga and Alaba and allegedly secured Mbappé on a free for next year. Atletico did well to get Griezman back.

In Italy, Inter had a surprisingly underwhelming window. Juventus pretty meh as well. AC Milan and AS Roma seem to have done well.

I was expecting a bit more from Dortmund with the cash they got from us. Not convinced by Malen. Bayern doing their usual thing by poaching from their direct rivals. 10th straight title incoming...

 

[Zoo]

I think it's us. Chelsea shelled out 100m for Lukaku and are stuck with him when they might have been better off waiting a year and trying for Haaland, Lewandowski or even Mbappe. The doubts about Lukaku have always been about what he can do against the top sides and his performance against Liverpool did nothing to quell those doubts.

 

[Bilbo]

Depends how Ronaldo does. Its quite likely that we've signed a player that will match or outscore Lukaku for a fraction of the price

 

[FattyFooty]

1. United.

2. Psg.
3. Chelsea.
43. City.

 

[Matt851]

Surely the answer to this thread is - Barcelona They started the window with the expectation of a front 3 of griezman, messi and aguero. Now aguero is injured and they are left with luuk de jong and braithewaite

 

[Robbie Boy]

The reason they had a good window is that they spent £3.1m net and strengthened.

Surely we're talking about the players improving the team and not net spend? As an aside, that's impressive. But spending that ludicrous sum on Lukaku looks mental too.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

PSG then United.

These 2 clubs had by far the best windows.

Edit: Saw OP was talking about Premier League only. It is us by miles. If Chelsea/Liverpool/City had a similar window to ours, this place would be in a meltdown.

 

[Craig Ward]

Chelsea for me.

Tuchel is shaping a very good team! He's slowly started to mould a playing style and has bags of talent. He's added to that with a proven goalscorer. Lukaku's record is immense and he will do well. Saul was a crazy signing for me as a UTD fan. We are crying out for a quality midfielder and Chelsea have got a bargain there! What impresses me most about Chelsea currently is the depth. Lukaku/Werner. Mount/Havertz. Pulisic/Ziyech/Hudson-Odoi. Now in midfield they have Kante/Kovacic/Saul/Jorginho. When you analyse the depth it's pretty awesome. They've also done what most clubs seemed incapable of - shipped some fringe players out.

We've had a decent to good window.

I dont think Ronaldo was ever part of the plan but the opportunity came and we acted. He's 36, fit a a fiddle and will do well. He'll give the club a boost. Sancho is more a luxury then necessity - we just went for him as we missed him the year before. He's a proper player though. Varane is the one for me though - finally an elite CB.

What worries me with us is midfield and squad depth. Why we didnt go all out for a CM is beyond me. We are so short in quality there in comparison to most other teams. Fred and McTom are decent but not quality. Matic is done. Donny - there's a player there but we rarely play him. Pogba - the enigma of our midfield. All the tools, no clue how to play CM/DM. A midfielder who plays better wide left. Bizarre.

Only notable outgoing was James, who Ole put faith in and always gave an honest performance. It's a buyers market and it's sad that we've let James go while keeping Lingard/Periera/Martial. Guess we had to decide to recoup some money. Pretty tragic we still have Jones and Bailly on the books while Tuanzebe gets a move. Our depth will mean we actually play Lingard and Mata. It's not good enough.

I think bar Chelsea, Villa had a good window. Buendia and Ings for the Grealish money is superb. I hope they have a good year. Palace before the season started looked to have a weak squad but they've done well. Edouard for 14mil seems great business.

Arsenal have backed Arteta but they still have way to many average/fringe players getting too many minutes. Bar Saka they look to have little real quality.

Tottenham - much quieter window than I thought. Over reliance on Kane and Son again, too much for them to have a serious season. They did bum Aurier off so there are positives!

 

[Zaphod2319]

I think Man Utd got the best deal in Varane, he is a game changer at his position. We will need to see how CR7 integrates into the squad. Need to see how Sancho develops. It may take him all year to transition to EPL.

We hit two of our biggest needs in a true #9 and we needed someone to cover for Kante when he needs rest. We will need to see how Saul fits in. CB looked like an issue at the end off last season, but with Chalobah emerging, we addressed that need with an academy player that is killing it. Our biggest win was selling players when every other club is not moving dead wood. Some of our dead wood went out on loan and their contracts and wages end this season which will trim our wages much more next season.

PSG got some big names, but I am not sure Poch will have them playing as a cohesive unit. As City prove in the CL, stockpiling talent is no guarantee of success.

 

[Redfrog]

Its because we managed not to strengthen the position in most need of strengthening

I dont see us even competing for the league this season which would mean we dont actually make any progress. We are just permanently a work in progress

Not true, we badly needed a partner for Maguire at the back and we lacked options in attack. Everyone was crying for a right wing and let’s be honest, Cavani can’t play every game and was the only centre forward at the club.

 

[RkkMan]

RW was not a main issue imo. Greenwood played great there last season, and continue to play great there this season. It doesnt help that we`ve only used Sancho on the LW up to this point as well.
We had two main issues, the defense and in the midfield. We addressed one of them, but we should have fixed the midfield over buying Sancho imo. He is more of a luxury signing as things stands. Rice over Sancho and our transfer window would have been much better.

We're THREE games in and Sancho has started ONE GAME
Complaining about us using Sancho as a LW when the season is still at its infancy (again THREE GAMES) is comically ludicrous. It's a long season where he'll be used in different positions he'll play a lot more on the right than the left.
Spending £100m on Rice(that's what West Ham wanted) a fee he's NOWHERE near worth when he'll be £20-30m cheaper in a year with one of the best U23 attackers in world football available for £73m is the type of bad business we used to lambast Woodward for under LVG/Jose/Moyes fair enough if you think we needed a DM but not at the expense of Sancho

 

[VinzentFTW]

We're THREE games in and Sancho has started ONE GAME
Complaining about us using Sancho as a LW when the season is still at its infancy (again THREE GAMES) is comically ludicrous. It's a long season where he'll be used in different positions he'll play a lot more on the right than the left.
Spending £100m on Rice(that's what West Ham wanted) a fee he's NOWHERE near worth when he'll be £20-30m cheaper in a year with one of the best U23 attackers in world football available for £73m is the type of bad business we used to lambast Woodward for under LVG/Jose/Moyes fair enough if you think we needed a DM but not at the expense of Sancho

Rice was just an example. We also could have included Lingard in the deal. There is also Ndidi, Bissouma and im sure there are other more premium players had we not gone for a right winger. And im not sure about your prediciton on us using him more on the right than on the left. Greenwood is currently undroppable, and Ronaldo will play as a striker in pretty much every game.

I mean come on, do you really mean the RW was a bigger issue than midfield ? We cant use Pogba there optimally atm, and Mcfred is mediocre as best. Matic is past it and VDB will never play.

 

[Matt851]

We're THREE games in and Sancho has started ONE GAME
Complaining about us using Sancho as a LW when the season is still at its infancy (again THREE GAMES) is comically ludicrous. It's a long season where he'll be used in different positions he'll play a lot more on the right than the left.
Spending £100m on Rice(that's what West Ham wanted) a fee he's NOWHERE near worth when he'll be £20-30m cheaper in a year with one of the best U23 attackers in world football available for £73m is the type of bad business we used to lambast Woodward for under LVG/Jose/Moyes fair enough if you think we needed a DM but not at the expense of Sancho

Tbf I agree that RW wasn't as high a priority as CM but if sancho turns out to be as good as many think he will be then you won't find many arguments we shouldn't have signed him

Rice is undoubtedly poor value and my worry is that we are fixated on him as a CM option and not looking at other better value options

I would have prioritised a CM over ronaldo but I do think we should have been able to raise the funds for a CM through sales anyway. Lingard should have gone for 10-15 and Donny should have been shipped out too

 

[Andrew7582]

RW was not a main issue imo. Greenwood played great there last season, and continue to play great there this season. It doesnt help that we`ve only used Sancho on the LW up to this point as well.
We had two main issues, the defense and in the midfield. We addressed one of them, but we should have fixed the midfield over buying Sancho imo. He is more of a luxury signing as things stands. Rice over Sancho and our transfer window would have been much better.

Our lack of creativity on the wings was very evident in a lot of games last season, we needed a player like Sancho so I don't agree that he is a luxury signing. If he had signed for a top 4 rival and gone on to be a Hazard level player we would be furious that we didn't get him.

 

[RkkMan]

Rice was just an example. We also could have included Lingard in the deal. There is also Ndidi, Bissouma and im sure there are other more premium players had we not gone for a right winger. And im not sure about your prediciton on us using him more on the right than on the left. Greenwood is currently undroppable, and Ronaldo will play as a striker in pretty much every game.

I mean come on, do you really mean the RW was a bigger issue than midfield ? We cant use Pogba there optimally atm, and Mcfred is mediocre as best. Matic is past it and VDB will never play.

So you'd have paid £100m for DECLAN RICE(I repeat DECLAN RICE) over Jadon Sancho for £73m? What's the guarantee that West Ham would want a swap deal or that using Lingard would make it significantly cheaper? There's a reason why swaps are VERY rare in transfer windows. Going by your logic Chelsea could have used Zouma in a swap deal to get him. These other options were in the same boat as Rice of being "unsellable" or very hard to get our last business with Leicester shows Ndidi would have only been sold for a premium fee since he's a key player for Leicester with 3yrs on his deal and Brighton didn't need to sell Bissouma after banking £50m for White. The DM market wasn't as favorable for Utd as the ST, RW and CB market and if we let Sancho go to Liverpool/Chelsea and he did a Hazard you'd be the same person in a few years time lambasting Utd for not buying him when the chance was there
The only guarantee is Ronaldo playing as a ST here. Greenwood is in good form but once again we're THREE games in and he's still 19 his form may dip and it's a long season where rotation is necessary

 

[tomaldinho1]

United by a distance for me. We’ve genuinely added a WC CB and an RW who is truly elite level… no other team can really say they’ve hired two players of that calibre. Oh…and Ronaldo…

Yes people want a DM but you can’t buy half a team in a single window. We should be thrilled.

 

[redpatron]

Our lack of creativity on the wings was very evident in a lot of games last season, we needed a player like Sancho so I don't agree that he is a luxury signing. If he had signed for a top 4 rival and gone on to be a Hazard level player we would be furious that we didn't get him.

RW has been our biggest issue for almost 10 years, we haven't had a true wide winger since ADM left and even than we didn't use him properly. I swear you became a supporter this summer if you don't remember Valencia covering an entire side by himself kicking balls off peoples shins. We have too many strikers playing wing roles, its more evident when teams camp in the box and we don't have anyone with the ability to dribble in the box, attack a defender and create an opportunity with a foul or pass.

 

[0le]

PSG followed by Chelsea.

 

[Buster15]

Who had the best transfer window?

Mr Jones & Mr Lingard

Very good point. Have to say that I really don't understand keeping Jones, unless nobody wanted him. Which would not be a surprise.

 

[devilish]

Sancho, Varane and Ronaldo. It's not even debatable who had the best window.

Even without Ronaldo United killed it. Varane was a massive pick up. No other club brought in a player as good as him.

this

 

[devilish]

Who had the best transfer window?

Mr Jones & Mr Lingard

Jones will stick to his contract till the end. No one will ever give him anywhere near to the silly contract we gave him. Lingard is on us. You don't ask 30m for an average player with 1 left in his contract.

 

[Shipperley]

Utd and Chelsea are up there but I am quietly delighted with Palace’s window. We had far more to do than any other club and a tight budget to do it with, total spend was £60m. For that we got:

Guehi and Andersen as centre-backs. That’s a quality combination that has everything ’on paper’. They replaced Scott Dann and Mamadou Sakho who had become bit-part players and Gary Cahill whose legs have sadly gone. That’s a huge upgrade IMO when you consider what the 3 departing players contributed over the last season and what they’d offer going forwards.

Will Hughes and Conor Gallagher added to midfield. The major complaints about our midfield last season were a lack of energy and an inability to keep possession. Hughes is very tidy on the ball and looks to keep things moving and Gallagher is looking a brilliant signing already, bringing energy and also looking to get in to the box as often as he can. Outgoing player was James McCarthy who again contributed very little and was regularly injured.

Michael Olise for the wing - Young Championship POTY with 7 goals and 12 assists. Think he’ll go on to have an Eze type impact for us playing off the right. Had a release clause so paid just £8m for him which I think will be a bargain. Shame Andros went to Everton as I felt we could do with a more experienced option as well, but Ayew will have to cover that until January (and is still a good player on his day)

Odsonne Edouard - desperately needed another striker and with our budget we always have to take somewhat of a punt and can’t afford the finished article. There are a few question marks over him which is why he’s come to us but I think he immediately comes in as our best option and improves the XI. He replaced Connor Wickham and remarkably will be on the same salary, so that’s a huge win for us.

For all that we’ve got the average age down, added plenty of resale value and they’re on probably half of what the outgoing players were in wages; all of them will go in to the best XI. With the exception of Andros we also kept the experienced players we wanted to retain; Zaha, Milivojevic, McArthur, Benteke etc all stayed at the club and I like the mix of youth and experience now. Averaging £10m a player you’d be hard pressed to do a better job with that budget if you’re a club our size.

 

[Andrew7582]

RW has been our biggest issue for almost 10 years, we haven't had a true wide winger since ADM left and even than we didn't use him properly. I swear you became a supporter this summer if you don't remember Valencia covering an entire side by himself kicking balls off peoples shins. We have too many strikers playing wing roles, its more evident when teams camp in the box and we don't have anyone with the ability to dribble in the box, attack a defender and create an opportunity with a foul or pass.

I think you quoted the wrong person, I am happy with the Sancho signing

 

[BorisManUtd]

Very good point. Have to say that I really don't understand keeping Jones, unless nobody wanted him. Which would not be a surprise.

He's got a contract until 2023 so no club is paying transfer fee + wages, or even only wages with his injury record. The mistake was made back in 2019 giving him new contract, the idea probably was that we could get some money from his sale but it's still stupid decision giving him a new 4 year contract, just like with Pereira.

 

[Siorac]

Too much deadwood - can we keep them all happy

Why would we want to keep deadwood happy?

 

[UpWithRivers]

Why would we want to keep deadwood happy?

Because if we dont there will unrest in the camp. You think Lingard will be pushed to the reserves? Nope. Martial? Nope. Dalot? Mata? Bailly etc What are we going to do with all these players? Answer they will all get games. But we have too many players. Its going to be a nightmare fitting them all in

 

[Siorac]

Because if we dont there will unrest in the camp. You think Lingard will be pushed to the reserves? Nope. Martial? Nope. Dalot? Mata? Bailly etc What are we going to do with all these players? Answer they will all get games. But we have too many players. Its going to be a nightmare fitting them all in

They might get games or they might not. Unrest is bad if our best players are behind it. Fringe players being unhappy with being fringe players isn't much of a concern. Ronaldo, Bruno or Varane won't be unsettled because Bailly doesn't get enough minutes.

 

[SmithLogic]

Transfer fees are the sticker price but keep in mind their combined salaries are about 10 times that of Ben white. It's not an apples to apples comparison.

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[mitchmouse]

I think City very desperately need a CF. Managing to win the league last season with someone like Gundogan as their top goalscorer on a measly 13 goals was a complete outlier compared to previous league winning sides and not something they're likely to do two years back to back, especially in the face of this excellent Chelsea side. And even aside from goals, the lack of a #9 tells on the way they play. It's a very big weakness for them to overcome (again). With possibly little time left with Guardiola at the club, they need more if they want to win that elusive CL too.

Looking through City forums, they're also complaining about a second key weakness not being addressed in DM with Fernandinho another year older and Rodri's lack of mobility being an issue. And another smaller issue at LB also unaddressed.

We focus so much on our own our team we sometimes ignore the weaknesses of others. If we were going into this season depending on the likes of Ferran Torres for goals as much as they are then we'd be very vocal in our displeasure.

Perhaps they'd like to bid for Fred in january ... seriously, Cuty may not have an out and out no.9 but look how many goals they've scored already

 

[WeePat]

Utd and Chelsea are up there but I am quietly delighted with Palace’s window. We had far more to do than any other club and a tight budget to do it with, total spend was £60m. For that we got:

Guehi and Andersen as centre-backs. That’s a quality combination that has everything ’on paper’. They replaced Scott Dann and Mamadou Sakho who had become bit-part players and Gary Cahill whose legs have sadly gone. That’s a huge upgrade IMO when you consider what the 3 departing players contributed over the last season and what they’d offer going forwards.

Will Hughes and Conor Gallagher added to midfield. The major complaints about our midfield last season were a lack of energy and an inability to keep possession. Hughes is very tidy on the ball and looks to keep things moving and Gallagher is looking a brilliant signing already, bringing energy and also looking to get in to the box as often as he can. Outgoing player was James McCarthy who again contributed very little and was regularly injured.

Michael Olise for the wing - Young Championship POTY with 7 goals and 12 assists. Think he’ll go on to have an Eze type impact for us playing off the right. Had a release clause so paid just £8m for him which I think will be a bargain. Shame Andros went to Everton as I felt we could do with a more experienced option as well, but Ayew will have to cover that until January (and is still a good player on his day)

Odsonne Edouard - desperately needed another striker and with our budget we always have to take somewhat of a punt and can’t afford the finished article. There are a few question marks over him which is why he’s come to us but I think he immediately comes in as our best option and improves the XI. He replaced Connor Wickham and remarkably will be on the same salary, so that’s a huge win for us.

For all that we’ve got the average age down, added plenty of resale value and they’re on probably half of what the outgoing players were in wages; all of them will go in to the best XI. With the exception of Andros we also kept the experienced players we wanted to retain; Zaha, Milivojevic, McArthur, Benteke etc all stayed at the club and I like the mix of youth and experience now. Averaging £10m a player you’d be hard pressed to do a better job with that budget if you’re a club our size.

Swapping out Dann and Sakho with Guehi and Andersen changes the way the team plays entirely. Vieira is clearly trying to go a specific style of play. Palace definitely have had an excellent window and I'd expect them to have a great middle to end of the season once the team has gelled together.