Which Premeir League clubs did the best business in the winter transfer window? Who struggled to rejuvenate their squads?
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Below we take a look at the winners and losers from across the Premier League.
Winners
Aston Villa
Selling Jhon Duran for a huge amount of money and adding Donyell Malen, Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio is pretty incredible business. The latter two are on loan but this has still been a really good window for Villa who have strengthened their attack and they kept hold of Ollie Watkins too. Unai Emery has been backed and Villa are serious about sticking around among the Premier League’s elite. Brilliant window.
Manchester City
Well, they have finally signed a new central midfielder in Nico Gonzalez, even though it was late in the window, and he will help them short-term as a holder but long-term as a No. 8. Adding Omar Marmoush was a huge coup, while two young defenders in Khusanov and Reis will take time to settle in but no doubt we will see them playing regularly in the near future. City spent big and they needed to after a quiet summer.
Tottenham Hotspur
In the end Spurs did what they had to do. Daniel Levy was under serious pressure to do some business and getting in Kinsky, Danso and Tel strengthens Spurs’ injury-ravaged squad considerably for the rest of the season. Ange Postecoglou still needs plenty of top quality additions in the summer, but Spurs have stuck to their aim of bringing in talented young players who Ange can slot into his exciting group.
Ipswich Town
It may not be enough to keep them up but Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich certainly had a go in the winter window. Enciso and Philogene will start in attack and are a big upgrade, while Godfrey strengthens their squad and new goalkeeper Alex Palmer will come straight in and start. The Tractor Boys need to get support to Liam Delap and after spending big in the summer they didn’t shy away from making moves again over the last month. Will it be enough? Time will tell but McKenna is getting the maximum out of the current squad he has and the club have backed him for one big push to try and stay up.
Losers
Arsenal
It’s tough to call them losers when they’re second in the Premier League table and into the Champions League last 16, but Arsenal clearly needed an extra attacking option to help them with a big final push for trophies this season. And they didn’t get a deal over the line. Ollie Watkins is a great fit and you can see Arsenal going back in for him in the summer. Surely an upgrade on some of their other attacking options was attainable, even on a short-term basis? Arsenal have now spent the last five or six transfer windows searching for an elite center forward and haven’t found anybody. It’s bizarre.
Bournemouth
Andoni Iraola has done a phenomenal job with the Cherries and their injury issues have been awful in recent weeks, with both of their strikers (Enes Unal and Evanilson) going down for the rest of the season. Yes, Ouattara and Kluivert have filled in brilliantly with recent hat tricks but that isn’t sustainable for the rest of the season. Bournemouth really needed to bring in a forward on loan but couldn’t get it over the line. That could be the difference between them being in Europe or not.
Manchester United
Yes United have financial restrictions but their transfer window was a mess. Patrick Dorgu looks a talent and will give them better balance at left wing-back, but they badly needed a forward to come in. Marcus Rashford was shipped out on loan, Rasmus Hojlund isn’t scoring regularly and you can’t rely on Amad Diallo and Bruno Fernandes to keep popping up with the goods late on. Ruben Amorim’s overhaul of United’s squad is obviously a long-term project but United failed to help him out as he tries to at least bring Europa League success to put some gloss on a truly woeful season. A major squad rebuild is coming up this summer.
Leicester City
Another club who clearly have financial restrictions and it is pretty clear so Ruud van Nistelrooy knew what he was getting into when he took over a few months ago. Still, only adding a back-up right back option when you’ve somehow dragged yourself to within touching distance of safety isn’t enough. Leicester needed more help at center back and in midfield and it could end up costing them their Premier League status.
Rounding up the rest
There were so many teams who are tough to judge because they did very little business and that was mostly because they’re in a great spot and managed their squads well last summer. Chelsea, Liverpool, Fulham, Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and Brighton are all in that category as only an incredible deal becomingly suddenly available was going to spark them into making a move late on. Southampton and Wolves made a couple of decent moves, as the former try to salvage some respectability from the season and the latter aim to stay up. For West Ham, adding Evan Ferguson on loan was smart and bringing back Ward-Prowse was savvy. Everton would have liked to do more business but David Moyes admitted they’re still hampered by PSR restrictions in this window, but it should be very different for them in the summer. Newcastle also fit into that category and for them it was all about keeping Isak, much like keeping Mbeumo and Wissa was so important to Brentford.
