Is your Premier League team in better shape for the 2024-25 season than it finished its previous campaign?
Almost al of the 20 clubs can at least claim that’s the case following a wild transfer deadline day to cap off a summer of spending that was less than expected as teams were likely cognizant of the PSR drama that cost Everton and Nottingham Forest points last season and hangs over a few clubs entering this one.
[ MORE: Full list of summer transfers for all 20 Premier League clubs ]
Key word: Almost.
So who are the biggest winners and losers? Our Joe Prince-Wright graded all 20 of their summers, but we’ve got a special spotlight in store for a select group of teams.
Winner: Arsenal
Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino are excellent signings for improvement and depth, respectively, but what put the window over the top was aided by a rival across town. A Premier League title hopeful being able to sign a hungry, trophy collector like Raheem Sterling on loan works on a couple of levels. For one thing, he’s a different sort of winger to volume shooter Leandro Trossard and still-green playmaker Gabriel Martinelli. More important, however, is his experience under boss Mikel Arteta — adapting shouldn’t take long — and the experience he’s had both pushing for a Premier League title and then winning one (and then another, and another). Arsenal got much better this summer, and got good money for a number of players who weren’t going to cut it on a title fighter.
The best is yet to come.
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) August 31, 2024
Welcome to north London, Raheem Sterling ✨ pic.twitter.com/K2YhkSepAp
Loser: Newcastle United
This wasn’t a terrible window in a vacuum but it was awful given the state of the division and the way the final few weeks passed without an addition at center back. Newcastle aims to be a Champions League club and is one of the few clubs of extreme means without European fixture congestion this season. It is excellent that they held onto Alexander Isak and Bruno Guimaraes, but the failed pursuit of Marc Guehi was almost comically poor. The Magpies took too long to meet Palace’s too-big asking price. Then once Palace’s bluff was called, Newcastle’s fans watched players near Guehi’s caliber sold for much cheaper fees... including one to Palace in Maxence Lacroix and another to West Ham in the loan of Jean-Clair Todibo from Nice. The Lloyd Kelly signing was nice after the Magpies were spurned by Tosin Adarabioyo, but otherwise yawn.
Winner: Manchester United
First of all, the exits. Yes, it’s not fun that Scott McTominay had to leave for PSR reasons, but so many other bad vibes or ugly memories skipped town: Donny van de Beek, Mason Greenwood, and Jadon Sancho for different reasons plus the natural declines of Raphael Varane and Anthony Martial. Now take into account the players who arrive to play for Erik ten Hag, and you sense a club that is truly backing its boss on their own terms. Matthijs De Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui were stars for Ten Hag at Ajax and will be hungry to retake elite status. Joshua Zirkzee is a Premier League skill set waiting to happen, and Manuel Ugarte gives him a younger Casemiro who can learn from... Casemiro. The 23-year-old Ugarte has a very similar statistical set to what we saw from Casemiro in his prime at Real Madrid.
Loser: Ipswich Town
This, seemingly, is not the fault of the Tractor Boys. Adding Dara O’Shea, Kalvin Phillips, Sammie Szmodics, Arijanet Muric, and others works for the club and Ipswich joined Southampton in adding signficant safety to their safety pushes. But it was the fashion in which two late moves both fell apart and subsequently improved the hopes of other perceived bottom-half sides that stings deeply. Reiss Nelson and Armando Broja looked set for Portman Road, but Fulham and Everton wound up making the respective moves (David Ornstein reported that Ipswich balked at the terms due to Broja’s injury issue). It doesn’t sabotage their season, but it’s a sour taste after two Premier League losses to big-name monsters and a League Cup upset. Again, their summer could turn out as a smash hit, but right now the ending is leaving some questions.