Premier League 2023: transfer window winners
Another off season Premier League transfer window has slammed, sorry, SLAMMED shut. Let’s take a look at some of the winners of this edition of the transfer window.
If you prefer to be a little morose, feel free to take a look at the losers, here.
Brighton
Brighton are just so, so good at this, aren’t they.
Before we delve into this window, let’s take a look at Brighton’s recent past. Ben White, Dan Burn, Yves Bissouma, Anthony Knockaert, Leandro Trossard, Alexis Mac Allister, Moises Caicedo, Leo Ostigard, Robert Sanchez and Marc Cucurella. Those 10 players were obtained for a cumulative £63.7 million; they were sold for £ 343.5 million. That is witchcraft.
In this window, Brighton have only gone and done it again. They’ve picked up Joao Pedro for a club record £30 million with Carlos Baleba costing almost as much. Despite the unfamiliar spending, these two are quality. Bart Verbuggen and Igor could prove to be snips.
The Seagulls, though, saved their best trick for last, loaning Barcelona’s Ansu Fati – only one of the most precocious talents in the world – on deadline day.
It feels like Brighton have an almost permanent seat at the winners table.
Aston Villa
Remember when Villa spaffed ludicrous amounts of money on Philippe Coutinho, Leander Dendoncker, Bouboucar Kamara and Diego Carlos? Heady days indeed. Not successful, but heady.
Now, with a real manager in charge, the Villans have spent to a similar level, though with far more prudence. Moussa Diaby, Pau Torres and Youri Tielemans are all quality players sighed to play in positions of need. Loaning Clement Lenglet and Nicolo Zaniolo in just adds to an excellent haul.
Unai Emery also bit the bullet on a pair of quality academy graduates in Cameron Archer and Jaden Philogene. Neither had a realistic chance of breaking into the first team at this point in Aston Villa’s cycle, so both were sold with best wishes.
Newcastle United
Whilst they lost long time talisman Allan Saint-Maximan to the lure of the Saudi Riyad, the Saudi owned club did reinvest money that was already theirs really quite well.
He looks like Adam Driver cosplaying as an emo kid, but Sandro Tonali is a serious footballer. Harvey Barnes is a gem of a player who fills a very definite creative need for the Magpies. They also picked up a pair of highly sought after teens in Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento. Splendid business all around.
Newcastle completed a fantastic windows work by offloading Chris Wood for £15 million and Karl Darlow for something more than a half digested donut. Winners for transfers going in; winners for transfers going out.
Sheffield United
Just a few weeks ago, Sheffield United were anything but transfer winners. The Blades were so drastically underprepared for the opening round of the Premier League season that they surrendered an astonishing 24 shots to a goal-shy mid table staple in Crystal Palace. The weeks between that most worrying opener and the end of the window have been very encouraging for the red half of Sheffield.
Auston Trusty and Luke Thomas strengthen the defense and Cameron Archer is precisely the sort of pedigreed young striker that every promoted club should be taking a chance on.
When you throw in the additions of the creative Dutch midfielder Gustavo Hamer and a readymade shield for Hamer in Vini Souza it’s clear that the Blades have strengthened to a point where they may make a few doom mongers look very silly indeed.
Harry Kane
He’s finally going to get his hands on a shiny tin pot. Good for you, Harry. Of course, let’s not forget that there is significant pressure around Kane after his move to Bayern Munich.
Kane is the like-for-like replacement for Polish goal machine Robert Lewandowski, whom Bayern have certainly missed since his move to Barcelona. With the Bundesliga a given, Kane and his goals will be expected to lead the Bavarians back to Champions League glory, a competition in which Kane has relatively little history.
Still, this is the chance to sit at the very top table that Kane has craved for many years. He’s certainly earned it.
Michael Edwards
Competency is harder than it looks. Liverpool really miss him.
