A summer spending spree like no other in the English Premier League – Who are the winners and losers?

What happens when the English Premier League has six Champions League places, the majority of teams are not facing the challenges of profit and sustainability rules (PSR), and broadcasting and commercial deals are reaching new heights?

A summer transfer window the likes of which we have never seen before.

Premier League clubs

spent a total of over £3 billion (S$5.17 billion)

in a summer window that closed on Sept 1 with a flurry of activity that kept fans glued to their screens even beyond the deadline.

This smashed the previous window record of £2.36 billion in 2023, and saw Premier League clubs spend more than Germany’s Bundesliga, Spain’s La Liga, France’s Ligue 1 and Italy’s Serie A clubs combined.

There will be under-the-radar deals that have outsized impacts and big deals that flop, but as always, that does not stop us from hazarding a guess at the winners and losers of this mega window.

The winners:

Premier League fans

They get to see more of Europe’s most exciting talent, including Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Xavi Simons, Viktor Gyokeres, Benjamin Sesko, Randal Kolo Muani, Rayan Cherki, Nick Woltemade, Martin Zubimendi, Tijjani Reijnders, and Jeremie Frimpong. Once again, the Premier League has strengthened its position as the league to watch.

Player power

Some go on strike (see Yoane Wissa, Alexander Isak and Gyokeres), others played nice and waited (Eberechi Eze, Alejandro Garnacho), but nearly always at the end of the day, the players hold the power to get the move that they want.

The strong get stronger

Liverpool made all three of the three costliest transfers in Europe (Isak, Wirtz and Ekitike) and set a new single window British spending record, Chelsea continued their spending splurge and Arsenal brought in eight new first-team players. Further down the table, Nottingham Forest were the other big spenders as they aim to build on their recent success and challenge in Europe.

Players looking for starts in a World Cup year

Jack Grealish (Everton) has already hit the ground running, Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott (Aston Villa) got the moves they needed and Marcus Rashford landed a dream move to Barcelona. But another England international, Kobbie Mainoo, finds himself still in no man’s land at Manchester United.

The losers:

Wrong end of the food chain

When the music stopped, some clubs were left clearly worse off than at the start of the window. Brentford lost their manager and several star players including Wissa, Bryan Mbeumo and Christian Norgaard, West Ham United do not seem to have strengthened enough to avoid a relegation fight again, Crystal Palace lost their Europa League battle and their prized asset Eze, and Wolverhampton Wanderers look like they will have a long season ahead.

Villa and Newcastle struggle to close deals

Two big clubs playing European football found themselves struggling to close deals they wanted due to finances. Villa, having recently been fined by Uefa, had to sell home-grown star Jacob Ramsey and mostly use loans as they seek to recover from a poor start to the season. Newcastle United missed out on several targets to other English clubs but managed to

hold firm on their price for Isak

, which allowed them to try to replace him.

Players who didn’t get the move they wanted

It looked at various times like Emiliano Martinez (Villa) would end up at United, Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman would end up in the England, Savinho would nudge his way out of Manchester City, and Wolves’ Jorgen Strand Larsen would end up at Newcastle. And most stunningly, Palace’s Marc Guehi’s last-minute deal to Liverpool fell through after the deadline had passed. All find themselves ending the window where they started it, but they are also important enough to their clubs that surely differences will be forgiven… until the next window anyway.

The jury’s out on:

Manchester United

Faced with overhauling a team that woefully underperformed last season, the Red Devils chose to focus all their efforts on a new three-pronged attack of Matheus Cunha, Mbeumo and Sesko. Late in the window, they finally gave up on Andre Onana to put their faith in Senne Lammens, a 23-year-old goalkeeper who has around 50 appearances in the Belgian top flight. Fans were crying out for new midfielders, but will the new forward line be enough to turn the tide?

Managers under scrutiny

United’s Ruben Amorim is one manager under pressure after finishing last season at the wrong end of the table. Graham Potter at West Ham is another who may not last the season. But other managers find themselves under scrutiny for very different reasons. Mikel Arteta faces accusations of being too negative, given the talent at his disposal and having committed the cardinal sin of finishing runners-up yet again. Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola may find his legacy in question if he cannot restore City to a real title-challenging force.

Bournemouth

Having lost nearly their entire backline, Bournemouth looked under threat on paper, but they have started the season well and kept hold of their talisman in Antoine Semenyo. But if United lose faith in Amorim, expect Andoni Iraola to be high on their list, and then anything could happen to the Cherries.