Born in the south east of Ireland, Simon put his life-long love of football to good use when he started a successful independent blog in 2010. That opened up an alternative route to a career in journalism, and having had work published across a number of sites and publications, Simon joined the staff at Spotlight Sports Group in 2018.
After a hectic final day crammed to bursting with last minute deals, agreements and near misses, the 2019 Premier League summer transfer window slammed shut at 5pm on Thursday,
All 20 of the Premier League clubs did transfer business of some description during the summer window, though some had considerably more successful recruitment drives than others.
With contract ink still drying, fax machines still warm and the wave social media hysteria starting to recede, we thought it was a good time to asses just how well (or poorly) top flight clubs performed in the summer market.
Check out our list of the Premier League transfer window’s biggest winners and losers below:
Biggest Winners
Tottenham Hotspur
Last season’s beaten Champions League finalists spent just over £100m on new recruits this summer, while simultaneously retaining all of their best players.
Spurs secured the signature of in-demand Lyon midfielder Tanguy Ndombele ahead of a long list of competitors for a club record £54m fee early in the summer, while exciting prospect Jack Clarke was also wrangled from Leeds.
Tottenham then embarked on a major Deadline Day spree to acquire Giovani Lo Celso from Real Betis and Ryan Sessegnon from Fulham, and even though their late move to sign Juventus’ star Paulo Dybala eventually fell through, Mauricio Pochettino would have been incredibly pleased with his club’s summer business.
To top it off, Spurs even managed to recoup around £30m in sales by offloading Kieran Tripper to Atletico Madrid and Vincent Janssen to Mexican outfit Monterrey.
Tottenham start the new Premier League campaign with a home game against Aston Villa. Click here to read our Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa predictions and betting tips in our match preview!
Manchester City
The Premier League champions once again proved to be savvy market navigators this summer, strengthening key positions of their team with little fuss or commotion.
Spanish holding midfielder Rodri, seen as a long-term successor to the ageing Fernandinho, was prised from Atletico Madrid for approximately £63m, while fullback pair Angelino and Joao Cancelo arrived from PSV and Juventus respectively for a combined £68m.
The Citizens also managed to raise around £60m through the sales of fringe players, including Danilo, Fabian Delph, Douglas Luiz, Manu Garcia and Pablo Mari, leaving their squad looking contoured, filled with quality, and ready for another assault on football’s major honours.
It interesting to note, that City have now spent just under £200m on fullbacks alone since Pep Guardiola arrived at the club in 2016.
The champions kick off their title defence with a trip to play West Ham. Click here to view our West Ham vs Manchester City predictions and betting tips in our expert match preview!
Bournemouth
Ahead of the opening of the 2019 summer transfer window, Cherries supporters understandably feared losing many of their best players to the division’s leading lights.
However, the major Vitality Stadium exodus predicted by numerous media outlets never materialized, and at the close of business yesterday, Callum Wilson, Ryan Fraser, David Brooks and Nathan Ake were all still Bournemouth players.
In terms of incomings, there was more good news for Eddie Howe. Young, highly-rated fullback pair Lloyd Kelly and Jack Stacey were signed from Bristol City and Luton, while Philip Billing, one of the few Huddersfield players to shine last season, arrived from the recently relegated Terriers.
Bournemouth also added pace and creativity to their wide positions by completing deals for Arnaut Danjuma and Harry Wilson, who signed on a permanent and temporary basis from Club Brugge and Liverpool respectively.
The cherry on top saw Bournemouth offset over half their summer spend by selling surplus to requirements pair, Tyrone Mings and Lys Mousset, to league new boys Aston Villa and Sheffield United for a combined £30m.
Bournemouth host Mousset and the Blades on match day one of the 2019/20 Premier League season – click the link to see our Bournemouth vs Sheffield United predictions in our match preview.
Biggest Losers
Manchester United
Another year, another summer of transfer market dithering for Manchester United.
After Man Utd’s harrowing collapse at the end of last season, the club let loose their annual post-failure bluster promising swift and decisive action in the transfer window.
Despite various media briefings about imminent sweeping changes and meaty war chests, United shut up shop having strengthened one, and weakened the other two departments of their team.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire were much needed, if insanely expensive defensive reinforcements, however, the exits of Ander Herrera and Romelu Lukaku leaves United looking lighter in midfield and attack than they did last season.
Last minute, failed scrambles to sign Christian Eriksen, Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic once again highlighted the complete lack of forward planning at United, leaving Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad looking glaringly short on quality and depth at the business end of the pitch.
Man Utd will hope to start the season in positive fashion against Chelsea on Sunday. Click the link to read our Manchester United vs Chelsea predictions and betting tips in our match preview.
Liverpool
European champions and Premier League runners up Liverpool were left rooted to the spot this summer, watching on from afar as the rest of the division engaged in a frenetic footballing arms race.
Of course, before the window opened, Liverpool’s need to strengthen was nowhere near as stark as most of their rivals, in fact, some would argue that they didn’t need to strengthen at all.
Yet, their inability to identify and add a single player of first team significance could come back to bite them.
Youngsters Sepp van den Berg and Harvey Elliot were signed with an eye on the future, while Adrian was signed on a free transfer as back-up for Alisson, but beyond that, the Anfield HR department had an easy summer.
It seems the rumours and whispers suggesting that the Liverpool coffers were dry after their huge outlay in 2018 might not be entirely without basis.
Liverpool will mount their latest title charge with an opener against Norwich on Friday evening. Read our Liverpool vs Norwich predictions and betting tips in our match preview here.
Chelsea
While Liverpool’s lack of transfer action was completely self-imposed, Chelsea spent the summer under FIFA’s thumb after the ban promulgated on the Blues by football’s governing body for the infringement of rules related to the signing of minors.
To make matters worse, the club lost their best player and talisman Eden Hazard to Real Madrid, and denied the chance to replace their match-winning superstar, Chelsea suddenly look drastically short of star quality in the final third.
Experienced centre-half David Luiz also forced a move away from the club on Deadline Day, moving across London to rivals Arsenal for £8m, leaving Chelsea with another major personnel problem to deal with.
USA starlet Christian Pulisic, who was officially signed in January, is Chelsea’s only new face, though the big-money Dortmund acquisition comes off the back of an extremely disappointing season in Germany.
New Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has already expressed his desire to put his faith in young players with potential, though the Blues’ legend has little choice with club’s hands and purse strings tied in knots.
Make sure to check out our Premier League predictions, betting tips and match previews for the rest of this weekend’s action here!
