As the dust settles on a chaotic summer transfer window full of striking strikers, broken “promises”, arguing transfer experts, bargain buys, rip-offs, and more smoke and mirrors than a 1960s barber shop, some clear Winners and Losers have emerged from the wreckage.
Here goes…
Winners
Liverpool
Liverpool breaking two British transfer records within one transfer window was a stunning power play from the Premier League champions – and shows the genius in having one quiet summer transfer window.
The combination of Liverpool spending only £10m on Federico Chiesa last summer – and winning the league – propelled their spending power to stratospheric levels, with their transfer outlay this year totalling more than £400,000 – a new record for a single window.
If it was a close-run thing who won the transfer window, Liverpool tipped the scales in their favour by securing the mega deadline-day signing of Alexander Isak.
It is, surely, now Liverpool’s Premier League title to lose.
Bournemouth
It could have been disaster for Bournemouth when Europe’s leading sides started coming for their defence, dismantling it a player at a time.
But they managed to rake in a total of £137m for Milos Kerkez (£40m to Liverpool), Dean Huijsen (£50m to Real Madrid) and Illia Zabarnyi (£57m to Paris Saint-Germain) and still, somehow, look like a team capable of doing well this season.
Full credit to manager Andoni Iraola, who you suspect will be targeted by Champions League sides soon.
Chelsea
Is Chelsea’s crazy scattergun transfer system finally… starting to make sense?
Fill their squad to the permitted brim with young players on long contracts. Maximise loans. Keep buying and selling and wheeling and dealing and ducking and diving.
And – voila: this summer they’ve had a money-printing machine that has pumped out well over £250m from players they don’t need.
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 30: Alejandro Garnacho of Chelsea after the Premier League match between Chelsea and Fulham at Stamford Bridge on August 30, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Crystal Pix/MB Media/Getty Images)
Garnacho looks like a bargain at £40m (Photo: Getty)
And they have brought in Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens, Estevao and Liam Delap – all aged 23 or under – who are hitting the ground running.
Signing Alejandro Garnacho for £40m appears a bargain too.
Sunderland
At time of writing, Sunderland will be very happy with their circumstances.
After gaining a first promotion to the Premier League, via the play-offs, in almost a decade, they went all guns blazing into the summer.
They have far outspent their fellow promoted clubs, Burnley and Leeds United, and have, quite possibly, positioned themselves to be the most likely to survive.
That said, by the end of the season, if they’re relegated, they will, quite literally, slide into the losers section. But by then you will have completely forgotten about reading this.
Evangelos Marinakis
Following a marvellous campaign that ended with qualification for Europe, Tottenham tried to poach Nottingham Forest’s best player after miraculously discovering a confidential £60m release clause in his contract.
Marinakis, the firebrand Forest owner, went nuclear and threatened to take legal action.
MONACO, MONACO - AUGUST 29: Evangelos Marinakis, Greek Businessman and Owner of Nottingham Forest, interacts with guests prior to the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase Draw at Grimaldi Forum on August 29, 2025 in Monaco, Monaco. (Photo by Francesco Scaccianoce - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Evangelos Marinakis has helped Nottingham Forest into Europe (Photo: Getty)
Spurs backed down. Morgan Gibbs-White signed a new contract.
Nobody at Forest ever spoke of the incident again.
Isak’s agents
Counting their enormous slice of a £125m pie after working all summer to extricate Alexander Isak from Newcastle. I think we can all agree it is richly deserved for all their hard work.
Losers
Brentford
Brentford have created, via the genius mind of owner Matthew Benham, one of the most sophisticated and successful models seen in football. But after years of having their best talent filleted, carefully controlling the flow of players out and in, can they survive finally having their head chopped off?
Losing head coach Thomas Frank to Spurs and key forwards Bryan Mbuemo and Yoane Wissa to Manchester United and Newcastle – the pair with a combined 39 Premier League goals last season – could prove a step too far.
It would be a great shame.
Newcastle
I ummed and ahhed about including Newcastle in the winners section. They have, after all, netted a British-record fee of £125m for Isak – a £62m profit on a player they signed three years ago.
However, the negatives outweigh the positives.
They threw big money – around £65m – at 23-year-old Nick Woltemade. It could work out, but there’s no guarantee he becomes the next Isak.
They replaced Isak by paying £55m for Wissa, but he turns 29 this week and it smacks of a desperate overpayment.
LEEDS, ENGLAND - AUGUST 30: Nick Woltemade of Newcastle United pictured in the crowd during the Premier League match between Leeds United and Newcastle United at Elland Road on August 30, 2025 in Leeds, England. (Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
Woltemade has big shoes to fill (Photo: Getty)
Even worse than the slightly panicked buys is the reputational damage caused by the Isak saga.
Rather than get the Isak business sorted earlier in the summer, or call Isak’s bluff, after he repeatedly insisted he would refuse to play after the transfer window closed, Newcastle’s Saudi owners caved.
Isak had three years remaining on his contract. Now every player will know if they follow the Isak playbook, they’ll get what they want. If Woltemade gets good, will he just down tools too?
Newcastle desperately need a director of football, after losing the highly rated Paul Mitchell, to get a grip on everything.
Mid-table Premier League clubs
The trend of Big Six clubs buying players from Premier League clubs beneath them intensified this summer – and looks set to grow.
Such is the strength of the top flight, it is now proving more worthwhile to buy players from mid-table and below than buying from the top leagues abroad.
It will make it harder than ever to climb.
This isn’t a good thing.
Alexander Isak
Sure, he got his move to Liverpool in the end. But he torched a wonderful legacy at Newcastle, happy to disrupt an entire football club for his own selfish motives.
Anyone who does that is, in my book, a complete loser.