The Premier League’s January transfer window didn’t wait for Deadline Day to deliver its biggest moments.
Manchester City acted early and insured their favorites’ status, Bournemouth and Brighton had a game plan for their window and executed it.
MORE —Deadline Day as it happened | All completed January moves in the PL
It wasn’t all early action, as Palace made a flurry of late moves to make the most of their Marc Guehi money, And there’s also the lack of late moves for Liverpool, who are betting on their beleaguered back line.
Let’s check out some winners and losers from January.
Partial winner: Bournemouth
It’s never good to lose a player like Antoine Semenyo, but the commitment shown by the player in sticking with the club into January is almost as impressive as the way the club reacted to his exit.
It’s clear they had a plan and acted on it, signing Rayan from Vasco da Gama in the hopes of having a pair of 19-year-old stars whose price tags will rise in a similar fashion to Semenyo. Alex Toth was also a sneaky good purchase.
The Cherries had an ice-cold run earlier this season but their place on the table shouldn’t be a surprise considering how many defenders they had to sell this summer — Dean Huijsen, Illia Zabarnyi, and Milos Kerkez are an incredible trio for a team like Bournemouth to have, let alone lose — and how many influential players are out for a good period of time.
Winner: Dwight McNeil, Evann Guessand, and (maybe) Crystal Palace
David Moyes didn’t have much time for Dwight McNeil this season even after Jack Grealish was injured, and that could now be a huge boon for Crystal Palace.
The attack-short Eagles get a man who finished fifth in expected assists/90 minutes during last season’s Premier League, trailing only Bukayo Saka, Kevin De Bruyne, Savinho, and James Maddison. He dialed up four goals and eight assists in 21 appearances including a goal and three assists under Moyes watch upon return from a long knee injury.
Moyes used McNeil just twice for 23 minutes in the season’s first nine weeks and initial rumors that he’d reunite with Nottingham Forest made sense as Sean Dyche handed him his breakthrough at Burnley. But this move is a clear pathway to impactful minutes right away and is a win for the player and Oliver Glasner.
Glasner is leaving and Guehi is gone. Both of those things sting. But Mateta’s exit failing to go through joins the loan moves for McNeil and Evann Guessand plus the purchases of Brennan Johnson and Jorgen Strand Larsen in giving a beleaguered group depth and hope of winning the Conference League and finding a new attacking chemistry for next season.
McNeil drills Everton 2-0 in front of Ipswich Town
Dwight McNeil strikes the ball with some venom behind it as it swerves into the corner of the goal to give the Toffees a 2-0 lead over the Tractor Boys at Goodison Park.
Loser: Liverpool
The Reds (probably) landed a big-ticket defender but he’s not coming until the summer and he’s cost a heck of a lot more than England center back Marc Guehi. Liverpool failed to sign Guehi in the summer — perhaps pre-occupied with Alexander Isak — and now they’ve let a domestic starter go to their rivals.
Now the Reds will spend the next few months trying to win three competitions with Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, and... whoever’s big, healthy, and/or has a defensive bone in their body. Van Dijk, 34, is already over 3,000 minutes played this season across all competitions and has a chance to set a personal record for time on the pitch (Again, he’s 34). Giovanni Leoni remains out, Joe Gomez won’t be back for a bit, and midfielder Wataru Endo is getting minutes there at the moment.
The club’s inability to get Kostas Tsimikas back from his loan to AS Roma also meant they could bring in a little bit of cash for Andy Robertson. The Reds have enough juice to win anyway, but it seems more likely they’ll look back on this year’s transfer activity with a series of sighs.
Winner: Manchester City
Marc Guehi’s looked fantastic in his early days for City, at least in all the moments that don’t include forwards kicking through his calf to get to the ball.
City also landed Antoine Semenyo, a perfect fit for the side and a huge game-planning headache for the opposition as his relentless work rate and physical prowess ask so much of a side also contending with Erling Haaland.
The club also cashed in on Oscar Bobb to Fulham for a good fee that recalls when Liverpool could sell their excess youth for an inflated fee just because of the name tag of the club (Bobb could still be fantastic, but he wasn’t getting near the team).
Now Pep Guardiola can get more time with the senior team for Sverre Nypan and Max Alleyne after they returned from Championship loans. And he’ll be able roll out a back line of Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Guehi, plus one — health-willing — by the arrival of the season’s most-pivotal clashes.
Winner: Brighton & Hove Albion
I’ll never forget sitting with a group of Brighton supporters in Philadelphia during the Summer Series a few years ago as I lamented what they might be losing with Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister, and Robert Sanchez among the big names set to skip town that summer.
“Don’t worry, Tony Bloom’s got this.”
There was so much faith in the way the Seagulls have run their coach and player personnel, and the club have again made some smart tweaks to the team. Matt O’Riley returning after Marseille exited the Champions League is smart and the reunion with Pascal Gross says a lot about the club.
Gross gives Brighton 1-0 lead over Everton
Pascal Gross finds the back of the net to score his first goal for Brighton since returning to the club from Borussia Dortmund earlier this month.