Premier League clubs spent big in the summer transfer window, but some were more successful than others
The 2026 summer transfer window did not disappoint, providing months of intrigue and speculation as Premier League clubs splashed the cash, pulled off daring hijacks over their rivals and brought a host of exciting new talent into the world’s strongest football league. Player trading is now over until January, and the window debriefs are well under way.
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Highlights of the summer window including Chelsea storming ahead of their London rivals to snatch Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers for a whopping £117m, Spurs’ all-Premier League assault on the division where they hoovered up £330m worth of talent, and Liverpool finally getting a big-name winger in by capturing £123m PSG gem Bradley Barcola.
It’s not all about the big bucks, however, with plenty of clubs managing to bag themselves some absolute bargains. Brentford already look to have captured one of the signings of the season in all-action midfielder Mamadou Sangare, while Leeds United managed to bring in goal and assist machine Harry Wilson without spending a penny, once he was released by Fulham.
While many clubs around the division will have ended the window with slaps on the back and perhaps a celebratory nip or two from the boardroom decanter, plenty of others will have been left battling with regret and fear, having failed to sign their top targets and left with no choice but to soldier on with a ragged squad until the new year. These are the five clubs we believe had the worst 2026 summer transfer windows.
Who had the worst 2026 summer transfer window in the Premier League?
Newcastle United took a serious gamble in the summer transfer windowplaceholder image
Newcastle United took a serious gamble in the summer transfer window | Getty Images
Where else to begin but Everton? Manager David Moyes was crying out for a right-back all summer, and somehow ended up with a panic-bought, £5m Ainsley Maitland-Niles on Deadline Day. They also failed to bring in a new left-back, and somehow only have one striker to last them until January, after an absolute farce involving Monaco’s Folarin Balogun played out on September 1st.
The Toffees also lost Iliman Ndiaye, having failed to tie him down to a new contract, allowing Manchester City to sweettalk him into a £65m move, which is surely a good £10m under what he’s actually worth. The arrival of Jack Grealish was an exciting one, and bringing in Hayden Hackney wasn’t bad business either, but overall the window can only be seen as a total let-down.
Over in the West Midlands, it was also a pretty dire window for Aston Villa. They had the entire spine of their side forcibly spatchcocked, leaving Unai Emery with the unenviable task of stitching together a real Frankenstein’s monster of a side ahead of the new season. That’s not to say the new signings aren’t any good - but it’s so much change in such a short space of time.
What’s perhaps the most galling is how the sales have strengthened their direct competitors significantly. Man United need a new midfielder? Boom, have Youri Tielemans. A new goalkeeper is it, Chelsea? Why, take Emi Martinez. A serious centre-back injury has befallen you, Arsenal? Please, avail yourself of Ezri Konsa. No, no, we must insist.
The icing on the cake, however, was star striker Ollie Watkins deciding to, in effect, finish his career at the age of 30 by going to play in the Saudi Pro League - a division that Opta rank 39th in their table of the world’s strongest leagues, behind such formidable powerhouses as Peru’s Liga 1, the Cypriot Division 1, and the second tier of German football.
Newcastle United had a similarly tumultuous summer of upheaval - they lost manager Eddie Howe in the middle of pre-season, and saw key players in Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes all snapped up, with the latter pair going directly to Premier League rivals. On top of that, they saw two major transfers hijacked at the last minute in Victor Munoz and Johan Manzambi, and were brutally turned down by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
The incomings are intriguing, however, with the Magpies sticking firmly to their transfer strategy of signing almost exclusively promising young talent with little to no Premier League experience. That ‘philosophy’ ended in complete disaster for Chelsea, but it’s too early to tell whether Newcastle’s young team will experience a similar fate.
Fulham and Crystal Palace among other struggling clubs
Fulham boss Alvaro Arbeloa had a considerable say in the club's summer recruitment planplaceholder image
Fulham boss Alvaro Arbeloa had a considerable say in the club's summer recruitment plan | Getty Images
In modern football, it’s rare that you get to see football managers get to play, well, Football Manager, and have total control over who their club buys and sells over the course of a transfer window. Incoming boss Alvaro Arbeloa looks to have bucked that trend, scooping no fewer than four players from his former club Real Madrid, the oldest of which is just 22.
The ex-Liverpool player spent time managing the Spanish giants’ youth side as well as having an interim spell in the top job, so he knows the youngsters well, but building a Premier League side around them is an extraordinarily bold gamble. It’s too early to be talking about relegation candidates, but the relative weakness of the Cottagers’ squad among their top tier rivals is a real cause for concern.
An hour and eighteen minutes away by bus, tube and a breathless canter past the BRIT School, Crystal Palace didn’t have the best of summer windows either. It wasn’t a disaster by any means, but losing both Maxence Lacroix and Daniel Munoz - again, to Premier League rivals - was a serious blow, and the incomings weren’t really of the standard you’d expect for a club playing in the Europa League this season.
They also get marked down for a truly disastrous bit of Deadline Day blundering, which saw them engage in a mini transfer hijack saga involving multiple private jets, mystery medicals and demonstrably inaccurate player sightings throughout the course of the day. Sunderland ultimately signed Malick Fofana, and Palace ended up looking like absolute clowns. Well, everyone involved did - perhaps apart from the player’s agent, who may well now be fanning themself with a thick wad of cash as they pour Champagne on their breakfast cereal.
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