Barcola Guimaraes Jackson
Bradley Barcola, Bruno Guimarães and Nicolas Jackson all made big summer moves.
Another break from Premier League action offers time for managers to take stock and clubs to sack those stock-taking managers while most of the players are away on international duty.
It also grants us another opportunity to evaluate the summer transfer window, in which a record-breaking £3.49bn was spent by Premier League clubs to acquire new players.
Here we rank the 20 most expensive signings of the summer, from worst to best, after first doing so during the first international break of the season.
Ayyoub Bouaddi and Carlos Baleba are now included after making their first Premier League starts of the season; everyone else has their previous position in brackets.
20 (18) Andrey Santos (Chelsea to Manchester United) – £48m
Resembled a ‘deer in headlights’ alongside Youri Tielemans on the opening day of the season against Hull and showed promise in his next start nearly two months later against Leeds, before playing with full beams in his eyes for the defeats to Bournemouth and Chelsea.
Oh how the Chelsea directors must have been chuckling as the child controlling Santos’ actions on his return to Stamford Bridge accidentally pressed square to slide in next to but nowhere near close enough to Morgan Rogers as he ran in a straight line to score. That’s if they weren’t already giggling at United paying twice as much as they wanted for the Brazilian.
19) (17) Matias Fernandez-Pardo (Lille to Newcastle) – £51m
“He did his job on a really high level,” insisted Matthias Jaissle to scoffs from the gathered media when asked about Fernandez-Pardo’s 16-touch display in the the only Premier League win in which he’s featured for Newcastle this season.
“Maybe you saw it differently from me. He did an amazing job – out of possession especially he was stressing the opposition, the keeper.”
£51m is quite a lot money for a striker who’s yet to score or assist who’s doing the job of a Golden Retriever.
“Also, in possession, he threatened the opposition, even though maybe you don’t see it too often, but with his movement and speed, he is causing the opposition many problems,” Jaissle added.
A well-trained Golden Retriever, maybe.
18) Carlos Baleba
Michael Carrick’s last hope of a future at Manchester United while he remained out injured has been the final nail in his coffin thanks to Baleba in fact not being a footballer to cure all ills.
17) (13) Nico Gonzalez (Manchester City to Newcastle) – £48m
A footballer we were conscious of almost exclusively because of his howitzer to beat Southampton in the FA Cup semi-final for Manchester City last season and he’s not had the calming effect at the base of Newcastle’s midfield they might have hoped.
It was always going to be a tall order for Gonzalez as the big midfield signing of the summer following the departures of Tonali and Bruno Guimarães, and we suspect he would look bloody brilliant if he was playing alongside midfielders of a similar calibre or in a more sedate competition.
16 (12) Maxence Lacroix (Crystal Palace to Chelsea) – £52m
A much-needed and reasonably well-vaunted signing by Chelsea, who have spent an inordinate amount of money on bang average centre-backs, brought in and out of the team by several managers consistently asked why they kept chopping and changing at the back, who all fell short of shouting the glaringly obvious answer: None of them are good enough.
Lacroix is playing regularly for France and was widely thought to be a smart addition by Chelsea – a top defender and experienced leader.
But the curse that condemned previously talented strikers to the scrapheap upon moving to Stamford Bridge, that’s been empathically broken by Joao Pedro, is now thwarting Chelsea centre-backs.
Being almost indistinguishable in terms of your quality and worth to the team from Wesley Fofana is as damning as it gets.
15) (9) Savio (Manchester City to Tottenham) – £75m
Remains locked in a battle with fellow Manchester City recruit Omar Marmoush to be hailed as the most Spursy Spurs signing of the summer having failed to get off the mark in the Premier League.
A footballer who promised plenty but delivered almost nothing at Manchester City has continued in the same vein at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He got a goal and an assist against Charlton but has no goal contributions besides.
14) Ayyoub Bouaddi (Lille to Manchester City) – £81.4m
Got a stunning assist against Paris Saint-Germain after coming on at half-time and swinging the game in Manchester City’s favour.
Undoubtedly has the quality to thrive next to Elliot Anderson in a midfield which might save the former Nottingham Forest man’s legs a bit and offer Enzo Maresca’s side far more balance.
13) (15) Bradley Barcola (Paris Saint-Germain to Liverpool) – £106m
We’re not sure the fans of Such A Well Run Club could take it if their third nine-figure signing in the space of a year flops like the first two and in punditry land Barcola went from the great Arsenal transfer regret to a Liverpool one in 248 minutes of football, with the agreed-upon early-season hot take being that he can run really, really fast but that’s about it.
Andoni Iraola is now 95% convinced that “he’s a winger”, which is good, and he’s got three goals and three assists in around 900 minutes of football, which is absolutely fine.
There have been some very good moments mixed in with some pretty average stuff. Essentially he looks like a very good footballer getting used to the Premier League.
12) (14) Mateus Fernandes (West Ham to Tottenham) – £85m
As was well-documented in his time at Brighton and then Marseille, defeats and bad performances are never Roberto De Zerbi’s fault. The battered bodies of Tottenham players were scattered across High Road outside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium having been thrown under the 149 from Edmonton Green in the early weeks of the season.
“I didn’t like the performance of Mateus today,” De Zerbi said when it was put to him that replacing Fernandes with Mohammed Kudus at half-time in the 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa saw Spurs give up control in central areas.
“No, I think no,” De Zerbi said. “This is not the problem. The problem is, in the second half, we lost balance because we were losing. Just for that.”
That definitely sounds like the manager’s fault, as is refusing to play an £85m footballer in his preferred position until the eighth game of the season, when Fernandes ran rings around the Chelsea midfield before putting a similarly smooth and dominant display against Crystal Palace.
11) (10) Bruno Guimaraes (Newcastle to Arsenal) – £75m
He was “a million miles off it” in the only blot on the Arsenal copybook, but a brilliant winner against Leeds and even better strike against Sunderland, which was as good as a winner before Bukayo Saka’s injury-time capper, more than makes up for that.
Going to be hard for him to become anything other than ‘Arsenal’s other midfielder’ next to Declan Rice, but the inevitable Premier League title should make the relative anonymity tolerable.
10 (16) Sandro Tonali (Newcastle United to Tottenham) – £92.5m
We wonder if Elliot Anderson thanked Tonali during the summer when the Italian took his place as the example for overinflation in the modern game. Even before he kicked a ball for Spurs the most ludicrous transfer prices were made reasonable thanks to the Tonali yardstick. “Liam Delap for £45m? Well If Tonali costs £100m…”
He was among the worst of a very bad Spurs bunch at the start of the season, and although he’s largely improved in line with the collective – he was superb alongside Mateus Fernandes against Chelsea – Tonali is the sort of player who will always be battling to prove his worth, extortionate cost aside.
It’s sometimes hard to pin down exactly what he does other than ‘making the team tick’, which can mean he goes unnoticed when things are going well but gets the stick when Spurs stumble, like against Leeds.
9 (8) Iliman Ndiaye (Everton to Manchester City) – £60m
He’s firmly established himself as Enzo Maresca’s preferred option on the right flank as an expert ball carrier who presses relentlessly.
Ndiaye could though also come to represent Manchester City as a fading attacking force. No player with just three assists and no goals in 10 Premier League appearances would have kept competition for those coveted forward spots at bay long under Pep Guardiola.
8) (4) Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea to Manchester City) – £125m
Questions asked following his deadline day move from Chelsea as to whether he was really what City and Enzo Maresca needed this summer have only increased since.
Maresca bemoaned a lack of “balance” following the 5-3 victory over Sunderland, and plenty of people watching that game and their three consecutive defeats will have pointed to Fernandez as something of an inner ear problem.
That’s not necessarily a criticism of Fernandez’s performances. In fact, it would be very unfair to condemn a footballer for playing the football he played to earn him a £125m move. It’s a structural problem that Maresca needs to solve as Elliot Anderson does the job of two players – not very well at all of late – at the base of City’s midfield.
Can Fernandez move deeper? He was much less effective for Chelsea there. If not then it might end up being him or Rayan Cherki in Maresca’s starting XI.
7 (11) Jan Paul van Hecke (Brighton to Tottenham) – £52m
Maybe the most-improved Premier League player since the first international break after setting an incredibly low bar before it.
“We had imagined it would be different,” said Van Hecke after Spurs’ 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa, before subsequent results at the end of September left them at the foot of the table on two points. We didn’t, but we thought you might be, mate.
Alan Shearer branded Van Hecke and centre-back partner Micky van de Ven “hopeless” after they were beaten up by Nicolas Jackson and Stuart Pearce said it looked like he was “playing in cement”.
Of all the £300m-worth of Spursy Spurs summer signings, Van Hecke actually made some sense. He had thrived under De Zerbi at Brighton; other top clubs including Liverpool also wanted him.
Tottenham have conceded just three goals in five games since and Van Hecke’s displays next to “good friend” Van de Ven have been the foundation of their rise from the doldrums.
6 (6) Johan Manzambi (Freiburg to Aston Villa) – £50m
A World Cup star who announced himself at Villa with a goal and an assist on his full debut against Tottenham.
“I just took the ball and shot, and for me, the emotions were very amazing – for the fans, for me. I have no words for that,” he said after the game.
“For me, that was very important, but I heard the fans sing for me. They have good music for me! And if I can give more goals, I (will) do that.”
Just a brilliant signing who had all the attributes to arrive and thrive immediately in the Premier League and has done precisely that.
5) (2) Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest to Manchester City) – £116m
Only City teammate Ruben Dias (86.5) has completed more accurate passes per 90 than Anderson (81.5), which becomes a far more impressive and pertinent stat alongside him making more line-breaking passes (21.6) than anyone. Add to that his outstanding reading of the game and frankly terrifying speed in getting up to the man in possession and you’ve got a very, very good defensive midfielder.
He had a shocker against Nottingham Forest but the vast majority of what we’ve seen – including his Kevin De Bruyne-esque assist against RB Leipzig – is in harmony with his price tag.
4 (6) Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa to Arsenal) – £51m
He’s has slotted in seamlessly alongside Gabriel Magalhaes at the heart of the Arsenal defence to give Mikel Arteta what Rio Ferdinand has described as a “huge problem”. Massive, it is.
The Arsenal unit is such that we do wonder just how bad a defender could succeed alongside Gabriel, next to Jurrien Timber and in front of David Raya and still keep a clean sheet. How would a League Two centre-back get on? There’s a 45-year-old electrician at the local 5-a-side who had a trial for Woking in 1997 who’s got a bit about him.
3) (1) Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa to Chelsea) – £117m
A very rare example of Chelsea identifying the perfect player for a manager and signing that player. He’s been excellent as the inverted left-winger under Xabi Alonso.
Six goals and four assists, including a hat-trick of them in a stunning half of football off the bench against Leeds in the Carabao Cup, when the value in signing him to play alongside former Manchester City academy teammate and genuine pal Cole Palmer was at its most evident.
2) (3) Jeremy Jacquet (Rennes to Liverpool) – £55m
Jamie Carragher apologised early doors for getting a bit carried away in his praise of a young centre-back who has looked very, very comfortable in the Premier League and has even made Old Man Virgil look more spritely alongside him.
The 21-year-old had a night to forget against Fenerbahce but it remains perfect Jacquet weather on Merseyside.
1) (7) Nicolas Jackson (Chelsea to Aston Villa) – £47.5m
‘If only he can add goals to his game’ was the line that followed Jackson from Chelsea to Aston Villa via Bayern Munich and the Unai Emery-inspired Senegalese is now delivering.
We always thought the criticism of him at Chelsea was harsh and that his poor finishing made far too many headlines while his hold-up play, desire to run in behind and general football IQ (aside from his terrible discipline) wasn’t praised anywhere near enough.
The ‘strikers will always be judged on their goals’ fallacy should perhaps be altered to ‘strikers who look like Jackson will always be judged on their goals’.
While we’re not for one moment putting Jackson in the same camp as low-scoring striker greats like Dennis Bergkamp and Roberto Firmino, you get the point – he was worth far more to Aston Villa, as he was to Chelsea, than his ability to score goals.
The striker extras he offers must mean that now – after six Premier League goals in as many games – he’s one of the very best in Europe.
Pochettino Scholes Man Utd
Pochettino Scholes Man Utd