The summer transfer window slammed shut on Friday night with the 20 Premier League clubs shelling out a combined total of €2.34bn on new signings and recouping a record €1.56bn on player sales.
But which clubs where the shrewdest shoppers? And who managed to drive the hardest bargains for players going the other way?
To find out, Fair Betting Sites have compared the fees paid and received to the current market value of every player in question for all 274 transfers for which data is available, to determine the official league table for which clubs played the market the best.
Liverpool lead a familiar top three
Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal were the three favourites for the title when the window opened and, having had the quietest summers with just six, seven and nine bits of business respectively, they make up a familiar-looking top three when it comes to the savviest shoppers.
Liverpool picking up Federico Chiesa, with a market value of €35m, for just €12m from Juventus ranked as one of the best bits of business of the window. They also received a total of €47m from Brentford for Fabio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg – over €21m more than the market thinks they’re worth.
Man City’s only purchase of the summer was Savinho from Troyes – another member of the City Football Group – for €25m, which was only half price according to his current value. Arsenal, meanwhile, paid €18m less than they should have done for Mikel Merino, and received just under €10m more for Emile Smith Rowe than the market would have expected.
The only other teams to end up in the black were Newcastle (+€16.55m), Crystal Palace (+€15.175m), Wolves (+€9.725m) and Nottingham Forest (+€0.65m), whose positive figures were driven by picking up valuable players such as Lloyd Kelly and Daichi Kamada on free transfers and receiving inflated fees for players such as Elliot Anderson, Yankuba Minteh, Max Kilman and Moussa Niakhate.
Spurs and Brighton beneath Chelsea in bottom three
Another frenetic window for Chelsea saw them dish out €261m in transfer fees – more than any other club – yet such outlay wasn’t enough to stop them finishing in the bottom three of our shrewdest shoppers’ league table.
Joao Felix, signed from Atletico Madrid for €52m despite only being worth €30m, ranks as their worst bit of business, but it was the acquisition of young prospects such as Omari Kellyman (€22.5m from Aston Villa), Mike Penders (who will join from Genk next summer) and Aaron Anselmino (who was loaned straight back to Boca Juniors) who pulled them down the table.
Brighton & Hove Albion had the biggest net spend in the division with over €180m, but paid inflated fees for Minteh, Brajan Gruda, Matt O’Riley and Ibrahim Osman. Their €46.7m purchase of Georginio Rutter, meanwhile, was adjudged to be the worst bit of business of the window. The French forward – who is yet to start a game for the Seagulls – failed to score for Leeds the last time he was in the Premier League and is only valued at a mere €18m.
Likewise, Spurs spent big in order to try and break into the top four yet ended up rock bottom of our league table with a comparative value figure of -€102.35. Dominic Solanke, Archie Gray and Wilson Odobert were purchased for over €66m more than they are currently worth, while Eric Dier, Ryan Sessegnon and Tanguy Ndombele – worth a combined €30m – were all allowed to leave the club for free.
- Data taken from com
- Transfers where fees paid/received or market value is unknown were not included
- Data correct as of 31 August 2024
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