With the conclusion of the summer transfer window, I decided to take a look at the moves made by the English big six and award grades to each team. Here we go!
Manchester City — B-
I’m really not that impressed by Jack Grealish. The hype around a player with only 6 goals and 10 assists as his team’s star man last year seems unmerited. It appears the media-proclaimed messiah Gareth Southgate would concur, apparently, only starting him in 1 game (a throwaway final group fixture against the Czech Republic) during Euro 2020 — ironically in favour of the man Grealish was brought in to replace, Raheem Sterling. £100 million just seems exorbitant. However, time will tell whether this investment pays dividends. It is also a good omen that a young English talent is developing at a top Premier League side, which has arguably been the root of England’s international failures over the last few decades.
However, the fact that Grealish chose to join even though Villa offered him more money to stay shows signs that Man City might have transcended their status as an “oil club” with no real core identity, transitioning to be now a desirable club for budding, young, hungry players who want to continue building a culture of success and win trophies — perhaps even the elusive Champions League trophy that is so blatantly missing from their rich trophy cabinet.
The headline from City’s summer, however, is their failure in the pursuit of Harry Kane. It turns out Pep Guardiola was indeed a visionary when he tearfully proclaimed “we cannot replace him”
at the end of last season after losing their talisman of many years and club legend Sergio Agüero to Barcelona on a free transfer. Tottenham held their own in negotiations and, despite Kane’s open desire to join the Premier League champions, Sheikh Mansour was not able to get the deal over the line for last year’s golden boot winner and playmaker award winner (to the player with the most assists), with City refusing to pay the purported asking price of £150 million.
City have quietly racked up a healthy incoming of £35 million with the sales of Jack Harrison, who was already as good as gone, Angeliño and Lucas Nmecha. They failed to sign Harry Kane, but they were willing to spend over 100 million for him, so that money plus the handy £35 million to bank makes you think they are saving up for a blockbuster move next summer, with the likes of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé up for grabs.
Given all this, I have given them a B minus. Ambitious spending on Grealish, but they missed out on Kane and in my estimation they fell wide of the mark on their targets.
Liverpool — D-
A very disappointing summer for Liverpool fans. It seemed certain that with the early addition of Ibrahima Konaté to bolster the defence, more signings would swiftly follow. However, a Waiting for Godot-esque tale began to unfold, and they never came. Instead, fans were offered insultingly placatory contract extensions (albeit to key players). This, of course, does not make up for a sorry lack of transfer business. Fans are growing impatient of owner John W. Henry and his parsimonious ways, with calls for him to sell the club to interested Filipino candidates mounting on social media.
Liverpool should have learned the hard way the lessons of failing to sufficiently support the starting eleven with backups for refreshment and reinforcement, given last season’s centre back rampjaar, but unfortunately, they haven’t, and they now go into the season until at the earliest January planning on playing a 4–3–3 with only 4 viable attacking options.
It is simply unacceptable that Jurgen Klopp’s reward for managing to finish in the top three with two academy players at centre back (Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips) and being blighted with injuries all year is less spending money than Norwich City and Newcastle. The attack is bare: scratch beneath the surface and there is nothing there — it is in desperate need of reinforcements. The unimpressive Takumi Minamino and the memeish Divock Origi are all that remain after the sale of Xherdan Shaqiri to Lyon, and Liverpool’s attacking woes are only set to be compounded by the recent injuries picked up by Bobby Firmino and Takumi Minamino.
Liverpool won the Premier League in 2019/20 after spending barely over £10 million the preceding summer, so Jürgen Klopp has worked miracles before, but asking him to do it again is not only a step too far but also a spit at his achievements and utterly disrespectful.
For spending £35 million on a backup defender and not adding any reinforcements to an already dwindling and aging squad, they get a D minus.
Arsenal — C-
Having just lambasted John Henry, I’d like to give him a bit of credit for his evergreen comment on Arsenal’s transfer policy when he tweeted in 2014 “what do you think they’re smoking over there at Emirates?” [sic] because no sane and sobre person would spend £50 million pounds sterling on Ben White. It’s just a baffling decision. Man United signed Varane for £34 million, Liverpool brought in Konaté for £35, Chelsea were almost about to acquire Koundé for £42 million, Bayern picked up Upamecano for £42.5 million, Thiago Silva went to Chelsea on a free last year: simply put, £50 million for a guy who was passed over for Conor Coady this summer in the England squad is bad business. To make matters worse, they then go and pay £20 odd million for a guy from the Serie A that no one has ever heard of. The acquisition of Aaron Ramsdale for £25 million is equally as puzzling, not necessarily because Ramsdale is a bad player, but because it appears that they intend to only use him as a backup keeper to Leno. Needless to say, £25 million is too much to be spending on a backup keeper (a reminder that Chelsea only paid £29 million for Edouard Mendy).
Fans will be happy to see the permanent addition of Martin Ødegaard, although he did only manage 1 goal and 2 assists in 14 games last year, however they have also lost Dani Ceballos back to Real Madrid after his promising two-year loan spell ended this summer.
One potential bright spot for the Gunners is the signing of Portuguese left back Nuno Tavares from SL Benfica for only £7 million to replace part-time Boohoo model and amateur fashion enthusiast Héctor Bellerín. Bellerín never really got going at Arsenal and seemed more enthused by using his platform to promote his political agenda than using his ability to help his team.
Academy projects Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson have both departed, Willock permanently to Newcastle for £26 million and Nelson on loan to Feyenoord for the season. Another pair of academy graduates, Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe, have taken up the 7 and 10 shirts respectively — I’d hazard a guess that that doesn’t precisely thrill Arsenal fans nor fill them with hope.
Overall, some good bits of business but unfortunately for Arsenal fans, Arsenal remain Arsenal and some hideous transfer strategies from Kroenke and co. mean they look destined to remain that way for the foreseeable future.
Chelsea — B
Chelsea’s ability to identify talent at an early age has been flagrantly awful, indeed, if they had not sold Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Mohamed Salah for a combined £65.12 million before they had blossomed into the players they are today, they would have an unrelenting juggernaut of an attack comparable to Paris Saint-Germain’s. However, problems aren’t so problematic if you have Roman Abramovich’s wallet to back you up. Unlike some who criticise the £104 million move for Lukaku, I think it’s a great bit of business. Timo Werner is clearly not that guy. He’s been given more than enough chances, and for whatever anomalous season he had at RB Leipzig a couple of years ago, he simply will not cut it in the Premier League. Lukaku, on the other hand, is both physical and a lethal goalscorer. Granted, his first touch could use some work, but he had 24 goals and 11 assists last year in Serie A on the way to being named MVP over the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo. Yes, it’s not ideal to have to buy back a player for three times the amount you sold him for eight years ago, but it is still a good transfer where Chelsea have strengthened the only possible area in which you could criticise their squad.
Man City are the notorious spenders in the Premier League, but in reality it is Chelsea who simply throw money at all their problems to make them go away. They signed the most expensive goalkeeper in history, Kepa, for £72 million, didn’t like him, and immediately replaced him with Mendy. Every summer they buy a new striker because they don’t like the old one: Lukaku in 2021; Werner in 2020; Higuaín in 2018; Morata in 2017; Batshuayi in 2016; Falcao in 2015; Diego Costa in 2014 — the list goes on. If the mob are looking for somewhere to stand angrily with their pitchforks, they should head to London.
The only negative remark I have is regarding the loss of Olivier Giroud for less than a million. Giroud is quietly and underratedly brilliant, popping up with helpful goals all the time, and I don’t buy that he’s so far out of his prime that he warranted such a low price tag. AC Milan appear to already be reaping the benefits of his presence; he has 2 goals in 2 games already.
However, magnificent business in offloading outsider Tammy Abraham, rotation defender Kurt Zouma and the already loaned-out so as good as gone Fikayo Tomori means that Chelsea actually had a net positive income this summer. They’ll be very happy with that knowing they have plenty of money at hand going into January and next summer — should they need it, their squad is already absolutely stacked.
Manchester United — A
This grade would’ve been a lot lower had it not have been for Ronaldo, which clearly headlines United’s summer. £30 million is a bargain for last year’s Serie A top scorer, Euro 2020’s golden boot winner and probably the best player ever. Ronaldo has Premier League experience (specifically Man United experience) and is showing no signs of slowing down his prolific goalscoring. It is obviously the best bit of business done by an English club this summer.
Being a Liverpool fan, I can often judge how good a transfer for a rival club is based off how much fear their presence in the starting eleven instills in me when I see their name on the team sheet. Hand on my heart, Jadon Sancho does not make me feel that sense of dread I get when I see Heung-min Son, Rúben Dias or Bruno Fernandes. What the kids on Twitter call the ‘English tax’ probably applies here — the idea that a player’s value artificially rises because he is a home player. It’s not that I don’t think Sancho will be a 10+ goals a season player, I think he probably won’t meet the standards to qualify as a “flop” per se, it’s more that I don’t see him as a significant upgrade to the existing attack of Ronaldo, Greenwood, Cavani and Rashford.
What does inculcate fear in me, however, is Raphël Varane. His resumé is seriously impressive: 3 La Liga titles, 4 Champions Leagues and a World Cup, amongst others. He is the real deal. I fully expect him and Harry Maguire to be a brick wall this season, even if they won’t be given much help from the midfield.
Which brings me to my next point. Man United still have a glaring weakness in their squad which is sure to be exploited by astute tactical managers: central defensive midfield. As it stands, they still only have “McFred”, Fred and Scott McTominay, who pale in comparison to the attacking flair provided by Bruno and Paul Pogba. The failure to address this issue would have cost them their A grade, but the Ronaldo factor for me is simply too potent. Furthermore, racking in over £25 million for Dan James, who for all intents and purposes is painfully mediocre, is a great sale. They have leveraged well their status as a big club in order to get more bang for their buck.
Tottenham Hotspur — C+
The best news for Spurs fans is that they managed to hang on to Harry Kane. For most of the summer it looked a sure thing that he would leave in search of trophies — something Tottenham very conspicuously lack — but alas, Tottenham get to hold on to their most valuable asset and have started the season now a perfect three from three with no goals conceded. It remains to be seen just how good Emerson Royal is — he didn’t really get a chance to play at Barcelona. The same goes for Bryan Gil, he’s only 20 years old and therefore has limited experience from which we can fairly judge him, so I’ll exclude him from my evaluation: we don’t want another Fábio Silva scenario. I will suspend determination on this move.
Given I praised City for their efforts in nurturing English talent, I have to take the time to say that I think Spurs are wholly unnecessarily stifling English talent through the purchase of Emerson Royal when they already have Japhet Tanganga. Granted, right back is the least of England’s concerns going forward, and Spurs can already take credit for developing Kane to his world class level, but it just seems gratuitous.
Elsewhere, they have invested in young Senegalese talent Pape Sarr. Spurs bought Sarr for £15 million and immediately loaned him back to FC Metz so the 18 year old can develop and gain valuable experience. I’m a big fan of investing in the future and getting ahead of the game, so I love this move. It was quiet, it didn’t attract the big headlines like Ronaldo and Grealish, but it may reveal itself to be a stroke of genius in the not-so-far future.
Losing Moussa Sissoko to Watford for less than £4 million will be of huge chagrin to Tottenham fans. Anyone who watched their season of All or Nothing will know that Moussa was a great locker room leader and an important part of the team dynamic as a veteran of five years. At only 32 years old in an era where players are playing long into their 30s, this sale seems untimely and poor business.
[Stats via Google and www.transfermarkt.co.uk]
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