Transfer window verdict: how every Premier League club fared in January

  • 2/2/2024
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Arsenal Arsenal’s free-spending summer was counteracted by an austere January and Mikel Arteta will have to battle on with what he believes is one of the league’s thinnest squads. Targets at centre-forward and on the wing were impossible to land this winter so their domestic and European hopes rest on keeping players fit. Although interest from West Ham in Emile Smith Rowe was flat-batted a few younger players were allowed to depart, Bradley Ibrahim and Lino Sousa leaving permanently while Charles Sagoe Jr joined Swansea on loan. Nick Ames Key ins: None. Key outs: None. Aston Villa Unai Emery landed his No 1 target in Morgan Rogers, who can play across the front line in his favoured 4-3-3, giving him sufficient confidence that Villa did not require further backup for talisman Ollie Watkins. Jhon Durán will play second fiddle on his return from a hamstring problem and Emery has stated Nicolò Zaniolo can operate as a striker. Villa recalled Kaine Kesler-Hayden from Plymouth to provide backup for the right-back Matty Cash and brought in Australia’s Joe Gauci as a backup goalkeeper. Ben Fisher Key ins: Morgan Rogers (Middlesbrough, £16m), Joe Gauci (Adelaide United, undisclosed). Key outs: Leander Dendoncker (Napoli, loan), Bertrand Traoré (Villarreal, free). Bournemouth The Cherries picked up a couple of long-term targets last summer, with Alex Scott beginning to flourish after his £25m move. Romain Faivre, another to join last year, has been recalled from a fruitful loan at Lorient, also owned by Bournemouth’s backer, Bill Foley. Kieffer Moore was among the fringe players to depart, his exit to Ipswich paving the way to loan Enes Unal, who will be backup to star striker Dominic Solanke, for whom they received no bids. The obvious concern is they have numerous injuries at full-back. BF Key ins: Enes Unal (Getafe, loan). Key outs: David Brooks (Southampton, loan), Hamed Traoré (Napoli, loan), Kieffer Moore (Ipswich, loan). Brentford The signing of Sergio Reguilón on loan from Tottenham plugged a key gap in Thomas Frank’s squad at left-back and the Iceland goalkeeper Hákon Valdimarsson will provide competition for Mark Flekken. Brentford pulled out of a move to sign the highly rated teenager Antonio Nusa from Club Brugge after reported issues with his medical but could resurrect that in the summer and snapped up the Turkish prospect Yunus Konak as one for the future. Ed Aarons Key ins: Hákon Valdimarsson (Elfsborg, £2.6m), Sergio Reguilón (Spurs, loan). Key outs: None. Brighton The decision to allow Mahmoud Dahoud to leave on loan for Stuttgart six months after he signed on a free showed Roberto De Zerbi’s ruthless side. Beating off competition from several high-profile European clubs to sign the attacking left-back Valentín Barco was a coup, although the Argentina Under-23 international will be competing with Pervis Estupiñán for a starting spot. A late attempt was made to sign Bryan Gil on loan from Spurs to add much-needed cover for the continued absences of Kaoru Mitoma and Simon Adingra. Leicester’s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall also proved out of reach for now. EA Key ins: Valentín Barco (Boca Juniors, £7.9m). Key outs: Mahmoud Dahoud (Stuttgart, loan). Burnley Heavy investment in 15 signings last summer left little leeway to strengthen Vincent Kompany’s squad, despite the growing threat of an immediate return to the Championship. The club were able to improve their forward options by recruiting the Chelsea striker David Datro Fofana on loan and on a busy deadline day they added Montpellier’s Maxime Estève and Rennes’ Lorenz Assignon to their defensive ranks and let Connor Roberts join Leeds. Andy Hunter Key ins: David Datro Fofana (Chelsea, loan), Maxime Estève (Montpellier, loan), Lorenz Assignon (Rennes, loan). Key outs: Michael Obafemi (Millwall, loan), Connor Roberts (Leeds, loan). Chelsea Mauricio Pochettino’s hopes of strengthening his inexperienced squad were always going to depend on sales. Forced to keep financial fair play in mind after their £1bn splurge, Chelsea had their spending power limited. The focus on shifting academy products owed much to accountancy. Ian Maatsen went on loan to Borussia Dortmund and Armando Broja will spend the rest of the season at Fulham. No striker was brought in to replace Broja. Jacob Steinberg Key ins: None. Key outs: David Datro Fofana (Burnley, loan), Ian Maatsen (Borussia Dortmund, loan), Armando Broja (Fulham, loan). Crystal Palace A productive window that brought the arrival of Daniel Muñoz and Adam Wharton addressed key concerns at right-back and in central midfield but attempts to bolster Roy Hodgson’s attacking options came to nothing despite late interest in West Ham’s Maxwel Cornet and Chuba Akpom of Ajax. Nottingham Forest were forced to turn their attention away from Sam Johnstone in the end but the England goalkeeper is understood to be unhappy at losing his place to Dean Henderson, having been a regular part of Gareth Southgate’s squad last year. EA Key ins: Adam Wharton (Blackburn, £18.5m), Daniel Muñoz (Genk, £8.5m). Key outs: None. Everton January proved as quiet as the director of football, Kevin Thelwell, predicted it would be, for obvious reasons. The club’s priority was the appeal against a 10-point deduction for breaching Premier League profit and sustainability rules, which is under way and will have implications for their second charge and prospects of avoiding the drop. It was important that a small squad remained intact. AH Key ins: None. Key outs: None. Fulham Marco Silva cut a frustrated figure for much of the window. He seemed pessimistic about the chances of any signings arriving, although there was some cheer when Armando Broja joined on loan on deadline day. Fulham will hope that the striker boosts their attacking threat, especially with Raúl Jiménez hamstrung. They were also heartened by holding on to their key midfielder, João Palhinha. Overall, though, the sense is that all is not well. JS Key ins: Armando Broja (Chelsea, loan). Key outs: None. Liverpool So it wasn’t just the impressive development of Jarell Quansah that kept Liverpool out of the market after all. With the bombshell that Jürgen Klopp will not be around for the next transfer window, the Premier League leaders were understandably quiet. The final window of Jörg Schmadtke’s brief spell as sporting director concentrated on getting other academy products game time elsewhere. AH Key ins: None. Key outs: None. Luton Rob Edwards has kept faith with the economically assembled squad who are making a real fight of Premier League survival, with the Japanese defender Daiki Hashioka the only immediate arrival. The promising centre-back Tom Holmes also signed from Reading but was loaned back until the summer. Niall McVeigh Key ins: Daiki Hashioka (Sint-Truiden, £1.7m). Key outs: Ryan Giles (Hull, loan). Manchester City The treble winners performed their not unusual winter window swoop for a hot South American prospect, Claudio Echeverri following Julián Álvarez (January 2022, also from River Plate) and Gabriel Jesus (Palmeiras, August 2016) in signing but staying on loan with his club for now. Jamie Jackson Key ins: Claudio Echeverri (River Plate, £12.5m). Key outs: Kalvin Phillips (West Ham, loan). Manchester United Considering Erik ten Hag is fighting to convince Sir Jim Ratcliffe he should be his manager for the long term he could have done without a window that featured no signings. What he needs: a goalkeeper, centre-back, midfielder and No 9. Also needed: two windows (at least) to solve this. JJ Key ins: None. Key outs: Facundo Pellistri (Granada, loan), Hannibal Mejbri (Sevilla, loan), Jadon Sancho (Dortmund, loan), Sergio Reguilón (loan ended), Donny van de Beek (Eintracht Frankfurt, loan). Newcastle After spending £400m on signings since the club’s Saudi-backed takeover, Newcastle found that Premier League sustainability rules bit hard this January. Eddie Howe ended up in a battle to keep hold of the club’s big-name players, and managed to do so in a window which was frustrating but not disastrous. NM Key ins: None. Key outs: Javier Manquillo (Celta Vigo, free). Nottingham Forest The relentless transfer activity since winning promotion was curtailed after the club were found to have breached Premier League financial rules. The first-team squad has been trimmed but there was an eye-catching late loan move for Dortmund’s Gio Reyna. The deadline-day signing of a new keeper in Matz Sels may prove even more shrewd. NM Key ins: Giovanni Reyna (Dortmund, loan), Rodrigo Ribeiro (Sporting, loan), Matz Sels (Strasbourg, £5.1m). Key outs: Gustavo Scarpa (Atlético Mineiro, £4.3m), Scott McKenna (Copenhagen, loan), Orel Mangala (Lyon, loan). Sheffield United The rock-bottom Blades desperately needed reinforcements at both ends of the pitch. Ben Brereton Díaz’s loan move from Villarreal has been an immediate success, the forward scoring twice in two Premier League games. Ivo Grbic, the Croatia goalkeeper signed from Atlético Madrid, has had a tougher start, with eight goals conceded in his two appearances. Additional depth at centre-half was badly needed and arrived shortly before deadline in the shape of Mason Holgate, who joined from Everton after his loan at Southampton was cancelled. John Ashdown Key ins: Ivo Grbic (Atlético Madrid, £2m), Ben Brereton Díaz (Villarreal, loan), Mason Holgate (Everton, loan). Key outs: Bénie Traoré (Nantes, loan), John Fleck (Blackburn, free). Tottenham Ange Postecoglou wanted to strengthen in two principal areas – central defence and the attacking line – and the club delivered; quickly, as well. Radu Dragusin had only made 40 appearances in Serie A but his potential is so rich that Spurs paid an initial £25m for him, and Timo Werner made sense on loan. A deal for the Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher was always likely to be difficult. Hugo Lloris, Eric Dier and Ivan Perisic headed the list of departures. David Hytner Key ins: Radu Dragusin (Genoa, £25m), Timo Werner (RB Leipzig, loan). Key outs: Ivan Perisic (Hajduk Split, loan), Eric Dier (Bayern Munich, loan), Hugo Lloris (Los Angeles, free), Djed Spence (Genoa, loan), Sergio Reguilón (Brentford, loan), Alejo Véliz (Sevilla, loan). West Ham A strange window. West Ham were expecting to be quiet, only for attacking injuries to force them into the market. But instead of a winger or a forward, the player who came was a defensive midfielder on loan: Kalvin Phillips. Meanwhile two wide players, Saïd Benrahma and Pablo Fornals, were given the go-ahead to leave despite not being replaced. Neither Benrahma’s proposed move to Lyon nor Fornals’ to Real Betis was completed before deadline but the prospective new clubs were holding out hope of dispensation to make the signings. JS Key ins: Kalvin Phillips (Manchester City, loan). Key outs: Thilo Kehrer (Monaco, loan). Wolves Wolves wanted a striker to sharpen their attack but late moves for Armando Broja and Yuri Alberto failed to materialise. Last January they made a series of significant signings including Craig Dawson and Mario Lemina but need for reinforcements was not so pressing this time, with Hwang Hee-chan among the division’s best performers. They offloaded Jonny to Paok after he was banished to the under-21s after a training-ground bust-up. BF Key ins: None. Key outs: Jonny Otto (Paok, free), Sasa Kalajdzic (Eintracht Frankfurt, loan), Fábio Silva (Rangers, loan).

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