Predicting ten 2024 Premier League signings based on summer 2023 success stories

It wasn’t easy, but we managed to find ten transfer success stories from the summer of 2023 and have predicted signings Premier League clubs will make in the current transfer window on the basis of them. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and all that.

We’ve put the 2023 transfer in brackets.

Oscar Bobb to Chelsea (Cole Palmer)
Considered a strange transfer for all parties at the time, two of the three will currently be very happy with their decisions. Chelsea would have been closer to the relegation zone than Europe without their generational talent, who’s already worth twice what they paid for him. Palmer would have got nowhere near his outstanding return of 25 goals and 15 assists had he stayed put at City and would have been watching the Euro 2024 final at home rather than scoring in it.

Chelsea are confident of attracting Bobb, like Palmer, on the basis of opportunities he is unlikely to be granted by Pep Guardiola next season. They hope – not unreasonably – that the Norwegian will see what his fellow academy graduate has achieved at Stamford Bridge and want a piece.

Marc Guehi to Arsenal (Declan Rice)
It’s no surprise after Euro 2024 that interest from the Big Boys has ramped up and doubts over Crystal Palace’s £70m asking price have dissolved, with Guehi the very best of the Three Lions. And after Arsenal saw off a late challenge from Manchester City to secure the transfer of Rice from West Ham last summer they are now in the mix to sign Guehi – another England international from a middling London club – along with Liverpool.

It’s claimed they’re willing to throw Eddie Nketiah in to reduce the transfer fee for Guehi, who would join quite the roster of centre-backs-some-of-which-will-play-at-full-back at the Emirates as Mikel Arteta proves his credentials as the top Pep Guardiola disciple.

Jarrad Branthwaite to Manchester City (Josko Gvardiol)
While we’re on Pep Guardiola’s obsession with signing centre-backs, the withdrawal symptoms must be on their way. He’s brought in four in the last four seasons – Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji and Josko Gvardiol – and they’ve all been brilliant, sometimes at centre-back, more often at full-back, occasionally in midfield.

Manchester United baulked at Everton’s £75m asking price for Branthwaite, but that won’t be a problem for their more monied, PSR-swerving rivals, and the 22-year-old looks made for a Guardiola team, quite possibly as a replacement for John Stones, who fell down the pecking order at the Etihad last season

Trevoh Chalobah to Nottingham Forest (Callum Hudson-Odoi)
A Chelsea academy graduate no longer wanted by his boyhood club who was once linked with a £50m move to Bayern Munich but will be available for fraction of that price due to an insatiable desire to secure ‘pure profit’ to spend on another Brazilian child who might be The Next Neymar but will far more likely earn a six-figure weekly salary for four years of their decade-long contract before leaving for a mid-table Ligue 1 side.

Chelsea will presumably want more for Chalobah than the frankly ludicrous £3m they allowed Hudson-Odoi to leave for having learned that selling a player for £10m under an already pessimistic market value isn’t good business.

Eren Dinkci to Tottenham (Micky van de Ven)
Simple really: sign the fastest player in the Bundesliga. Dinkci was clocked at 36.41km/h while in action for Freiburg last season, beating the paltry 35.97km/h that persuaded Spurs to sign slow-coach Van de Ven from Wolfsburg, though the centre-back’s speed did rise to a peak of 37.38km/h last term, the fastest recorded sprint of anyone in the Premier League since records began.

Not that it matters, but Dinkci’s a 22-year-old right winger who got ten league goals and five assists in 2023/24.

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James McAtee to West Ham (James Ward-Prowse)
Rather more difficult with Sheffield United than it was with Southampton to come up with a player who finished bottom of the Premier League but is too good not to remain in the top flight. Had to go for a loanee in the end.

McAtee is currently on Manchester City’s pre-season tour of the US but can’t feel hugely confident of a bright future at a club that churns out talented footballers from their academy, of which only one – Phil Foden – has cemented his spot in the first team under Guardiola. We imagine the 21-year-old would jump at the chance to move to West Ham, who are in the market for a new midfielder.

Denzel Dumfries to Manchester United (Andre Onana)
A former Everton scout’s friend who knows the Inter sporting director is the sort of source we can all trust and he said the Serie A side would have let Onana leave for £6m. “Then, all of a sudden, an email comes in offering over £50million for him,” the paragon of reliability added.

An apparent willingness to pay over the odds for footballers hasn’t been curbed by new ownership at Manchester United, who could do with a new right-back, and have presumably been given a unique ‘kerching’ alert for incoming emails by Inter.

Martin Zubimendi to Liverpool (Alexis Mac Allister)
Smart move to start a midfield rebuild with the winner of the previous major international tournament, and because we can’t see Liverpool snagging Euro 2024 hero Rodri to fill the remaining hole (apologies to Wataru Endo and their ‘like a new signing’ teenager) for obvious reasons, or Copa America champion Enzo Fernandez from Chelsea, on financial and moral grounds, Zubimendi – the great hope turned scourge of England – is the most likely post-major tournament win candidate to continue in that vein after Mac Allister shone in Qatar.

Arsenal and Manchester United interest is a stumbling block, along with Liverpool’s embarrassing inability to attract anyone to the club post-Jurgen Klopp.

Jeremie Frimpong to Aston Villa (Moussa Diaby)
Reports suggest Villa want Joao Felix as a replacement for Diaby, who’s upped sticks to Saudi Arabia after just one season, and he would probably be brilliant under Unai Emery despite all evidence pointing to him being an ineffective and profligate show pony.

But having tapped the Bayer Leverkusen well for Diaby it would make sense to do so again, given both its success and improved depth after a double-winning season under Xabi Alonso, to sign a new right winger. Frimpong – who got 14 goals and 12 assists from right wing-back last term – wants to leave Leverkusen, though unforunately for Villa his £35m release clause has now expired.

Ruben van Bommel to Bournemouth (Milos Kerkez)
The son of Mark got six goals and an assist in his breakout season for AZ Alkmaar, the club Bournemouth signed Kerkez from last summer which has also sold Teun Koopmeiners, Tijjani Reijnders and 29-goal Vangelis Pavlidis in recent seasons. Breeding ground.