Ranking Premier League clubs by the impact of their summer signings

Will Ford
Casmiro Martinez Perisic Tottenham Man United

Premier League clubs spent around £1.9bn between them on fresh talent this summer, but how good has that business proven to be?

We’ve ranked Premier League clubs by the impact of their summer signings, from least to most…

 

20) Brighton
Pervis Estupinan, (£14.9m, Villarreal), Simon Adingra (£7.2m, FC Nordsjaelland), Julio Enciso (£10.44m, Livertad), Levi Colwill (loan, Chelsea), Benicio Baker-Boaitey (undisclosed, Porto), Billy Gilmour (£7.5m, Chelsea).

Minutes played: 569

Estupinan has played some football at least but the two Chelsea lads, Colwill and Gilmour, have barely got a look-in. Having been roundly screwed by Graham Potter upping sticks for the club he just left, Gilmour has made three substitute appearances totalling five minutes. Poor bairn.

 

19) Crystal Palace
Chris Richards (£8.5m, Bayern Munich), Malcolm Ebiowei (undisclosed, Derby County), Sam Johnstone (free, West Brom), Cheick Doucoure (£19m, Lens).

Minutes played: 871

Johnstone will have been hoping to usurp Vicente Guaita but is yet to make an appearance. Doucoure is definitely a midfield upgrade.

 

18) Leicester City
Alex Smithies (free, Cardiff City), Wout Faes (£15m, Stade Reims).

Minutes played: 540

Leicester fans would have taken anything other than bottom of this list considering their summer transfer activity. Gary Lineker says Leicester have ‘struck gold’ with Wout Faes, and after a nasty Premier League awakening on debut as Son Heung-min scored a hat-trick from the bench in a 6-2 defeat to Spurs, Leicester have conceded just two goals in five games with the Belgian at the heart of their defence.

 

17) Aston Villa
Diego Carlos (£28m, Sevilla), Philippe Coutinho (£18m, Barcelona), Robin Olsen (£3.15m, AS Roma), Boubacar Kamara (free, Marseille), Ludwig Augustinsson (loan, Sevilla), Ewan Simpson (undisclosed, Hearts), Leander Dendoncker (£13m, Wolves), Jan Bednarek (loan, Southampton).

Minutes played: 1,696

Carlos got injured immediately and Coutinho’s foot has come well and truly off the gas after he signed his permanent contract. Steven Gerrard may still be in the job had he played Leander Dendoncker, whose full debut resulted in the 4-0 win over Brentford.

 

16) Wolves
Hee-chan Hwang (£15m, RB Leipzig), Nathan Collins (£20.5m, Burnley), Goncalo Guedes (£29.3m, Valencia), Matheus Nunes (£38m, Sporting Lisbon), Sasa Kalajdzic (£15.5m, Stuttgart), Diego Costa (free).

Minutes played: 2,972

Nunes is a beautiful midfielder among many at Wolves, but has never been the goalscorer they so desire. They signed Costa to be the ugly one they need, but he’s yet to come up trumps. Guedes was a very odd signing.

 

15) Brentford
Aaron Hickey (£15m, Bologna), Keane Lewis-Potter (£17m, Hull), Thomas Strakosha (free, Lazio), Ben Mee (free, Burnley), Mikkel Damsgaard (£12.6m, Sampdoria).

Minutes played: 2,235

Lewis-Potter and Hickey have impressed in spurts while Mee has proven himself to be a perfectly serviceable Premier League defender having done so since time immemorial. There’s surely far more to come from Damsgaard.

 

14) Bournemouth
Joe Rothwell (free, Blackburn Rovers), Ryan Fredericks (free, West Ham), Marcus Tavernier (£10m, Middlesbrough), Neto (free, Barcelona), Marcos Senesi (£12.6m, Feyenoord), Jack Stephens (loan, Southampton).

Minutes played: 2,765

Gary O’Neil hasn’t made sweeping tactical changes having taken over from Scott Parker, but he immediately brought Neto into his starting line-up, and he’s conceded nine goals in eight games, compared to Mark Travers’ 16 in three. Marcos Senesi has also illustrated his quality in recent games.

 

13) Liverpool
Fabio Carvalho (£5.3m, Fulham), Darwin Nunez (£64m, Benfica), Calvin Ramsay (£4.4m, Aberdeen), Arthur Melo (loan, Juventus).

Minutes played: 675

Nunez hasn’t flown out of the traps, but is far from a flop, and Fabio Carvalho is clearly a talented lad. But Liverpool fans are left with a serious case of the what-might-have-beens as panic midfield loanee Arthur watched first from the bench and now the treatment table as Jude Bellingham’s value soars.

READ MORE: Where are they now? The three wingers Jurgen Klopp wanted Liverpool to sign before Mohamed Salah

 

12) Leeds United
Brenden Aaronson (£29.5m, RB Salzburg), Luis Sinisterra (£21m, Feyenoord), Tyler Adams (£20m, RB Leipzig), Rasmus Christensen (£10.8m, RB Salzburg), Marc Roca (£10.4m, Bayern Munich), Darko Gyabi (£5m, Manchester City), Sonny Perkins (free, West Ham), Wilfried Gnonto (£4m, FC Zurich).

Minutes played: 3,957

There was a time this season, after the win over Chelsea, when Jesse Marsch’s side had seven points from their opening three games, when people were suggesting they might not miss Raphinha or Kalvin Phillips, and that they had spent their incoming transfer fees rather well. Aaronson, Adams and Roca looked to have improved their midfield and Sinisterra was a menace on the wing.

But now, after two points from their last eight games, transfer positivity is far from the minds of the fans, who instead want to know why Gnonto has played 324 minutes for Italy this year and not a single one for Leeds. Fair point.

 

11) West Ham
Alphonse Areola (£7.75m, PSG), Nayef Aguerd (£30m, Rennes), Flynn Downes (£12m, Swansea), Gianluca Scamacca (£30.5m, Sassuolo), Maxwel Cornet (£18.6m), Thilo Kehrer (£10.1m, Paris Saint-Germain), Emerson Palmieri (£15.3m, Chelsea), Lucas Paqueta (£36.5m, Lyon).

Minutes played: 4,063

Scamacca and Paqueta have shown just about enough to let us know they will be very good and wouldn’t look out of a place at a bigger and better club than West Ham, while Kehrer seems like a smart bit of business after a shaky start.

 

10) Nottingham Forest
Omar Richards (£10m, Bayern Munich), Taiwo Awoniyi (£17.2m, Union Berlin), Dean Henderson (loan, Manchester United), Giulian Biancone (£9m, Troyes), Moussa Niakhate (£12.8m, Mainz), Neco Williams (£17m, Liverpool), Wayne Hennessey (undisclosed, Burnley), Brandon Aguilera (undisclosed, Alajuelense), Harry Toffolo and Lewis O’Brien (£10m, Huddersfield Town), Jesse Lingard (free, Manchester United), Orel Mangala (£12.7m, Stuttgart), Emmanuel Dennis (£20m, Watford), Cheikhou Kouyate (free, Crystal Palace), Remo Freuler (£8.1m, Atalanta), Morgan Gibbs-White (£25m, Wolves) Hwang Ui-Jo (£4.2m, Bordeaux), Renan Lodi (loan, Atletico Madrid), Willy Boly (£2m, Wolves), Josh Bowler (£4m, Blackpool), Loic Bade (loan, Rennes), Serge Aurier (free).

Minutes played: 7,848

Technically Nottingham Forest should top this list as they would have no Premier League points whatsoever had they not made their 21 summer signings as they would not have been able to field a team. But the big guns, namely Jesse Lingard, Morgan Gibbs-White and Emmanuel Dennis, are yet to really get going. Neco Williams has probably, and predictably, been the pick of the bunch.

 

9) Chelsea
Gabriel Slonina (£12m, Chicago Fire), Raheem Sterling (£47.5m, Man City), Kalidou Koulibaly (£34m, Napoli), Carney Chukwuemeka (£20m, Aston Villa), Marc Cucurella (£62m, Brighton), Omari Hutchinson (undisclosed, Arsenal), Cesare Casadei (£12m, Inter Milan), Wesley Fofana (£70m, Leicester), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£15m, Barcelona), Denis Zakaria (loan, Juventus).

Minutes played: 3,882

The marquee signings have been fine, but have been constantly finding their feet first at a new club and then under a new manager, who is perhaps not the easiest to settle under given his penchant for rotation and formation changes.

 

8) Tottenham
Richarlison (£53m, Everton), Yves Bissouma (£25m, Brighton), Djed Spence (£20m, Middlesbrough), Ivan Perisic (free, Inter), Fraser Forster (free, Southampton), Clement Lenglet (loan, Barcelona) Destiny Udogie (£15m, Udinese). Christian Romero (£40m, Atalanta).

Minutes played: 3,617

Romero signing his permanent deal in the summer is the reason for Spurs being quite so high. Richarlison has looked like a world-beater one minute and a frustrated child the next, as is his wont. Perisic has been a solid addition. Bissouma is yet to truly catch fire, or put those fires out with the regularity of his Brighton days.

 

7) Arsenal
Gabriel Jesus (£45m, Manchester City), Fabio Vieira (£34m, Porto), Matt Turner (£5.73m, New England), Marquinhos (£3m, Sao Paulo), Oleksandr Zinchenko (£30m, Manchester City).

Minutes played: 2,450

If you said when the transfer window opened that Arsenal would be top of the table come late October you would think they would have had to have made some very good signings who would make an immediate and significant impact on the team. But that’s only really true of Jesus, who has admittedly been brilliant, with the incredible gains on the pitch mainly down to the improvement of the players already at the club.

 

6) Southampton
Romeo Lavia (£10.5m, Manchester City), Armel Bella-Kotchap (£8.6m, VfL Bochum), Gavin Bazunu (£12m, Manchester City), Mateusz Lis (free, Altay SK), Joe Aribo (£6m, Rangers), Sékou Mara (£11.7m, Bordeaux), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (loan, Arsenal), Samuel Edozie (£10m, Manchester City), Juan Larios (£6m, Manchester City), Duje Caleta-Car (£8.6m, Marseille).

Minutes played: 3,807

Lavia had barely got through the door before Chelsea were trying to snatch him for five times what Southampton paid for him, then got injured. Bella-Kotchap signed, impressed, made his debut for Germany against England, then got injured. Joe Aribo is good fun and Caleta-Car has technical ability they have needed for a while in defence.

 

5) Newcastle United
Nick Pope (£10m, Burnley), Matt Targett (£15m, Aston Villa), Sven Botman (£33.3m, Lille), Alexander Isak (£59m, Real Sociedad).

Minutes played: 2,601

Pope currently has the Golden Gloves in the Premier League, Isak looked to be sharpening before injury, while Botman is a bit of a Rolls Royce at the back. Very smart business again from Newcastle. Snore.

READ MORE: Arsenal top, Newcastle second and Liverpool bottom of Only Premier League Table That Matters!

 

4) Fulham
Andreas Pereira (£10m, Man Utd), Joao Palhinha (£20m, Sporting) Manor Solomon (suspended contract, Shakhtar Donetsk), Kevin Mbabu (£6.5m, Wolfsburg) Bernd Leno (£3m, Arsenal), Shane Duffy (Brighton, loan), Issa Diop (£15m, West Ham), Layvin Kurzawa (loan, PSG), Willian (free), Carlos Vinicius (£4.25m, Benfica), Daniel James (loan, Leeds United).

Minutes played: 4,402

Pereira looks like a proper Premier League footballer having been the butt of the Manchester United joke, Palhinha is a quality presence in central midfield, Leno’s looked solid and Willian has shown himself to be a west London lad no matter his colours.

 

3) Manchester United
Casemiro (£60m, Real Madrid), Christian Eriksen (free, Brentford), Tyrell Malacia (£12.9m, Feyenoord) Lisandro Martinez (£46.7m, Ajax), Antony (£85.5m, Ajax), Martin Dubravka (loan, Newcastle).

Minutes played: 4,526

OK, so they’ve signed another 90s full-back, but apart from that, the summer addtions have all significantly improved Manchester United. Lisandro Martinez is a nasty little b*stard in the best possible way, Antony is also a bit of a pr*ck but knows where the far corner is, and Casemiro’s class is starting to ooze through while Christian Eriksen’s was clear from day dot.

 

2) Manchester City
Erling Haaland (£51m, Borussia Dortmund), Stefan Ortega (free, Arminia Bielefeld), Kalvin Phillips (£45m, Leeds), Sergio Gomez (£11m, Anderlecht), Manuel Akanji (£16.7m, Borussia Dortmund).

Minutes played: 2,359

One of the most remarkable things about Manchester City is the ability to swap centre-backs in and out of the team with no discernible drop in quality. They had four that interchanged and now have five, with Akanji slotting in seamlessly. Haaland has also been good.

 

1) Everton
Amadou Onana (£33m, Lille), Dwight McNeil (£20m, Burnley), Ruben Vinagre (loan, Sporting Lisbon), James Tarkowski (free, Burnley), Conor Coady (loan, Wolves), Neal Maupay (£15m, Brighton), Idrissa Gueye (£8m, PSG), James Garner (£15m, Manchester United).

Minutes played: 4,824

No team other than Forest has used their summer signings more frequently than Everton. Conor Coady and James Tarkowski have been throwing their bodies in the way of anything and everything at the back, while Amadou Onana sails through the midfield, Idrissa Gueye continues where he left off, and Dwight McNeil adds quality from wide. Frank Lampard’s ability to recruit good players has never been questioned.