The transfer window is that time of the football season when excitement is at its peak as fans anticipate potential arrivals (and departures) from their respective clubs. Title challengers see it as an opportunity to bolster their squads to get over the line and claim glory, whilst on the opposite end of the table, the window serves as a lifeline for relegation-threatened sides to equip themselves with enough talent to stay up.
The 2023 January transfer window did not fail to live up to its billing with a flurry of activity happening across Europe, especially the Premier League where a record of £815 billion was spent, with Chelsea’s spending spree making up almost half of that sum.
In this article, we review the top three winners and losers from the English top-flight during the recently-concluded window.
Winners
Arsenal
The Gunners have managed to maintain their lead at the top of the table for much of the season with their free-flowing football and consistent run of form seeing their youthful squad performing way above expectation. Howeverwe are now getting to the most crucial point of the campaign, where dropping points could be vital in the title race. Current champions Manchester City are also not planning to surrender their crown without a fight, lurking just five points behind them.
Understanding that reality and the potential damning effect of injuries in a title race means there is a greater need for more depth in the squad. Mikel Arteta responded appropriately by acquiring Leandro Trossard (£21 million), Jakub Kiwior (£17.6million) and Jorginho (£12 million), the latter being a deadline-day replacement option after multiple bids were rejected for Brighton & Hove Albion Ecuador midfielder Moises Caicedo.
These players are a blend of youth and experience, particularly Jorginho, who is a Champions League winner and an European Championship winner with Italy. Jorginho’s experience and winning mentality will ensure Arsenal maintain their edge and composure towards winning their first league title in 19 years. These signings are not only moderate cost- wise (given the inflated climate in the transfer market), but also fit the model of Arteta’s project smoothly.
Chelsea
When the Todd Boehly-led consortium bought the Blues in a £4.25 billion deal last May, many feared where the direction the club would go, especially with regards to transfers.
Previous owner Roman Abramovich was known to spend ceaselessly on top talent such as Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Eden Hazard, Ashley Cole among many others. Boehly has probably exceeded those expectations by sealing more than £600 million worth of deals in just two transfer windows, more than half spent in January which was more than any top five league in Europe spent during the same window.
The new Chelsea regime seems to be operating with a different blueprint, intentionally targeting young and promising talent and tying them to long term contracts. These include 2022 World Cup winner and Young Player recipient Enzo Fernandez for £106 million from Benfica – a British transfer record, Mykhailo Mudryk (£89 million) from Shakhtar Donetsk and Benoit Badiashile (£33 million) from AS Monaco.
Aside from bringing in promising signings, Boehly was able to shrewdly circumnavigate Chelsea from running into Financial Fair Play problems by utilizing the current amortization rules in relation to transfer fees accounting. These lengthy contracts also give room to potentially sell some of these players at a commanding fee in future.
Perhaps, the footprints of Abramovich still remain at Stamford Bridge, more impulsive yet calculated.
Nottingham Forest
The Reds caught the eyes of many when they went on a signing spree last summer after gaining promotion to the Premier for the first time in 23 years.
Nottingham Forest signed a mammoth 18 players in the summer window-understandable considering they lost almost about the same number in departures (many of them being loanees). Forest ended up splashing a whopping £160 million last summer which was deemed extravagant for a newly-promoted side. Some of the big name recruits included Taiwo Awoniyi, Jesse Lingard, Emmanuel Dennis, Morgan Gibbs-White, Serge Aurier among others.
Steve Cooper’s men started brightly, with just one defeat and two wins in their first four games. Things spiraled from there, winning just one in 11 games between the end of August and the World Cup break, suffering seven defeats and languishing in the relegation zone. The board kept faith with Cooper and he’s been able to turn things around, with Forest currently 13th as we head into the second half of the season.
The East Midlands outfit used the January transfer window to strengthen further and added Danilo, Felipe, KeylorNavas, Jonjo Shelvey and Andre Ayew- taking their tally up to a whooping 30 signings! These players not only bring star quality (Navas coming in on loan from Paris St. Germain), but vast experience at the highest level, particularly the latter two who have previously played for Premier League clubs such as Liverpool, West Ham and Newcastle United.
It might just be the key component to ensuring Forest’s survival come the end of the season.
Losers
Manchester City
The reason behind the Citizens letting go of Joao Cancelo is clouded in uncertainty. His form might have dropped since he was on duty for Portugal at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar but surely that small sample- size should not serve as a justifiable reason to let go of one/if not the best full-back in world football today. Cancelo (who still had 4 years left on his contract) departed on loan to Bayern Munich on deadline-day, with the deal granting an option to become permanent for £70 million, given the timeline of this event, City had little to no time to secure a replacement.
Rico Lewis, the 18-year old academy full-back, might have taken Cancelo’s place but he’s not done enough to suggest he can outperform someone who contributed 13 competitive goals (3 goals, 10 assists) last season as City won the title on the final day in epic fashion.
Guardiola doesn’t find himself at the top of the table this time but rather five points behind Arteta’s Arsenal, and failure to get an experienced replacement could be the former Barcelona boss’ biggest undoing.
Liverpool
If the 2020-21 season was bad for the Reds, the ongoing 2022-23 season could be much worse.
Jurgen Klopp’s men have struggled to make an impact from the start of the season, when they failed to beat newly-promoted Fulham on the opening day. They’ve lost six games and won just eight from 19 matches thus far, a far cry from the team that was touching distance from winning the Premier League trophy last season.
This time they sit in 9th place, 21 points off the top with the underlining catalyst being the injuries to a significant number of key players such as Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino, Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip over the course of the season.
Liverpool failed to strengthen during the summer beyond getting Darwin Nunez in a £64 million move from Benfica. Given their start to the current campaign and amount of injuries, coupled with the general poor form of the squad, January should have been an opportunity to make amends by bringing in more talent. They made only one signing in forward Cody Gakpo, who arrived from PSV Eindhoven in a £37 million deal. This raised several eyebrows as it was distinctly clear to fans and pundits around the world that Liverpool’s main area of reinforcement needed to be in the midfield. It has also not helped the club’s cause that the 23 year-old Dutchman has failed to inspire thus far (0 goals in 5 appearances). Serious questions of whether the seventh season curse (where Klopp’s previous teams have imploded), are beginning to arise at Anfield.
Everton
After narrowly avoiding relegation on the penultimate game of last season, the Toffees went on spending spree in the summer, acquiring the likes of James Tarkowski and Dwight McNeil from relegated Burnley, Amadou Onana from Lille, James Garner from Manchester United and old boy IdrissaGueye returning, all worth £85.5 million combined.
None of that transmitted into better form as they only won three games during the first half of the season, leaving them rooted in the drop zone yet again and ultimately leading to the dismissal of manager Frank Lampard. Former Burnley boss, Sean Dyche has been appointed as his replacement, and he comes in with a solid reputation of playing physical, direct football, but also a proven track record at beating the drop numerous times from his previous stint at Burnley.
The 51-year-old however finds himself in a tricky situation where there were no incomings to his confident-stricken squad, leaving him with the arduous task of making do with what he has. Before Dyche’s arrival Everton were interested in signing Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher, but the Blues academy graduate wasn’t keen to move to Goodison Park. Arnaut Danjuma was another player that was on the verge of moving to the blue half of Merseyside from Villarreal. The deal was however hijacked by Tottenham Hotspur at the 11th hour and made the switch to North London.
The Everton hierarchy will look at themselves and wonder how such a window went past them without any arrivals when strengthening was required. It’s rather a high- profile, unsavoury departure of Anthony Gordon to high-flying Newcastle United for £45 million that was the major transfer activity.
It also raises questions on whether Dyche can get the job done with what he has. The Toffees boast of a record of being one of only 6 sides to have never been relegated from the English top-flight. Dyche needs to pull off all the stops to avoid being on the wrong side of history.
