The ODDSbible’s Winners and Losers of the transfer window
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The transfer window finally slammed shut yesterday and we’ve been taking a look at some of the best bits of business this summer as well as some of the sides who lost out.
Oh, and given what we know now, we’ve also stuck in a few best bets for good measure!
Winners
Leicester City
Despite losing arguably their key player in N’Golo Kante, Leicester are clearly one of the winners of the transfer window after managing to keep hold of Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and Danny Drinkwater.
Everyone thought Vardy and Mahrez could be on the way out after significant interest from European giants such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona and PSG, so it’s a real display of intent from Claudio Ranieri to get his star men tied down to long term deals.
On top of that, they made some fantastic attacking signings in Ahmed Musa, Bartosz Kaputska and Islam Slimani, who should all help the Foxes significantly as they venture into Champions League football for the first time.
Manchester United
Not only have they secured one of the best managers in world football, but they’ve acquired some of the best players too.
After luring Zlatan Ibrahimovic away from a ridiculous offer from the Chinese Super League, they managed to snare Paul Pogba for a world record fee as well as Henrikh Mkhitaryan, one of the leading players in the Bundesliga last season.
Eric Bailly also came in to bolster the leaky defence and has looked really solid in his first few games. Manchester United finally look like a title challenging team again.
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough were the most active Premier League club during the transfer window and, as well as the quantity of incomings, there is certainly no lack of quality. Six months ago if you told the Boro faithful they’d be cheering on the likes of Alvaro Negredo and Victor Valdes later in the year, they would have laughed in your face.
They also brought in two extremely bright youngsters in Viktor Fischer and Adama Traore, who are products of Ajax and Barcelona’s academies respectively.
Judging by the way they’ve started life in the Premier League, I think Middlesbrough have a real chance of achieving a top half finish if their key players stay fit.
Crystal Palace
Perhaps not the most obvious ‘winners’ of the summer transfer window at first glance, but I’ve been very impressed by Crystal Palace’s business.
For a club who, first and foremost, have to stay in the division before looking any higher, there is a significant amount of quality in Palace’s forward line.
The additions of Christian Benteke and Loic Remy will help them achieve a mid table finish in my opinion, and I’m sure most Palace fans would be very happy with that.
You could say they’ve paid too much for Benteke given his form over the past few years, but he was never really a good fit for Liverpool. If they can get the best out of the powerful Belgian, like we saw at Aston Villa when he first came to England, he will be a really fantastic addition.
Losers
Hull City
The Tigers have made a commendable start to life in the Premier League under Mike Phelan.
However, despite a late flurry of signings, their squad is still stretched far too thin.
The already restless fans won’t be too chuffed that the club didn’t make a single signing until earlier in the week. They missed out on Derby County’s Jeff Hendrick to rivals Burnley and the only appointment they made with any real top-flight experience was Spurs midfielder Ryan Mason.
It could be a rough few months for Hull until the January window re-opens.
Sunderland
Sunderland have toyed with relegation for far too long now and after a less than desirable start to the new campaign, it’s beyond laughable that David Moyes didn’t bring in another striker. The Black Cats goal scoring hopes will now be pinned on their only recognised frontman – 33-year-old Jermain Defoe.
Defoe is a proven goalscorer at this level and is likely in many fantasy football starting line ups, but he’s been battling a persistent hamstring injury. Sunderland could really be up against it should he become unavailable.
They also failed to re-sign Yann M’Vila and find a replacement for injured keeper Vito Mannone, so I’m tipping them to struggle yet again.
Everton
The Toffees missed out on a number of targets this summer, perhaps none more painful than Newcastle’s Moussa Sissoko who was snatched from under their noses at the last second from Spurs.
Despite new owners and whispers of enormous spending, the Deadline Day arrival of Enner Valencia from West Ham will hardly get the Everton fans believing that much has changed in terms of the club’s transfer policy.
Ashley Williams and Yannick Bolasie are good signings, don’t get me wrong, but following the departure of John Stones it’s hard to argue that Everton’s squad has improved much since the end of last season.
Stones is going to turn into a completely different player at Manchester City, and the way transfer fees are going I think we may look back and see £50m as a steal in ten years time.
Tottenham
Opinion will be divided on the £30M signing of Moussa Sissoko. The last minute nature of it, and the fact they literally snatched him from a rival club, may have made the transfer seem more appealing than it actually was.
In reality, he’s no better than what Spurs already have, in our opinion. He was decent in the Euros, but he made basically zero impact for Newcastle in the midst of a relegation dogfight.
Elsewhere, the signing of Vincent Janssen may prove to be shrewd, but he won’t provide genuine competition for Harry Kane. Victor Wanyama is a decent player, but is he going to improve a starting eleven featuring Eric Dier and Dele Alli? No.
Overall, Spurs have improved their squad, but they had a genuine chance to kick on and challenge at the top after last season. Have they improved enough to challenge for the title again? I doubt it.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
