Ranking every Premier League club’s transfer window from worst to best

This summer transfer window was one of the wildest in memory, with the 20 Premier League clubs emerging from it with a range of emotions.

A quarter of Premier League clubs broke their transfer records this summer, including reigning champions Liverpool and Championship play-off winners Sunderland twice each.

With the window now closed, the action on the pitch will do the talking and either justify or scrutinise what clubs have done in the market.

But at first glance, which clubs have had the best transfer windows and which have suffered the worst?

Here, we rank every Premier League club’s transfer window from worst to best.

20. Fulham

Fulham were one of the least active clubs in the transfer market, somewhat to the frustration of head coach Marco Silva, who said in August they were “completely late” and had a “big problem” if they didn’t rectify it.

Before deadline day, the only signing they had made was Benjamin Lecomte – merely a new backup goalkeeper.

They did finally spring into action with the club-record signing of Kevin from Shakhtar Donetsk and loan deals for forwards Samuel Chukwueze and Jonah Kusi-Asare.

19. Crystal Palace

It was a frustrating window for Palace, whose biggest deal was an outgoing one: the £60m sale of Eberechi Eze to Arsenal.

While that registered as a tidy profit, it was bittersweet. Similarly, the Marc Guehi saga at the end of the window was a bit messy and has had a mixed fall-out; it’s good for Palace to have kept one of their other best players, but chairman Steve Parish has already warned about the perils of losing him for free in 2026.

There was speculation aplenty in August about head coach Oliver Glasner being dissatisfied with the club’s business, although they finished with a flourish with the late signings of Yeremy Pino, Christantus Uche and Jaydee Canvot.

18. Wolves

The best bit of business for Wolves this summer was avoiding the instant loss of Jorgen Strand Larsen to Newcastle after being their second top scorer last season.

Their top scorer, Matheus Cunha, moved on to Manchester United, but Wolves seemed to be braced for that anyway after writing a release clause into his contract after the winter transfer window.

Rayan Ait-Nouri to Manchester City could be another big loss, but Wolves have reinforced both full-back positions and got themselves a new goalscorer, Tolu Arokodare, on deadline day.

17. Brentford

As well as head coach Thomas Frank, Brentford lost several key players this summer, including captain Christian Norgaard, forward Bryan Mbeumo and – in a final blow just before the deadline – his fellow 20-goal striker Yoane Wissa.

That said, they have made some signings that seem smart on the surface, including Caoimhin Kelleher as their new starting goalkeeper and his former Liverpool teammate Jordan Henderson to replace Norgaard’s seniority in midfield.

Brentford broke their transfer record to sign Dango Ouattara from Bournemouth and will be hoping it pays off, while a last-minute loan deal for Arsenal’s Reiss Nelson seems handy. But the failure to add an out-and-out striker could come back to bite them.

16. Bournemouth

While Bournemouth wouldn’t deny their status as a club that sells talents to others for profit, it all seemed to happen at once this summer.

Bournemouth were powerless to keep Dean Huijsen away from Real Madrid and later lost their other starting centre-back, Illya Zabarnyi to PSG, despite originally insisting he wasn’t for sale. Furthermore, a third member of their back four from last season left in the shape of Milos Kerkez to Liverpool.

But some reinforcements seem decent on the surface, such as new goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic and former Liverpool winger Ben Gannon Doak.

15. Brighton

The bulk of Brighton’s business was done early, with their latest first-team signing coming all the way back on July 5 with Maxim De Cuyper.

Olivier Boscagli on a free seems like good business, but questions could be asked of the high fee for new striker Charalampos Kostoulas.

While they stood firm to keep Carlos Baleba, there have been a lot of exits for Brighton, most notably Joao Pedro to Chelsea, Pervis Estupinan to AC Milan and Matt O’Riley to Marseille, while their late deal with Chelsea to shift Facundo Buonanotte on loan – with Fabian Hurzeler’s claim it will give him “regular Premier League and Champions League football” seeming a touch optimistic; Buonanotte has since been left out of Chelsea’s Champions League squad – may raise some eyebrows.

14. West Ham

West Ham suffered a sluggish start to the Premier League season, with their lateness to strengthen their midfield one of the factors.

Eventually, they got Mateus Fernandes and Soungoutou Magassa, but the fee for the former from Southampton appears steep.

West Ham’s best effort at finding a new centre-forward, which seems to be a perennial issue, was to pick up the injury-prone Callum Wilson after his release by Newcastle United, but they also picked up one of the most desirable free agents in the shape of Kyle Walker-Peters at right-back.

13. Aston Villa

Barring Evann Guessand, who scored 12 goals in Ligue 1 last season, Villa’s permanent summer signings this summer – in which they once again had to contend with PSR – don’t look too inspiring at first glance.

They salvaged themselves with loan deals for Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott on deadline day, with the latter set to become a permanent deal in 2026.

Losing academy graduate Jacob Ramsey was an emotional sale, while Emiliano Martinez’s efforts for an exit – which didn’t go through – have stained his relationship with supporters.

12. Burnley

All three promoted clubs felt the pressure to reinforce their squads after seeing the last six go straight back down – Burnley having been a part of that unfortunate chain of events themselves in 2024.

The Clarets have made an impressive number of signings – and even more impressive series of social media announcements – but have largely had to settle for players who have only been in and around higher-level Premier League lineups (Armando Broja and Lesley Ugochukwu) or those fading towards the end of their career (Kyle Walker).

But you can’t fault Burnley for trying, with goalkeeper James Trafford, defender CJ Egan-Riley and midfielder Josh Brownhill arguably the only painful departures too, and the deadline day addition of Florentino Luis on loan from Benfica is quite a coup.

11. Leeds United

Leeds addressed most of their priorities this summer, although perhaps not as emphatically as some fans would have liked after their promotion from the Premier League.

Crucially, the much-desired new goalkeeper arrived in the form of Lucas Perri, while at the other end of the pitch, they picked up Dominic Calvert-Lewin as a new striker and will now simply be hoping he stays fit and finds his form.

Other than Calvert-Lewin, Sean Longstaff and James Justin, there’s a lack of significant Premier League experience among their new arrivals, although some who have come from further afield have made positive first impressions, like Anton Stach and Gabriel Gudmundsson.

Deadline day was frustrating for Leeds, though, and it remains to be seen if they will rue their lack of success in trying to convert Manor Solomon’s loan from Tottenham into a permanent stay.

READ MORE ⏩ Ranking all 10 Leeds United summer signings: The big gamble to the significant upgrade

10. Newcastle United

The story of Newcastle’s summer threatened to be overshadowed by players who had rejected them in favour of moves elsewhere, most notably Benjamin Sesko and also including a plethora of others.

Eddie Howe had a tough hand to deal with after inheriting more power over transfers and was steadfast in only wanting players who bought into the project at St. James’ Park, in what should have been a summer to build from after Champions League qualification.

But the Alexander Isak saga was the story of the summer and had an impact on what Newcastle could do as they eventually banked the highest fee ever paid by an English club (Liverpool) to sell their former hero.

In fairness, though, Newcastle have made some interesting signings. It feels like they’ve overspent on some, with selling clubs under no illusion of what they were about to receive for Isak, but it could have gone worse.

9. Chelsea

At times it can be hard to keep up with Chelsea’s vision for squad building, with dozens of players seeming to come and go.

This time around, they won the battles for the likes of Liam Delap and Jorrel Hato, but missed out on other coveted players like Xavi Simons and Mike Maignan.

Some of their player sales – even those not involving anything with sister club Strasbourg, a partnership which continues to draw suspicion from rivals and most bizarrely of all included Ishe Samuels-Smith being moved back and forth between the two clubs within a matter of weeks – are not to be sniffed at; likewise the loan fee they’ve received for Nicolas Jackson after his on/off/on again move to Bayern Munich.

It feels like Chelsea didn’t get everything they wanted to done, and also that they did some things they might not have needed to, but they have stocked up the latest batch of talents for their evolving project as the reigning world champions.

8. Manchester United

After finishing 15th in the Premier League last season and losing the Europa League final to miss out on European football this term, Man Utd showed they still have pulling power as they compiled an all-new attack.

Matheus Cunha, Benjamin Sesko and Bryan Mbeumo are on paper their best front three and all are new additions to the squad this summer. Cunha and Mbeumo have the added benefit of being proven in the Premier League already.

United lived up to the clamour of calls for a new goalkeeper with a deadline-day addition of Senne Lammens, but some may have preferred them to go for the more tried-and-tested Emiliano Martinez.

The icing on the cake would have been Carlos Baleba, but they stood no chance of meeting Brighton’s valuation at this stage.

Another hurdle for United this summer was offloading unwanted players, with it taking until deadline day for them to get rid of Jadon Sancho and Antony. Against their ideal wishes, they had to accept loan deals for Sancho and Marcus Rashford too.

7. Sunderland

Similarly to Leeds, Sunderland have swelled their promotion-winning squad with a lot of new players, but few with Premier League experience.

Granit Xhaka is the biggest exception and looks like he could be the glue to Sunderland’s efforts to stay up after the former Arsenal captain and Bundesliga winner with Bayer Leverkusen returned to English football.

Sunderland broke their transfer record twice this summer, first for a permanent deal for Enzo Le Fee (triggered automatically by their promotion) and then for the acquisition of Habib Diarra.

GO FURTHER – Every completed Sunderland transfer in summer 2025: Signings, sales, loans

6. Everton

Moving into a new era at their new stadium, Everton knew they needed a significant number of new bodies to appease manager David Moyes.

They perhaps didn’t sign as many as he would have wanted, but have secured some eye-catching deals, including a loan move for Manchester City’s Jack Grealish and permanent transfers for Tyler Dibling and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

The big question for Everton is whether new striker Thierno Barry will hit the mark after time on Merseyside ran out for Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

5. Manchester City

Man City made more use of the 10-day transfer window before the Club World Cup than the main window after it, investing in new talent such as Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders.

In fact, their only senior additions afterwards were goalkeepers: James Trafford, who may feel hard done by given what has followed his return from Burnley, and Gianluigi Donnarumma, who the opportunity to sign was just too good to overlook.

Donnarumma takes the place of Ederson, one of several iconic players to have left the club this summer along with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Kyle Walker.

City struggled to get a new right-back in, but have some intriguing new creators to add to their system and will undoubtedly remain one of the favourites for the title.

4. Nottingham Forest

Forest felt like they were waiting to know which European competition they would be placed in – at Crystal Palace’s expense – before their transfer activity burst into life after confirmation of their Europa League status.

They exerted their power to keep Morgan Gibbs-White away from Tottenham Hotspur and tied him down to a new contract in one of the most dramatic stories of the summer.

Furthermore, they spent what was reported as a club-record sum – which actually wouldn’t be the case still if all of the add-ons in their acquisition of Gibbs-White three years ago came into play – on Dan Ndoye and then on Omari Hutchinson.

A loan deal for Douglas Luiz looks a shrewd bit of business as long as the Aston Villa version and not the Juventus one shows up.

3. Tottenham Hotspur

It was a mixed summer for Spurs, who had egg on their face when they missed out on Eberechi Eze to arch-rivals Arsenal – after the well-publicised failure to complete a deal for Morgan Gibbs-White from Nottingham Forest, too – but may have actually ended up with a more suitable signing after pivoting to Xavi Simons.

Injury issues in their existing squad amplified the need for Spurs to strengthen the squad being inherited by Thomas Frank; Simons, along with Mohammed Kudus from earlier in the window, is the kind of signing who can cover what they’re missing and complement who will return in the future.

Bringing Joao Palhinha back to the Premier League on loan from Bayern Munich is a standout piece of business.

Spurs also made the emotional decision to sell Son Heung-min and the fee they got from his MLS move was an impressive one.

2. Arsenal

Arsenal have finished as runners-up in the Premier League for the past three seasons running, so have turned to the transfer market to give themselves a chance of going one further and appear to have left no stone unturned.

They desperately needed a new striker and signed Viktor Gyokeres, one of the most prolific in the world last season. The signings of Martin Zubimendi, who wasn’t moved by interest from Liverpool last summer, and Eberechi Eze, at Tottenham’s expense, also landed significant blows to the competition.

Arsenal capped it all off with the signing of Piero Hincapie to bolster their defence on deadline day and haven’t deprived themselves of too much in terms of outgoing players.

Will it finally be the recipe for success? With the highest net spend in the Premier League this summer, the onus will be on them to try and achieve something significant.

1. Liverpool

Arsenal topped the net spend table, but Liverpool topped the gross spend table. Making the most of their status as Premier League champions, their transfer activity was simply something else this summer.

From securing a small fee for Trent Alexander-Arnold a month before they would have lost him for free, to breaking the British transfer record for the second time this summer with the deadline-day signing of Alexander Isak, it’s been a transfer window like no other at Anfield.

Liverpool have spent more on new signings than ever before and were responsible for this summer’s three biggest deals: Isak, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike.

But Liverpool have kept their spending in check with sales of players like Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez, refreshing their squad for their title defence.

Sometimes, biggest doesn’t equal best when translating from the transfer market to on-pitch performance. But Liverpool were already the team to catch this season and haven’t harmed their chances at all with their aggressive approach in the window.

DON’T MISS – Every completed Liverpool transfer in summer 2025: Signings, exits, loans