Premier League clubs spent around £850 million this summer – but how much of it was wisely spent, and which clubs needed to dip into their pockets a bit more?
We have given last season's top six Premier League clubs a grade for their efforts over the summer.

ARSENAL

Buying Petr Cech addressed a key weakness for Arsenal and proved Wenger can recruit at the top of the market. Sadly, he failed to take on board either of these lessons when it came to all other areas of his squad, leaving Arsenal in the preposterous position of being the only club in the top five European leagues not to sign an outfield player this summer. If only Karim Benzema had been up for it…

Ins: Petr Cech (Chelsea)

Outs: Ryo Miyaichi (St Pauli), Abou Diaby (Marseille), Lukas Podolski (Galatasaray), Carl Jenkinson (West Ham, loan), Wojciech Szczesny (Roma, loan)

Total spend: £10m

Net spend: £8m

Grade: E

CHELSEA

Oh dear. Let’s start with Pedro and acknowledge that he is a fantastic signing who makes Chelsea a more dangerous team. But reported moves for John Stones and Paul Pogba evaporated and deadline day was marked by the arrival of two defenders of dubious quality. A cry for help from Jose Mourinho with his side struggling for form? It certainly wasn’t a great look in the face of Manchester City’s transfer onslaught.

Ins: Asmir Begovic (Stoke), Nathan (Atletico Paranaense), Danilo Pantic (Partizan), Radamel Falcao (Monaco), Pedro (Barcelona), Baba Rahman (Augsburg), Kenedy (Fluminense), Papy Djilobodji (Nantes), Michael Hector (Reading)

Outs: Petr Cech (Arsenal), Mohamed Salah (Roma, loan), Didier Drogba (Montreal), Christian Atsu (Bournemouth, loan), Gael Kakuta (Sevilla), Mario Pasalic (Monaco, loan), Josh McEachran (Brentford), Tomas Kalas (Middlesbrough. loan), Filipe Luis (Atletico Madrid), Marco van Ginkel (Stoke, loan), Patrick Bamford (Crystal Palace, loan), Lucas Piazon (Reading, loan), Juan Cuadrado (Juventus, loan), Oriol Romeu (Southampton), Marko Marin (Trabzonspor, loan), Islam Feruz (Hibernian, loan), Michael Hector (Reading, loan)

Total spend: £59m

Net spend: £24m

Grade: D

LIVERPOOL

As so often with big squad renewals of this kind, it still needs to come out in the wash. But Gomez has looked bright, Milner and Clyne are solid Premier League performers and Christian Benteke is a striker of real quality, so we have this down as a successful window, even taking into account the loss of Sterling. Firmino still has it all to prove, although he’s shown flashes of quality.

Ins: Christian Benteke (Aston Villa), Roberto Firmino (Hoffenheim), Nathaniel Clyne (Southampton), Danny Ings (Burnley), Joe Gomez (Charlton), James Milner (Manchester City), Adam Bogdan (Bolton)

Outs: Steven Gerrard (Los Angeles Galaxy), Glen Johnson (Stoke), Sebastian Coates (Sunderland), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Andre Wisdom (Norwich City, loan), Rickie Lambert (West Brom), Brad Jones (free), Iago Aspas (Celta Vigo), Mario Balotelli (AC Milan, loan), Lazar Markovic (Fenerbahce, loan), Fabio Borini (Sunderland), Tiago Ilori (Aston Villa, loan)

Total spend: £78m

Net spend: £18m

Grade: B-

MANCHESTER CITY

After rightly getting stick for last season’s poor performance in the transfer market, albeit hamstrung by FFP considerations that no longer apply, City have outmanoeuvred the rest of the pack with a brilliant summer’s work. Sterling and De Bruyne could be two of the most exciting and dangerous young players in England this season and putting them either side of David Silva is a wonderful prospect. They look a team reinvigorated – and all it took was nearly £150m.

Ins: Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Patrick Roberts (Fulham), Fabian Delph (Aston Villa), Enes Unal (Bursaspor), David Faupala (Lens), Kevin De Bruyne (Wolfsburg), Nicolas Otamendi (Valencia)

Outs: Scott Sinclair (Aston Villa), James Milner (Liverpool), Dedryck Boyata (Celtic), Angelino (New York City, loan), Micah Richards (Aston Villa), Karim Rekik (Marseille), John Guidetti (Celta Vigo), Jason Denayer (Galatasaray, loan), Stevan Jovetic (Inter Milan), Edin Dzeko (Roma), Rony Lopes (Monaco)

Total spend: £143m

Net spend: £100m

Grade: A+

MANCHESTER UNITED

 

United have made some excellent signings, bringing in the young talents of Memphis, Martial, Darmian and Schneiderlin coupled with the experience of Schweinsteiger. But they managed to alienate and then fail to sell David De Gea and have left the struggling Wayne Rooney horribly exposed with only Martial as any real back-up. Another centre-back was also required and they never signed their world-beater despite trawling Europe for one so, despite spending nine figures, they are still left with real weak points in their squad. Another up and down window for Ed Woodward, to put it kindly.

Ins: Morgan Schneiderlin (Southampton), Memphis Depay (PSV), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Matteo Darmian (Torino), Sergio Romero (Sampdoria), Anthony Martial (Monaco)

Outs: Tom Cleverley (Everton), Ben Amos (Bolton), Tom Thorpe (Rotherham), Saidy Janko (Celtic), Nani (Fenerbahce), Will Keane (Preston, loan), Robin van Persie (Fenerbahce), Angel Di María (Paris St-Germain), Javier Hernandez (Bayer Leverkusen), Jonny Evans (West Brom), Adnan Januzaj (Borussia Dortmund, loan), Anders Lindegaard (West Brom), Rafael (Lyon), Tyler Blackett (Celtic, loan)

Total spend: £100m

Net spend: £28m

Grade: C+

TOTTENHAM 

Has something happened to Daniel Levy? Spurs were ominously quiet on Deadline Day, secretely hoping Saido Berahino would pull a Peter Odemwingie and drive down to London. He didn’t, leaving them hopelessly short in attack and Alderweireld as their only addition of real quality. One cause for celebration, however, is that they kept hold of Hugo Lloris, Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane. Still, the conclusion is a bleak one.

Ins: Toby Alderweireld (Atletico Madrid), Kevin Wimmer (Cologne), Kieran Trippier (Burnley), Clinton N’Jie (Lyon), Son Heung-min (Bayer Leverkusen)

Outs: Jordan Archer (Millwall), Cristian Ceballos (Charlton), Bongani Khumalo (Supersport United), Paulinho (Guangzhou Evergrande), Lewis Holtby (Hamburg), Etienne Capoue (Watford), Younes Kaboul (Sunderland), Benjamin Stambouli (Paris St-Germain), Vlad Chiriches (Napoli), Roberto Soldado (Villarreal), DeAndre Yedlin (Sunderland), Aaron Lennon (Everton)

Total spend: £50m

Net spend: £15m

Grade: D+

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