The 2025 summer transfer window closed on Monday, bringing an end to a summer of almost endless drama and controversy. Premier League sides spent more money than the other ‘Big Five’ leagues combined, meaning there’s a very real risk of title-challenging teams from La Liga, Serie A, the الدوري الألماني و الدوري الفرنسي 1 becoming feeder clubs for England‘s elite.
That said, Real Madrid splashed a fair bit of cash remodelling their backline, taking Trent Alexander-Arnold away from Liverpool in the process, but it’s not as if the right-back is being missed at Anfield, which bore witness to one of the most remarkable spending sprees in football history.
But who were the big winners of the summer? Below, BALLGM grades 10 of the continent’s top teams in terms of their summer business…
The 2025 summer transfer window closed on Monday, bringing an end to a summer of almost endless drama and controversy. Premier League sides spent more money than the other ‘Big Five’ leagues combined, meaning there’s a very real risk of title-challenging teams from La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 becoming feeder clubs for England’s elite.
That said, Real Madrid splashed a fair bit of cash remodelling their backline, taking Trent Alexander-Arnold away from Liverpool in the process, but it’s not as if the right-back is being missed at Anfield, which bore witness to one of the most remarkable spending sprees in football history.
But who were the big winners of the summer? Below, بالجم grades 10 of the continent’s top teams in terms of their summer business…
بايرن ميونيخ are looking good on the field, but appear to be in utter disarray off it – and a chaotic transfer window is the reason why.
Depending who you talk to, sporting director Max Eberl has either made a mess of this summer’s recruitment strategy – or been hindered by the financial restrictions imposed upon him by the board. Whatever the truth, it’s clear that Bayern’s squad is, as Eberl admitted, “too thin” for a team with aspirations of winning both the Bundesliga and the Champions League.
The departures of Kingsley Coman, Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane, Eric Dier and Joao Palhinha make sense in isolation. but not when measured up against the quantity – and quality – of the arrivals.
As Luis Diaz is already proving, he’ll add a lot to the Bayern attack (even the Colombian cost far more than he should have done), while Jonathan Tah represents a fantastic free transfer. However, agreeing to pay تشيلسي a €16.5m loan fee for Nicolas Jackson, as well as accepting a €64m obligation to buy, is indicative of the ridiculously high level of desperation that gripped the Bavarians during the closing days of the transfer window.
Vincent Kompany unquestionably has a very strong starting line-up, one capable of going toe to toe with any of Europe’s top teams, but the Belgian is clearly short on numbers in key areas and the issues at boardroom level, coupled with the way in which Bayern missed out on top targets Florian Wirtz and Nick Woltemade, has rightly set alarm bells ringing at the Allianz Arena.
Barcelona remain a club still trying desperately to get back on an even keel after the destabilisation caused by years of gross financial mismanagement. Consequently, this summer was always going to be more about offloading unwanted players than signing new stars. In that context, the Blaugrana have done reasonably well, as they ended up making more money (€37m) than they spent (€29m).
Of course, Barca didn’t really need a goalkeeper, but Hansi Flick wanted one – so sporting director Deco deserves credit for taking advantage of the ludicrously low buy-out clause in Joan Garcia’s Espanyol contract (€29m) to sign one of the best young shot-stoppers in La Liga from their city rivals. The €3m spent on Danish teenager Roony Bardghji could also end up looking like a bargain in a few years’ time.
However, there’s no getting away from the fact that ending up with Marcus Rashford after pursuing Nico Williams and Luis Diaz is seriously underwhelming from Barca’s perspective. Missing out on Williams was particularly painful, as the Spain international was keen to move to Catalunya. However, he rather understandably pulled the plug on the transfer after Barca refused to insert an exit clause into his contract that would have allowed him to leave if the club failed to register him with La Liga.
In a further blow for the Blaugrana, Inigo Martinez left for Al-Nassr because Barca promised to release the veteran defender if he received a lucrative offer from Saudi Arabia during the summer. As a result, Flick lost one of the key figures from last season’s domestic treble win for absolutely nothing.
So, while the German coach still has some of the most exciting players in the world at his disposal, his squad really isn’t any stronger than a year ago.
Paris Saint-Germain unsurprisingly opted against making wholesale changes to a squad that won a treble last season. However, Luis Enrique had two requests.
Firstly, he wanted another strong, ball-playing centre-back to provide cover for ويليان Pacho and Marquinhos, and Illia Zabarnyi certainly fit the bill.
Secondly, and far more significantly, the coach asked for a new goalkeeper. Gigi Donnarumma may have been utterly integral to PSG’s Champions League triumph, but Luis Enrique was never happy with the Italian’s distribution of the ball.
Consequently, he made the controversial call to ditch Donnarumma in favour of Lucas Chevalier, the former Lille No.1 who is far more suited to the role of sweeper-keeper. However, the fact that Donnarumma was promptly picked up by مانشستر سيتي means this is a deal that is likely to be scrutinised all season long.
Still, Luis Enrique is rightly happy with his lot right now and, looking at the window as a whole, perhaps the one disappointment from PSG’s perspective is that Randal Kolo Muani’s proposed permanent move to Juventus collapsed, meaning the French and European champions had to accept a loan offer from توتنهام to keep him off their roster for another season.
مانشستر متحد are obviously still counting the cost of more than a decade of dreadful recruitment, so it’s going to be some time before they’re back competing for major honours. However, some progress was made during the summer – in the transfer market at least.
United managed to find new homes for wantaway wingers Alejandro Garnacho (Chelsea) and أنطوني (Real Betis), while they should be officially rid of Rasmus Hojlund next summer, as the Danish striker’s loan move to Napoli will become permanent if the Partenopei qualify for next season’s Champions League – which they should do easily.
Former England forwards Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho have also been removed from the wage bill but only for a year, and it really wouldn’t be a surprise to see both back at Old Trafford at the end of the 2025-26 campaign.
Still, all of the outgoings put United in a position to overhaul their attack, which they’ve done with the signings of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko – though they’ve managed just one Premier League goal between them so far and the latter looks worryingly short of fitness and confidence.
Furthermore, United did nothing to address their glaring issues in midfield (other than keep Kobbie Mainoo against his will) and they really need the inexperienced 23-year-old Belgian Senne Lammens to solve their costly goalkeeping problem.
Long story short, it could be another testing season for the Old Trafford faithful, whose patience is already being tested by Ruben Amorim and his tactical dogma.
This summer has been a real rollercoaster ride for Spurs fans. As if seeing Nottingham Forest block Morgan Gibbs-White’s move to north London wasn’t bad enough, Tottenham then suffered the bitter embarrassment of missing out on Eberechi Eze to their most hated rivals Arsenal at the last minute.
However, the window finished pretty well for manager Thomas Frank, who saw an injury-hit forward line reinforced by the late arrivals of Xavi Simons and Randal Kolo Muani.
Given Mohammed Kudus is already looking like a brilliant bit of business, Spurs are suddenly looking pretty well stacked in attack. However, the pick of Tottenham’s new signings could well be Joao Palhinha, the Portuguese ball-winning machine who has joined on loan from Bayern Munich.
If there’s one area for concern, it’s at the back, where Spurs look a little light on cover, but the supporters will be quite looking forward to the remainder of their campaign.
Their team’s offensive limitations may have been exposed by Bournemouth at the weekend, but Frank has a proven track record when it comes to improving players, so it would be a surprise if he doesn’t manage to get a tune out of the likes of Simons and Kolo Muani, two talented internationals who won’t want for motivation going into a World Cup year.
Manchester City desperately need their summer window to prove a lot more successful than their winter recruitment. Of the five players added to the senior squad in January at a combined cost of £180m, only Omar Marmoush has thus far made a positive impression at the Etihad.
Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Cherki and Rayan Ait-Nouri definitely have it in them to prove smart signings, although it very much remains to be seen if they’re capable of putting City back on their perch.
The decision to effectively replace Ederson with Gigi Donnarumma has also raised eyebrows for a couple of reasons. Firstly, City had already re-signed James Trafford from Burnley. Secondly, the Italian was discarded by Paris Saint-Germain because Luis Enrique wanted a goalkeeper more suited to playing the ball out from the back, which is a staple of Guardiola’s game plan.
Good money has been raised from selling the likes of James McAtee and Maximo Perrone, but one cannot help but wonder if some of those funds should have been put towards signing a proper right-back, while the decision to jettison Jack Grealish is not reflecting particularly well on Pep right now.
It’s fair to say, then, that City’s summer – just like their poor start to the new Premier League season – has provided more questions than answers.
It was an intriguing rather than a spectacular summer at Santiago Bernabeu. Coach Xabi Alonso was the most noteworthy new face at Real Madrid, who didn’t bring in any Galacticos and primarily focused on revamping their defence.
Spain centre-half Dean Huijsen belatedly joined Los Blancos after rejecting the club as a youngster, former مانشستر يونايتد left-back Alvaro Carreras arrived from Benfica, while Madrid were, rather amusingly, so keen to have Trent Alexander-Arnold for the Club World Cup that they paid €10m to sign him a month before the expiration of his Liverpool contract.
Alexander-Arnold is obviously a fascinating player capable of adding a different dimension to Alonso’s side, but his primary concern should be just proving himself a better option at right-back than Dani Carvajal. The early signs are, though, that Franco Mastantuono could easily become a major star in Spain, with the 18-year-old River Plate product impressing in his first couple of appearances for Madrid.
However, doubts persist over the strength of the midfield, the area in which Real were so badly exposed by Barca and Arsenal last season. Doubts persist over Aurelien Tchouameni and Madrid remain on the lookout for a worthy successor to Toni Kroos.
It’s been another insane summer at Stamford Bridge, where the revolving-door recruitment policy remains in full swing. To illustrate the point, Chelsea spent more than £300m on new players but raised pretty much the same amount from sales.
Of the most notable new arrivals, Joao Pedro is already looking like a fantastic purchase, after hitting the ground running at the Club World Cup, and fellow Brazilian Estevao Willian has just as quickly become a fan favourite in west London.
The versatile Jorrel Hato should also prove a very useful option in defence, but it’s really hard to understand why Chelsea are so preoccupied with signing so many wide players of a similar standard, with both Jamie Gittens and Alejandro Garnacho having become Blues this summer.
On the plus side, though, Chelsea managed to get rid of almost every single member of their ‘Bomb Squad’ bar Raheem Sterling, who remains a colossal strain on the club’s wage bill.
The way in which Chelsea treat players as commodities may rub a lot of people up the wrong way, but credit where it’s due, they’re the best sellers in the business, as they once again underlined by making more than £20m apiece the likes of Carney Chukwuemeka, Armando Broja, Renato Veiga, as well as convincing Arsenal to hand over nearly £50m for Noni Madueke.
The Blues may have a crazy approach to the transfer market, but it’s working for the reigning world champions.
Arsenal have been crying out for a prolific No.9 for years. Now, they’ve finally got one, with the Gunners having brought in Viktor Gyokeres, who scored an absurd 97 goals in 102 games in all competitions for Sporting CP.
Arsenal didn’t stop there, though. The attack was also bolstered by the addition of the exciting Eberechi Eze, while Noni Madueke should provide decent – and long overdue – cover for the injury-prone Bukayo Saka on the right wing.
In midfield, Christian Norgaard is a very sensible signing, but Martin Zubimendi is the potential game-changer, a massive upgrade on Thomas Partey who should bring out the best in Declan Rice.
Meanwhile, the arrival of versatile duo Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie means manager Mikel Arteta has an enviable amount of depth in defence. Indeed, one could easily argue that the Spaniard is now in possession of the strongest squad in England.
The downside, though, is that Arsenal made just over £13m in summer sales, resulting in an even higher net spend than Liverpool, so nothing less than a Premier League or Champions League triumph will suffice this season.
A record-breaking and almost flawless window from Liverpool, who took full advantage of the fact that they were operating from a position of unprecedented financial and sporting strength.
While deals for Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez had been in the works for some time (the former’s arrival was officially confirmed on the same day that Trent Alexander-Arnold formally departed for Real Madrid), the Premier League champions made their first statement of intent by blowing Bayern Munich and Manchester City out of the water to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen for an initial £100m.
They then pulled off the ultimate power play by hijacking Newcastle’s move for Hugo Ekitike before then prising star striker Alexander Isak away from the Magpies too.
The one disappointment was missing out on Marc Guehi, with Crystal Palace pulling the plug on the defender’s move to Anfield at the 11th hour, which is why we’ve denied Liverpool top marks here. However, no matter what happens from here, this has been the most remarkable summer in the Reds’ history – primarily because they’ve paid for well over half of their historic outlay with player sales.
Truly remarkable work from the best-run club in England – and arguably Europe.
