2015/16 Summer Transfer Window Breakdown

2015/16 Summer Transfer Window Breakdown

As the Premier League hit a record Summer spending of £870 million on new players, it is easy to forget who has moved to where and which sagas that have been dominating the back pages for weeks have come to an end or have left both clubs with sore heads. In this post, I will running through the different transfers that have taken place, and decide who has been left with much too ponder over the International break and who is very confident with the bussiness done at their club.

Most Expensive Signing

Kevin De Bruyne - Wolfsburg to Manchester City (£55 million)

Not so long ago, De Bruyne was rotting on the Chelsea bench as one of the first players who's quality would be wasted by Jose Mourinho. Although he spent two loan spells at Genk and Werder Bremen, enjoying moderate personal success, he became frustrated with Jose for not letting him play in the first XI for games in which he technical and mental could shine through (e.g. Champions league game against Steau Bucharest. Belgium coach, Marc Wilmots, urged him to leave Stamford Bridge in search of first-team football and De Bruyne joined Wolfsburg in January 2014 for an estimated £16.7 million. 

De Bruyne hit the ground running at Wolfsburg and scored 13 games into his career at the Wolves. In the 2014-15 Bundesliga season, he scored ten goals and got twenty-one assists in 34 games, making him the hottest prospect in the Bundesliga. Manchester City showed interest and Wolfsburg hit back with a whopping £51.5 million release clause for the 24-year-old. City paid a little over this (possibly due to the rumours of Bayern Munich pondering a £60 million bid) and De Bruyne returned to the Premier League on a six-year deal, with everyone finally seeing his midfield presence and constant threat towards the other Premier League defences.  

Surprise Signing

Xherdan Shaqiri - Inter Milan to Stoke City (£12 million)

On 11th August, Stoke pulled off what I think is the surprise signing of the Summer Transfer Window by signing ex-Bayern Munich winger Shaqiri from Inter Milan for £12 million. Mark Hughes has had a decent transfer window, but the signing of an experienced and extremely underrated ex- Champions League winner is what catches my eye and makes me think that Stoke could seriously compete for a place just below the Europa League spots. 

Son Heung Min - Bayer Leverkusen to Tottenham (£22 million)

On 28th August, Tottenham signed Son, a player who is reasonably unheard of to those who don't watch the Bundesliga regularly. The 23-year-old scored 29 goals in 87 appearances for Leverkusen, having moved from Hamburg in 2013. When interviewed on how he will play, Son said "Bold and daring- that is how I like to play."

A replacement for flop Roberto Soldado, who departed for Villarreal earlier in the window for £7 million, Son has fierce pace and is a surprise signing for me as I thought it would have been a another year or two before a Premier League team tried to track the South Korean's signature. It is a good buy for the London outfit and will be welcomed by Harry Kane in regards to easing the goalscoring pressure.

Julian Draxler - Schalke to Wolfsburg (Undisclosed fee)

Draxler was tracked by a wide range of European clubs as he made his progression into the Schalke first-team. An adaptable player, who can buy in the No 10 slot and on the wings, it was thought that Schalke would have a tough job on their hands when trying to secure he spent the majority of his early years at Schalke. I didn't see Draxler moving this summer as he is only 21 but the German International has opted to move to Champions League spot rivals Wolfsburg. He acknowledges that he could have gone to Juventus but says "The Bundesliga is an environment I already know." Draxler highlights his disappoint at Kevin De Bruyne no longer being at the Wolves "I'm only sorry to arrive here not to find De Bruyne. It would have been great to play with him."

Although Draxler is still very young, he has matured into a unique professional with respect for others in the game, an example of this being his continuous joy at Arsene Wenger's careful tracking of his ability. I think Wolfsburg have filled De Bruyne's spot as best as they could of with the time and money they had at their disposal and they will benefit massively from this surprise signing.


Deadline Day Signings (with some Deadline Day facts)

(This list highlights the major signings of Deadline Day)

Alex Song - Barcelona to West Ham (Loan)

Ramiro Funes Mori - River Plate to Everton (£9.5 million)

Victor Moses - Chelsea to West Ham (Loan)

Papy Dijilobodji - Nates to Chelsea (£4 million)

Nikica Jelavic - Hull to West Ham (£3 million)

Glenn Murray - Crystal Palace to AFC Bournemouth (£4 million)

Virgil Van Dijk - Celtic to Southampton (£11.5 million)

Joloen Lescott - West Brom to Aston Villa (£2 million)

Anthony Martial - AS Monaco to Manchester United (£36 million - could rise to £58.8 million depending on the player's performance over his five-year contract)

Victor Ibrarbo - AS Roma to Watford (Loan)

Nathan Dyer - Swansea to Leicester (Loan)

Aaron Lennon - Tottenham to Everton (£5 million)

Matt Jarvis - West Ham to Norwich (Loan)

Dimitar Berbatov - Free Agents to POAK

• Premier League clubs spent approximately £90 million on deadline day (£5 million more than last summer).
• Anthony Martial became the World's most expensive teenager when he signed for Manchester United on deadline day for £36 million, with the fee potentially rising to £58.8 million). He is United's third most expensive signing behind Angel Di Maria (£59.7 million from Real Madrid) and Juan Mata (£37.1 million from Chelsea).
• West Brom turned down a third and fourth bid from Tottenham on deadline day for Sadio Berahino, who later tweeted he would never play for chairman Jeremy Peace again.

Sagas of the Window

Raheem Sterling wanting to leave Liverpool

OUTCOME: Joined Manchester City for £49 million

In many ways, this transfer saga defines modern Football. A player wanted to leave, the media became the platform to deny 'money-grabbing' rumours, the club (Liverpool) set a huge price tag and a cash-flowing giant (Manchester City) came into 'save' the player (Sterling) from being frozen out of the first XI. In my opinion, this transfer was handed very badly. Sterling shouldn't have gone to the press and Liverpool should have put him up for sale as it was clear that he didn't want to sign the contract for £100,000 a week and remain at the club.

Anyway, Sterling moved to Manchester City for £49 million (£44 million + £5 million add-ons), with QPR getting £10 million from the transfer. He has exploded into life at the Etihad, adding much needed pace to City's left wing. I think Sterling will become one of City's most important players as they look to be title favourites coming out of the transfer window.

David De Gea to Real Madrid 

OUTCOME: Spanish deadline closed before United filed the paperwork

David De Gea was the perfect fit for Real Madrid. He is Spanish, his girlfriend is Spanish and used to be extremely popular in Spain and he used to play for Los Blancos arch cross-city rivals. The rumours had been circulating for just over a year, with Madrid losing faith in Iker Casillas (who was transferred to Porto faster than Mourinho dodging a BBC report for a post-match interview) and it seems like nothing would stand in the way of this transfer.

Until we got to deadline day.

A £29 million fee had been accepted by Manchester United (with Costa Rica keeper Keylor Navas going to Old Trafford) and it looked like all parties would be satisfied with the move. However, the Spanish summer transfer deadline closed two minutes before United filed the paperwork to Real and the Premier League. Real then released a statement saying "We did everything we could to make the transfer of David De Gea possible" and blamed United for the extremely slow progress in filing the correct paperwork. It seems that either United are to blame or the two clubs became locked in a PR showdown that unfortunately dominated their attention away from the transfer of (potentially)the Premier League's best Goalkeeper.

So, what happens now? Will De Gea rot until January? His fellow countryman, and team-mate, Juan Mata has said that De Gea remains 'calm and professional after a mad couple of days'. From this, I can gather that De Gea seems willing to play for United in order to get first-team action under Madrid come in for him again in January. Only time will tell.


John Stones wanting to leave Everton

OUTCOME: Chelsea end interest after four bids rejected

As David Moyes departed Everton for Manchester United not so long ago, not many would have guessed that his final gift to the Merseyside club would be a teenager from Barnsley who cost £3 million. Like any youngster at Everton, Stones was given a lot of time to show his skills for the first-team, parented up with Everton captain Phil Jagielka as the core of Everton's team. Fast-forward to today and Stones is Everton's most vital defender, and after this transfer window, seems to be their most important player. Chelsea came up with four bids for the ex-Barnsley defender (£20 million, £26 million, £30 million and £40 million) but Everton stood firm. Roberto Martinez said on the matter "Clubs can't just click there fingers anymore and expect others to bow to them". I agree with this analysis by Roberto and would argue that it shows the power of clubs when they label a player not for sale.

The Everton fans reaction to Stones' transfer request was mixed as some booed him at the Capital One Cup game away to Barnsley and others expressing their understanding on social media and Everton forum pages. It all became joyful when a fourth bid was rejected before the away League game against Tottenham, which lead to Evertonians at the game to sign the Beatles song Money can't buy you love (with one of the lines being Money can't buy you Stones!').
 

Sadio Berahino wanting to join Tottenham

OUTCOME: Jeremy Peace blocked transfer request and rejected four bids (last one worth £24 million)

It all started when he didn't celebrate against Gateshead in West Brom's 7-2 win over the North East team at the Hawthrons. Four goals, match ball in the bag and not even a smile from the prolific England Under 21's striker. Social media and gossip columns lit up, linking the West Brom striker to Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal. Tottenham were the only one's to make offers for Berahino, with four bids being rejected (two being rejected on deadline day). Jeremy Peace, WBA Chairman, once again showed how tough of a negotiator he is and labelled Sadio not for sale and also fended off big offers for a player that had been at the WBA academy since the age of 12. Berahino became very anger with Peace's stubborn approach and tweeted that he will never play for the Baggies again under Peace's chairmanship. This has sparked outrage from the club and they have decided to fine Berahino and have crunch talks with him on Friday.

For me, this saga was the one was handed so badly because the player and club weren't in direct communication about what both parties wanted and this is subsequently lead to Berahino being frozen out of the starting XI for the majority of the transfer window. I doubt much progress will be made at these crunch talks in order to mend the relationship between the player and the club. This war of words is definitely not calming down anytime soon.

Loser of the Transfer Window

Arsenal

Earlier this transfer window, Arsenal brought in Cech for £10 million from London rivals Chelsea, it looked as if Wenger would finally break his summer transfer trend of buying just one big player and could seriously mount a title challenge. Links with the biggest strikers in Europe started hitting the back pages in the first few weeks of August, such as Real Madrid's Karim Benezma and PSG's Edison Cavani, but it never seemed that Wenger (or Arsenal officials) would officially approach any of these clubs to negotiate a potential club-record signing.

It is extremely obvious to all football fans that Arsenal needed to sign a striker in order to convert all of Arsenal's midfield supply into 15 to 20 plus goals a season. Wenger can't claim that Arsenal don't have money to spend because of the on-going cost of the Emirates stadium (as he said in a BBC interview that the board has cleared the stadium debt).

So why haven't they signed a striker? For me, its the fact that Arsenal won't take risks when it comes to high-calibre players. Wenger worries too much about the potential negatives of signing a £30 million upward striker (injuries, goal droughts and discipline issues) and therefore clouds his job as the manager to bring in the best talent possible to a club with a rich history of world-class strikers. Who knows maybe Wenger will prove everyone wrong but it doesn't seem likely after the immediate aftermath of the summer transfer window.

 

Manchester City broke their club-record to buy Kevin De Bruyne for £55 million from Wolfsburg.