Winners and losers of the 2026 summer transfer window: Arsenal and Barcelona bolster their already imposing midfield – but Liverpool still look short as Julian Alvarez fails to exit Atletico Madrid
It was made painfully clear to buyers this summer that this is now a seller’s market. There is such a dearth of world-class talent at the highest level, that even relatively unproven young talents like Diomande and Ayoub Bouadi command insane prices. It is no surprise, then, that wealthy clubs who tend to hoard players benefit the most from a desperation-driven transfer market.
For example, Paris Saint-Germain spent more than €150m on new players, but earned almost twice that figure (€280m) by capitalizing on four strikers deemed surplus to requirements: Barkola, Ramos, Randall Kolo-Mwani, and Lee Kang-in.
Chelsea’s owners, Clearlake, have clearly paid the price by investing almost exclusively in youth until this summer, with an inexperienced group failing to qualify for Europe last season and struggling every year to dispose of their bomb squad. However, the west Londoners have made more money through player exits than PSG, with more showings of their impressive ability to convince other Premier League teams to pay big for their dead money.
Aston Villa alone took Nicholas Jackson and Alejandro Garnacho off their hands for £100m, while Manchester United for some reason felt obliged to hand over £48m to Santos. However, Chelsea’s best work saw Liam Delap depart for Nottingham Forest for a barely believable £45m – just one year and one league goal after arriving from Ipswich for £30m.
However, when it came to offloading players for exorbitant fees, Manchester City were the smartest salespeople of the summer. Losing Rodri to Barcelona may be a huge blow from a sporting perspective, but £65m is still a good fee for a 30-year-old player not long after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Of course, this was nothing compared to receiving £52m from Al-Qadisiyah for struggling midfielder Tijani Reynders or making an £18m profit from James Trafford, who made just four Premier League appearances last season.
It was the double deal with Tottenham that truly took your breath away. As well as agreeing an initial loan move with Tottenham for Omar Marmoush with a commitment to buy that should see City recoup the approximate £60m fee that Eintracht Frankfurt paid for the Egyptian, City have somehow managed to get their Premier League rivals to meet their staggering £85m valuation for Savio – a price so ridiculous that it has left many wondering if this is a different Brazilian to the one called Savinho who struggled so badly at the Etihad.
Of course, Savio/Savinho could continue to prove a good signing for Tottenham, but that doesn’t change the fact – a fact even if player value is subjective – that there was no logical explanation for the winger’s price almost tripling after two goals in two Premier League seasons. In that sense, this was the window in which the market went absolutely crazy.
