Liverpool have an obvious best January signing; it might be the greatest winter window addition ever. Chelsea will be desperate to change theirs soon.
Arsenal: Martin Odegaard
An initial loanee from Real Madrid in 2021, the current captain dethroned Theo Walcott as the Gunners’ king of January soon after the move was made permanent.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ran Walcott close as one of the few top-class winter signings Arsenal have ever made, but Odegaard’s influence on the most exciting side the Emirates has seen for too long makes him a worthy choice.
The Norwegian was handed the armband in 2022 following Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette’s departures and Odegaard has flourished with the added responsibility.
Aston Villa: Tyrone Mings
This is a tough call. It was Ashley Young up until three years ago when Mings usurped the versatile wideman.
Does Mings still warrant such status? It’s been a tough couple of years for the centre-back: losing his England place; the Villa captaincy; briefly his Villa starting spot. And then when he regained it, he suffered a serious injury but has recovered well since besides the Club Brugge brainfade.
So, yes, he retains this title, at least until Jhon Duran or Morgan Rogers take over.
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Bournemouth: Adam Smith
It was once Steve Cook but much like the Bournemouth record for Premier League appearances, Smith has opened up a commanding lead through sheer longevity.
A decade has passed since Smith made the permanent move to Dean Court, having spent a season on loan with the Cherries in League One a few years prior. The captain recently overtook Cook for all-time league appearances on 392, and while Steve Fletcher is a further 119 ahead it would take a fool to bet against Smith still being Bournemouth captain in 2034.
Brentford: Sergi Canos
A former club-record signing but perhaps most importantly, Brentford’s outright all-time highest Premier League goalscorer for about 51 minutes.
Brighton: Moises Caicedo
This title once belonged to Alexis Mac Allister, who followed a very similar path to prominence at Brighton and even won a World Cup as a Seagull.
But while his big move earned Brighton £35m or so from an outlay of £6.9m, Caicedo fetched a likely British record £115m just two and a half years after joining for £4.5m.
Burnley: James Tarkowski
Sean Dyche brought in Charlie Austin, Ashley Barnes, Kieran Trippier, Michael Keane, Ashley Westwood and Robbie Brady in January transfer windows. But his most impressive purchase must surely be that of then-23-year-old Tarkowski, who transformed from Football League stalwart into fully-fledged England international at Turf Moor.
Not many predicted he would be featuring for a World Cup semi-finalist while he was plodding around at Oldham and Brentford. At Everton, Tarkowski is reunited with Dyche and it feels so good (not for the largely disillusioned fanbase, mind).
Chelsea: Branislav Ivanovic
In an alternate universe, the January arrivals of Kevin de Bruyne (2012) and Mohamed Salah (2014) might have heralded a dawn of complete Chelsea dominance. The Blues will hope the near-£300m splurge in January 2023 will reap rewards soon; Enzo Fernandes and Noni Madueke are starting to look good but Mykhaylo Mudryk may have become an even bigger problem recently.
But while the Blues have historically struggled to add another attacking dimension to their squad mid-season, they have fared much better with defensive reinforcements. Gary Cahill was a fantastic addition in 2012, perhaps bettered only by that of Ivanovic four years prior. The Serb spent nine years at Stamford Bridge, winning ten trophies in the process.
Crystal Palace: Wilfried Zaha
It will forever be weird that Zaha’s first ever Premier League start was for Cardiff. He helped Crystal Palace earn Championship promotion in his final season before leaving for Manchester United in 2013. His well-documented struggles at Old Trafford meant he was loaned out twice and played just four times for David Moyes before returning to Selhurst Park on loan in August 2014.
So it came as no surprise when that deal was made permanent in the following transfer window, with Zaha opening up a healthy lead as Palace’s all-time record Premier League scorer with 68 goals.
Everton: Seamus Coleman
If it came down to sell-on value then few could compete with John Stones – signed for £3m and sold for £47.5m within three-and-a-half years.
But in terms of sheer value for money, Coleman pips his former team-mate. The Ireland international joined from Sligo Rovers for £60,000 as an unknown gamble, and soon became one of the Premier League’s best right-backs. He is still going reasonably strong under his 427th Goodison Park manager at the ripe old age of 36.
Fulham: Brede Hangeland
The Cottagers have done well out of the January market.
Brian McBride and Clint Dempsey arrived in the mid-season window, as did Aleksandar Mitrovic, who pushed Hangeland hard for his crown. But the centre-back left a huge mark on Craven Cottage. He was one of Roy Hodgson’s first signings at Fulham in 2008 from FC Copenhagen and the defender became a stalwart through one of the greatest periods in the club’s history, with all of his seven seasons at Fulham spent in the Premier League.
He made 270 appearances before he was released by Felix Magath, who Hangeland later claimed had instructed him to ease a thigh injury by placing a block of cheese on his leg. “I always try to see the good in people,” Hangeland said. “But Magath was an awful human being.”
Ipswich: Nathan Broadhead
A passenger on the journey through League One and the Championship, former Everton academy graduate Broadhead has thus far appeared only briefly in the Premier League.
He did plenty to help get them there after joining in January 2023. Only Conor Chaplin scored more goals in Ipswich’s back-to-back promotion campaigns.
Leicester: Robert Huth
Leicester were 20th when they signed Huth on loan from Stoke. After inspiring an ultimately comfortable survival bid, the centre-half won his third Premier League title and reached a Champions League quarter-final in just over two years.
Liverpool: Virgil van Dijk
It was once Luis Suarez, scorer, biter and racism-er extraordinaire. But Van Dijk helped transform Liverpool entirely into title winners and European champions.
The Reds have made bountiful use of the winter window – Philippe Coutinho, Daniel Sturridge, Maxi Rodriguez, Javier Mascherano, Daniel Agger, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Steven Caulker – but Van Dijk remains the best investment of the lot.
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Manchester City: Edin Dzeko
“If the champion is City, then I would say a Man City player and if I have to choose, I choose Dzeko,” said Jose Mourinho when asked for his choice of Player of the Year in May 2014. “The kind of player he is, he’s not just a goal-scorer. He assists, he plays, he behaves, he’s fair, doesn’t dive, doesn’t try to put opponents in the stands with an accumulation of cards,” the Portuguese added, doing one of his weird winks in the general direction of eventual winner Suarez.
Dzeko arguably never earned the adulation he deserved at the Etihad, with a respectable 50 goals in 130 Premier League games, of which only 74 were starts. Only Sergio Aguero scored more goals (40) across the club’s first two title-winning seasons than the Bosnian (30).
Manchester United: Bruno Fernandes
Fernandes quickly established himself as not only the most transformative arrival of the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, but one of the very few actually good ones.
After making his debut in February, in a Covid-hit year, the recruit from Sporting was the absolute king of lockdownball and remains a petulant, frustrating but ultimately crucial cog in an often failing machine with 85 goals and 76 assists in 257 games.
Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra were rubbish so don’t start.
Newcastle: Bruno Guimaraes
January was generally a dark month, as most of them were, under Mike Ashley. Then the Saudis turned up and showed what can be achieved mid-season if you’re willing to fork out more than a tenner with a couple of Sports Direct tea vessels chucked in.
Chris Wood was the only bad buy among the five Eddie Howe made in winter 2022 – and his form at Nottingham Forest since suggests it was just a case of incompatibility – but Guimaraes, signed from Lyon for a then-club-record £38m, was the best of the lot.
Howe has numerous times described the Brazilian as “a bargain” and Manchester City know it would take a small fortune to extract him from St James’ Park.
Nottingham Forest: Chris Wood
Perhaps it’s recency bias and there might be an element of rule-bending in including a January loanee who scored just one goal before making his move permanent and netting a bucketload more.
But Forest picked up their record Premier League scorer from the Newcastle scrapheap, dusted him down and bought in at a knockdown price. Without that January 2023 loan they might never have had the chance.
Southampton: Jose Fonte
“It changed my life, that’s the reality,” said Fonte of his decision to drop down a league from Crystal Palace in the Championship to third-tier Southampton.
He became a European Championship-winning Portugal international of more than 170 Premier League appearances through his seven years at St Mary’s; you can see why he feels so strongly.
Tottenham: Dele
Dejan Kulusevski is starting to push Dele here but barely a single eyelid was batted when Tottenham rounded off a quiet January 2015 transfer window by making a lower-league teenager their only signing a matter of minutes before the deadline.
The midfielder arrived from MK Dons with a huge reputation but was hardly expected to make his mark on the first team any time soon; he made his England debut later that year, became a two-time PFA Young Player of the Year and was twice named in the PFA Team of the Year.
Then it went woefully, inexplicably pear-shaped and ways were lost but hopefully the playmaker is slowing edging towards a return.
West Ham: Jarrod Bowen
“I think he could be a big success,” said manager David Moyes of West Ham’s shiny new plaything, who has turned out to be an absolute gem.
Bowen ranks joint-second for all-time Premier League goals (47) and assists (34) as a Hammer, trailing behind Michail Antonio and Mark Noble respectively. And that is without mentioning his Europa Conference clincher in stoppage time against Fiorentina.
“I hope I stay forever,” Bowen said recently, as backed up by a contract extension until 2030.
Wolves: Sylvan Ebanks-Blake
Since the Premier League – and therefore football itself – was established in 1992, only three players have been the top goalscorer in England’s second tier more than once. Of that trio, only two have won the Golden Boot in consecutive seasons. John Aldridge worked wonders for Tranmere in the early 1990s, and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake took on the mantle with ease over a decade later.
He netted 23 times in 2007/08 despite joining Wolves from Plymouth halfway through the season, then fired his new side to the Premier League with 25 goals in 2008/09. He really is one of the deadliest Championship strikers of all-time.