Seven Premier League games is more than enough to make a judgement on the players bought by Premier League clubs over the summer.
None of your Give Them Time nonsense here, though we will revisit this on the slight chance that these footballers may get better, or indeed worse, in the weeks and months to come to change their club’s ranking.
Anyway – worst to best – we’ve ranked the top-flight clubs by the performances of their summer arrivals thus far this season.
20) Southampton
Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Manchester City, £20m), Adam Lallana (Brighton, free), Rento Takaoka (Nissho Gakuen, free), Charlie Taylor (Burnley, free), Ronnie Edwards (Peterborough, £3m), Nathan Wood (Swansea, £3m), Yukinari Sugawara (AZ Alkmaar, £6m), Flynn Downes (West Ham, £18m), Kuryu Matsuki (FC Tokyo, undisclosed), Ben Brereton Diaz (Villarreal, £7m), Cameron Archer (Aston Villa, £15m), Lesley Ugochukwu (Chelsea, loan), Juan (Sao Paulo, undisclosed), Mateus Fernandes (Sporting, £12.8m), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal, undisclosed), Ryan Fraser (Newcastle, free), Maxwel Cornet (West Ham, loan).
It’s an awful lot of players and that goes some way to explaining why Southampton have been pretty terrible. The quantity over quality policy may have been necessary to build a squad but it very rarely works. Ask Burnley.
19) Newcastle United
Lewis Hall (Chelsea, £28m), Lloyd Kelly (Bournemouth, free), John Ruddy (Birmingham, free), Odysseas Vlachodimos (Nottingham Forest, £20m), William Osula (Sheffield United, £10m).
Lewis Hall’s been solid but far from the raiding threat he was in his few Chelsea appearances and the Vlachodimos deal looks dodgier by the day. The Newcastle transfer window was far more about who they didn’t sign than who they did.
18) Manchester United
Joshua Zirkzee (Bologna, £36.5m), Leny Yoro (Lille, £52m), Matthijs de Ligt (Bayern Munich, £38.4m), Noussair Mazraoui (Bayern Munich, £12.8m), Manuel Ugarte (PSG, £42.3m).
Hardly an endorsement of Erik ten Hag’s transfer decisions that of these £200m-worth of supposed saviours in their respective positions, only Mazraoui started the 0-0 draw with Aston Villa.
De Ligt has looked every bit Eric Dier’s back-up, Manuel Ugarte had a nightmare debut against Tottenham and what even is Joshua Zirkzee? A penny for Leny Yoro’s thoughts.
17) Leicester City
Abdul Fatawu (Sporting, £14.5m), Bobby De-Cordova Reid (Fulham, free), Michael Golding (Chelsea, £5m), Caleb Okoli (£12.7m, Atalanta), Facundo Buonanotte (Brighton, loan), Oliver Skipp (Tottenham Hotspur, £25m), Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace, £5m), Bilal El Khannouss (Genk, £21m), Odsonne Edouard (Crystal Palace, loan).
Buonanotte’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting here as a loanee with four goal contributions, including a wonderful strike to earn the Foxes their first win of the season over Bournemouth. Fatawu’s been nowhere near as effective in the Premier League having made his loan from Sporting permanent and the arrival of Skipp to create the Spurs rejects midfield has made them predictably predictable.
16) Wolves
Tommy Doyle (Manchester City, £4.3m), Rodrigo Gomes (Braga, £12.7m), Pedro Lima (Sport Recife, £8.45m), Jorgen Strand Larsen (Celta Vigo, loan), Sam Johnstone (Crystal Palace, £10m), Bastien Meupiyou (Nantes, £4.2m), Andre (Fluminense, £21.8m), Carlos Forbs (Ajax, loan).
We’ve got a lot of time for Strand Larsen but Andre has rarely shown why so many clubs were vying for his signature and Johnstone has been about as good as we expected (not very).
15) Brentford
Igor Thiago (Club Brugge, £30m), Fabio Carvalho (Liverpool, £22.5m), Sepp van den Berg (Liverpool, £25m), Gustavo Nunes (Gremio, £10m), Jayden Meghoma (Southampton, £10m).
Thiago and Nunes are yet to feature due to injuries and we haven’t seen Meghoma in the Premier League. Carvalho’s got a goal and an assist; Van den Berg’s been fine.
14) Everton
Tim Iroegbunam (Aston Villa, £9m), Jack Harrison (Leeds United, loan), Iliman Ndiaye (Marseille, £15m), Jesper Lindstrom (Napoli, loan), Jake O’Brien (Lyon, £16.8m), Asmir Begovic (QPR, free), Orel Mangala (Lyon, loan), Armando Broja (Chelsea, loan).
Ndiaye has made the Got Something About Him grade but Mangala looks little more than a midfield body, Harrison is yet to look up this season and the others have rarely played, if ever.
13) Bournemouth
Luis Sinisterra (Leeds United, £20m), Enes Unal (Getafe, £13m), Alex Paulsen (Wellington Phoenix, £1.92m), Daniel Jebbison (Sheffield United, £1.5m), Dean Huijsen (Juventus, £12.6m), Julian Araujo (Barcelona, £8.5m), Evanilson (Porto, £31.5m), Kepa (Chelsea, loan).
Evanilson’s yet to prove himself a worthy replacement for Dominic Solanke, though he did score a lovely goal against Southampton, Kepa’s been frustratingly consistent and we’re yet to see all that much of the others, though Barcelona may well have offloaded a dud in Araujo.
12) Crystal Palace
Chadi Riad (Barcelona, £12m), Daichi Kamada (Lazio, free), Ismaila Sarr (Marseille, £12.5m), Louie Moulden (Wolves, free), Maxence Lacroix (Wolfsburg, £18m), Eddie Nketiah (Arsenal, £30m), Matt Turner (Nottingham Forest, loan), Trevoh Chalobah (Chelsea, loan).
It looks a helluva lot better on paper than it’s turned out to be thus far, with Lacroix the only addition to have proved his value as things stand.
11) West Ham
Luis Guilherme (Palmeiras, £19.35m), Wes Foderingham (Sheffield United, free), Max Kilman (Wolves, £40m), Crysencio Summerville (Leeds, £25m), Niclas Fullkrug (Borussia Dortmund, £27m), Guido Rodriguez (Real Betis, free), Jean-Clair Todibo (Nice, loan), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (Manchester United, £15m), Mohamadou Kante (Paris FC, undisclosed), Carlos Soler (PSG, loan).
We don’t yet know if Fullkrug has fallen into the West Ham striker vortex after picking up an injury, but the brief early signs weren’t hugely positive. Wolves have missed Kilman more than the Hammers have enjoyed him, but he’s been decent, Wan-Bissaka was always going to be a smart addition, but it’s not at all clear what all the Todibo fuss was about.
10) Tottenham
Lucas Bergvall (Djurgarden, £8.5m), Archie Gray (Leeds United, £35m), Dominic Solanke (Bournemouth, £55m), Wilson Odobert (Burnley, £25m).
Bit weird that Gray has played just 32 minutes in the Premier League, particularly given it feels as though his poise on the ball is exactly what this fruit loop of a football team needs. And if it isn’t, then we don’t really know why Postecoglou signed him. Odobert could be a player and Solanke already is one.
9) Nottingham Forest
Elliot Anderson (Newcastle, £35m), Marko Stamenic (Red Star, £4.65m), Eric da Silva Moreira (St. Pauli, £1.25m), Carlos Miguel (Corinthians, £3.4m), Nikola Milenkovic (Fiorentina, £12m), Jota Silva (Vitoria Guimaraes SC, £6m), Ramon Sosa (CA Talleres, £11m), Alex Moreno (Aston Villa, loan), David Carmo (Porto, £9.3m), Morato (Benfica, £12.6m), James Ward-Prowse (West Ham, loan).
Jota Silva’s good fun, Elliot Anderson’s played like his true value (£20m) and Milenkovic has been a literal and figurative giant at the back.
8) Liverpool
Giorgi Mamardashvili (Valencia, £25.2m), Federico Chiesa (Juventus, £10m).
One literally hasn’t arrived yet and the other may as well not have done. Told you it was pointless. Not that it’s mattered and apparently the key for Liverpool was not buying players willy-nilly, with Ryan Gravenberch the great beneficiary of their patience.
7) Manchester City
Savinho (Troyes, £21m), Ilkay Gundogan (Barcelona, free).
Savinho looked the real deal before his injury but Rodri’s absence has highlighted a reality that was pretty evident anyway: Gundogan isn’t quite the player he was after a year in Barcelona.
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6) Brighton
Ibrahim Osman (FC Nordsjaelland, £16m), Yankuba Minteh (Newcastle, £30m), Mats Wieffer (Feyenoord, £25.4m), Amario Cozier-Duberry (Arsenal, free), Malick Yalcouye (IFK Goteborg, £6m), Brajan Gruda (Mainz, £25m), Georginio Rutter (Leeds, £40m), Matt O’Riley (Celtic, £25m), Ferdi Kadioglu (Fenerbahce, £25m).
Minteh’s drawn the most attention as it’s hard not to notice his speed and ludicrously direct style and Rutter’s clearly a lovely footballer. The others are yet to pull up trees but have shown enough to convince us they will be Brighton brilliant before too long.
5) Aston Villa
Ian Maatsen (Chelsea, £37.5m), Cameron Archer (Sheffield United, £14m), Samuel Iling-Junior (Juventus, £11.8m), Lewis Dobbin (Everton, £10m), Enzo Barrenechea (Juventus, £6.7m), Ross Barkley (Luton, £5m), Jaden Philogene (Hull, £18m), Amadou Onana (Everton, £50m), Yeimar Mosquera (Orsomarso, undisclosed).
They’ve not missed Douglas Luiz all that much, which is high praise indeed for Onana, who’s also bringing the best out of Youri Tielemans. Philogene did a job against Bayern and it feels as though Maatsen will displace Lucas Digne some point soon.
4) Chelsea
Omari Kellyman (Aston Villa, £19m), Marc Guiu (Barcelona, £5.1m), Tosin Adarabioyo (Fulham, free), Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (Leicester City, £30m), Renato Veiga (Basel, £11.7m), Caleb Wiley (Atlanta United, £8.5m), Filip Jorgensen (Villarreal, £20.7m), Aaron Anselmino (Boca Juniors, £15.7m), Pedro Neto (Wolves, £54m), Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid, £42m), Mike Penders (Genk, £16.9m), Jadon Sancho (Manchester United, loan).
Veiga looks like a bit of a bargain and Sancho’s looked far closer to his Borussia Dortmund self than the shadow who played for Manchester United, and while the others are yet to do anything particularly special, they are all a part of a growing sense that Chelsea as a whole imminently will.
3) Arsenal
David Raya (Brentford, £27m), Riccardo Calafiori (Bologna, £33.6m), Mikel Merino (Real Sociedad, £31.2m), Neto (Bournemouth, loan), Raheem Sterling (Chelsea, loan).
Feels like Raya has improved significantly on the back of his loan move being made permanent, having never truly convinced in his debut season despite the Golden Glove award. Calafiori scored the wondergoal against Man City and looks like a very Mikel Arteta Player.
2) Fulham
Ryan Sessegnon (Tottenham, free), Emile Smith Rowe (Arsenal, £27m), Jorge Cuenca (Villarreal, £5.75m), Sander Berge (Burnley, £20m), Joachim Andersen (Crystal Palace, £30m), Reiss Nelson (Arsenal, loan).
We were all a bit baffled when he moved from Crystal Palace but Andersen clearly knew something we didn’t. He’s been excellent and we’re thoroughly enjoying Emile Smith Rowe enjoying his football.
1) Ipswich Town
Omari Hutchinson (Chelsea, £20m), Ben Johnson (West Ham, free), Jacob Greaves (Hull City, £18m), Liam Delap (Manchester City, £15.3m), Arijanet Muric (Burnley, £15m), Conor Townsend (West Brom, £500,000), Sammie Szmodics (Blackburn Rovers, £9m), Kalvin Phillips (Manchester City, loan), Jens Cajuste (Napoli, loan), Jack Clarke (Sunderland, £15m), Dara O’Shea (Burnley, £12m) Chiedozie Ogbene (Luton, £8m).
Muric is by far our favourite Premier League goalkeeper as he continues to fly in the face of the entirely logical view that it pays to be consistent as a goalkeeper, dead set as he is in his quest to go from the sublime to the ridiculous on a game-by-game or even minute-by-minute basis.
Liam Delap’s Got Everything as well as four goals, Kalvin Phillips hasn’t been entirely terrible and there’s been more good than bad from the majority of the new arrivals, most of whom we would suggest will remain in the Premier League whether Ipswich do or not.
