With the transfer excitement dying down, these deals have come out looking a little off
Andriy Yarmolenko (Borussia Dortmund to West Ham)
At the time this was eye-catching; maybe even a statement of West Ham’s intent. Perhaps. More realistically, though, they seem to have signed a player on the basis of an outdated reputation.
Yarmolenko was an outstanding player three years ago – the point at which he should have left Ukraine for a big Spanish, English or German club – but his move to Borussia Dortmund came too late, evidenced by his poor performances and slow drift out of the side.
Most troublingly, the 28-year-old is most effective from the right side of midfield as an inverted winger, and that’s a position which has subsequently been filled at the London Stadium by Felipe Anderson. West Ham have got a name, but probably only a fading player.
Javier Pastore (PSG to Roma)
Roma's director of football, Monchi, has made his reputation on smart transfer dealings and one rotten move doesn’t tarnish that, but this is ugly. Pastore is now 29 years old and yet somehow still cost £22m. Worse, Roma have signed him to a – presumably very generous – five-year contract.
Five years! He may still be a capable player, but Monchi has walked straight into a Wayne Bridge/David Bentley situation this time. PSG needed to sell the player to balance their Financial Fair Play books, so this was a bad bit of negotiating.
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Joe Hart (Manchester City to Burnley)
OK, so Nick Pope will be on the sidelines for three to six months, and Tom Heaton is currently nursing a calf strain – but Burnley now have five (!) first-team goalkeepers if you also consider Anders Lindegaard (which you should) and Adam Legzdins (less so).
Do they really need Hart, who has suffered tremendously from poor form in recent years, and will have surely arrived at Turf Moor on decent wages? It seems needlessly short-termist to cover a couple of injuries to two very good England goalkeepers. Good luck to Sean Dyche when they’re all back fit.
Tottenham (all the player they didn’t sign)
A calamity. Daniel Levy’s commitment to negotiating late in the window certainly blew up in his face this summer and, with an ageing midfield and a lack of cover in critical areas, Spurs have failed to make any additions at all.
Mauricio Pochettino put on a brave face during his Thursday press conference, suggesting that he wasn’t concerned with the lack of reinforcements. But with a lengthy injury list already, ground to make up on both Manchester clubs and the teams below all making significant upgrades, that can’t be true.
It’s a terrible failure and, given the position of strength which they’ve probably surrendered, maybe one Tottenham will regret for a long time.
Salomon Rondon (West Brom to Newcastle)
Nothing against Rondon, because he’s a serviceable player and should actually make Newcastle better, but the deal itself represents more opaque Mike Ashley manoeuvring. Rafael Benitez has needed a proper forward since the beginning of last season and yet, somehow, Ashley managed to spin a fairly rudimentary loan negotiation out over the entire summer.
And the reality is, of course, that Newcastle – as a club and institution – could so obviously attract someone of a higher calibre. They may not be able to shop in the most expensive parts of the market, but they certainly could have given Benitez more to work with.
So, yes: another summer, another maddening instance of the club being cheap.
NEXT: Why bring him back *now*?
Paulinho (Barcelona to Guangzhou)
After a steady but unspectacular season in La Liga, Barcelona were able to loan the 30-year-old Paulinho back to Guangzhou with the promise of a future fee which would actually see them turn a profit on their original investment of €40m in 2017.
Interesting...
Jack Wilshere (free transfer to West Ham)
Another one of those: he was available on a free and probably had to take a pay cut, but Wilshere is damaged goods and West Ham have now invested in the late twenties of a player who has had far too many injuries to be depended upon.
He grew up as a Hammers fine, so it’s a nice move for him and he probably deserves some luck, but his time might well have already been and gone. Did they sign for what he is or what he was once expected to eventually to become?
Adama Traore (Middlesbrough to Wolves)
Oh Wolves, you’d been doing so well, too.
Traore is great fun, thrilling to watch and one of the quickest players in the country, but only last season in the Championship did he finally look capable of adding a final ball to his game. So, while there may be a certain value in his ability to beat defenders, it’s often been cancelled out by the bad decisions which end those passages of play.
£20m? That’s a lot for a player who looked to have found his level in the Championship last season. While he’s still only 22, it seems as if Wolves are banking on an evolution which seems unlikely.
On the one hand, yes, he’s a good player with potentially a very bright future. On the other… well, Watford have really made Everton pay for all that Marco Silva business last year.
£50m (the sum the deal could rise to) is a lot of money, and while realistically there’s little value to be found in today’s market, you do wonder whether such a young player with such little experience can cope with the expectation of becoming his new club’s record signing. It’s a direct contrast to last season, when he arrived in the Premier League to little fanfare and for a fairly paltry fee. He thrived with that freedom.
Being reunited with Silva should help – it certainly made aspects of this logical – but either the 21-year-old gets off to a good start at Goodison or this could prove a(nother) disaster.
Last season, Juventus looked like they’d dodged a bullet and appeared to have sold Bonucci at exactly the right moment. Still a good player, he was a declining force within a Milan defence which, along with almost every other part of the side, struggled. Juve had banked nearly £40m and clearly got one over on their Milanese rivals.
Strangely, though, they seem to have undone Milan’s mistake for them, paying over £30m to return Bonucci to Turin and reunite him with Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini. But forget about what that unit was and look at the changing face of the European game: Bonucci will turn 32 before the season ends and there were better options out there.
It’s a sentimental transfer, but it’s not one which makes much sense – especially with Daniele Rugani emerging as one of the most promising centre-halves on the continent.
