Football never sleeps. And the off-season is as big an event as the season itself. Even when the Premier League goes for its annual break in the summer, the people behind the scene still have to be very much on their toes. And no stones are left unturned in a club’s pursuit of getting better. And nothing adds more value to a club than a solid summer signing.
This summer was no different as Premier League clubs shelled out nearly £1.005bn as they continue to strengthen their squad.
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Today we look at six surprisingly impactful signings that have made their mark in the Premier League since arriving last summer. You may notice that players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic have not been included on the list – for the pure reason that their impact has been less of a surprise.
But we’ve included some of the notable omissions at the bottom just in case you thought we’d forgot them. Happy scrolling! We’ll start in reverse order...
#6 Fernando Llorente (Swansea City): £5.2 Million from Sevilla
They may find themselves in a relegation scrap, but Swansea City are fortunate to have Fernando Llorente firing in eight goals for them this season. There have even been times where Swansea have looked doomed for the drop, but Llorente’s performances have kept Welsh side in the hunt for survival.
Rumours suggest Chelsea are interested in the striker at the halfway point, but if the Swans can keep hold of the tall Spaniard for the remainder of the season they stand a good chance of staying in the Premier League.
#5 Matt Phillips (West Bromwich Albion): £5.5 Million from QPR
After struggling to make an impact in the first nine games of the season, with only one assist and no goals, the winger was dropped by West Brom manager Tony Pulis. The Scottish international, however, quickly returned to the first team and now has eight assists and four goals in total, marking an excellent turnaround in his form.
The only player with more assists this season than him is Kevin De Bruyne for Manchester City. If Phillips can maintain this level of improvement then West Brom may be able to achieve a top ten finish in the Premier League, which didn’t seem particularly likely a few months ago.
#4 Joe Allen (Stoke City): £13 Million from Liverpool
Joe Allen is a god. Whilst many label him as ‘Welsh Xavi’ or 'Welsh Pirlo’ it may be time for headline makers to change their tact and describe Pirlo as the 'Italian Joe Allen' - although, having read that back, it may have less of a ring to it. After helping his beautiful country to the semi-finals of the EUROs in 2016, Allen was named in the team of the tournament for his performances.
His price tag subsequently went up. And many people considered Liverpool were making a mistake by allowing Allen to depart Anfield. However, his desire to play regular football has been rewarded at Stoke City though, where the Welshman’s abilities both defensively and offensively has helped turn around Stoke’s poor start to their season and propelled them into the top half of the table.
#3 Sadio Mane (Liverpool): £34 Million from Southampton
Whilst Sadio Mane is not as much of a surprise to the list compared to the other players mentioned, as his performances for Southampton in previous seasons were well-documented. He currently holds the Premier League record for the fastest hat-trick from last season against Aston Villa - and if you’ve not seen that, find it on YouTube, as it’s quite extraordinary.
But Mane's step-up to Liverpool has been mesmerising; a team that already has the free-scoring Brazilian’s in Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firminho. The most expensive African player in history is living up to his price tag, with nine goals and four assists to his name. Will his involvement at the Africa Cup of Nations hamper Liverpool’s attempts to catch Chelsea at the top? it certainly looks like it will.
#2 Idrissa Gueye (Everton): £7.1 Million from Aston Villa
Idrissa Gueye’s is the best tackler in the Premier League. The stats don’t lie. He has more successful tackles than any other player. The closest to him is Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson, and the rest of the league’s best tacklers are quite far behind.
It was an area that Everton lacked before Ronald Koeman took over - they weren’t strong enough on the ball. In came Ashley Williams and Idrissa Gueye and they've bullied players off the ball more often than not.
What was surprising about Gueye’s signing is that he arrived from Aston Villa, who conceded the most goals last year of anyone. A defensive midfielder from a relegated club doesn’t exactly send fans into a frenzy to queue up for replica shirts, but Gueye has been such an important part of Everton’s season that it’s quite extraordinary that other clubs did not fancy a pop at the £7.1 million release clause that the Senegalese international had as part of his Villa contract.
#1 Marcos Alonso (Chelsea): £24 Million (from Fiorentina)
Rewind back to 2013, and Marcos Alonso has just had his best season for Bolton Wanderers in the Championship and is offered a new contract. He rejected the offer and moved to Fiorentina in Italy for free, spending a few months there before moving back to the Premier League on loan at Sunderland. He did quite well on loan to keep them up, and then went to back to his parent club and had a good season there.
It was all going okay for the Spaniard, but he maybe wasn’t living up to the promise Real Madrid saw in him as a youngster. Let’s fast-forward now to the left back’s £24 million transfer to Chelsea, where many thought they had massively overpaid for a player that had no caps to his name for Spain. How wrong most of us were. He fits perfectly into his wing-back role for the league-leaders, and his performances along with Victor Moses on the opposite flank have surprised us all.
He’s bagged goals and assists, but what’s been so impressive is how dangerous in numbers Chelsea look when they attack and Alonso has been one of the strongest elements to that rise. Will he finally receive that call-up for Spain?
Notable exceptions:
Below are a list of less surprising players to make an impact or didn’t quite have as high of an impact as those listed above:
- N’Golo Kante
- Granit Xhaka
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic
- Paul Pogba
- Victor Wanyama
- Ashley Williams
- Nathan Redmond
- Christian Benteke
- Yannick Bolasie
- Alvaro Negredo
- David Marshall
- Lee Grant.
