Top Five: Clubs having a disappointing transfer window

PSV Eindhoven

Major Ins: Jeffrey Bruma (Chelsea, Undisclosed) Stijn Schaars (Sporting Lisbon, Undisclosed) Adam Maher (Twente, £6.7m)

Major Outs Kevin Strootman (Roma, £13m) Dries Mertens (Napoli, £9m) Jeremain Lens (Dynamo Kiev, Undisclosed) Erik Pieters (Stoke £3m)

Summary PSV went in to the summer acknowledging that they were going to be losing Lens and possibly Mertens. But the killer blow here is losing Strootman too, although Maher is a fabulously talented young man who can offer similar output to Mertens. But the Strootman to Schaars move is a huge downgrade and Lens’ goals haven’t been replaced. The players that have come in have made them weaker, and for a club that is already behind an Ajax side who haven’t lost any stars it’s not great. Even more worrying is the prospect of the club jumping in to bed with a third party ownership operation that could involve them losing out on percentages of sales in future. Hard to see what the plan is right now.

Dishonourable mentions

Sevilla Their two club icons have both been sold and only replaced with a variety of bits and pieces. The great rebuild that was promised has been uninspiring so far.

West Ham Carroll has been brought back in for an inflated £15.5m but left back Razvan Rat aside, it will be the same team as last season. They were talking about trying to push on next year but haven’t signed the required players to do so.

Hamburg They’ve lost their best player Son Heung-Min who could yet be followed by more and they’ve not brought in quality. It says a lot if Johan Djourou is one of your key signings. A bad year last year could get worse.

Cardiff City Promoted to the Premier League with a £25m transfer budget but only two players have come in so far, and neither have ever played in the Premier League. Have missed out on Tom Ince and Victor Wanyama to add to the frustration.