Winners and Losers of the 2017 Summer Transfer Window

By the time you will be reading this post, the only transfer market that will be open is the one in China. Throughout Europe, player-transfer business will have stopped and the next transfer window will not open until January next year.

The huge taxes levied on transfer fees paid by Chinese clubs must have made them quiet this summer window.  But it has been the complete opposite in Europe, especially if we consider Europe’s top five leagues.

For some clubs, it was all about making those early signings and integrating them as quickly as possible. Both Manchester clubs did this successfully and very well, with signings like Bernardo Silva and Victor Lindelof, the Swedish international who was announced as early as mid June.

Some managers made their wish list and got almost all the players they wanted as quickly as possible. But not all managers had the same luck.

For some other clubs, managers and football directors, it was especially hard to get the names they were gunning for. What’s a summer transfer window without haggles over price, agency fees, which party will pay what and many other little details, right?

Signing a player involves several processes according to experts. So if you’re still fuming that your favorite club did not make as many new signings as your rival clubs, maybe it was just impossible to do so.

That being said, the summer transfer window has now officially closed – except for China. Who were the winners and losers of the 2017 summer transfer window?

The answer to this question is relative. And here’s why. There’s no specific yardstick to make any conclusions as to which clubs got a bargain and which others did not do so well. That’s not to say it’s impossible to single out some specific deals.

The Winners

For almost every club in England who bought one striker or the other, it was a hit from the word go. Romelu Lukaku, Wayne Rooney, Alvaro Morata, Alexandre Lacazette, all netted debut goals for their respective clubs on the opening day of the new Premier League season, while it took Javier Hernandez and Tammy Abraham a while to find the back of the net.

The clubs that made their moves early in the summer transfer window also rank among the winners of this transfer window.  As mentioned earlier, both Manchester clubs were able to give their new signings some playing time during the pre-season friendlies thereby giving them time to understand their new team.

The “new” AC Milan players bonded quickly with each other, thanks to the Europa qualifying round, the play-offs and the early signings. There’s no undermining the fact that the clubs that made early signings got themselves a bargain… and much more.

The Losers

If you didn’t start reading this piece from the middle, you’ll probably by now know that we’re not exactly interested in mentioning names. That a player moved to another club or changed his mind after the medical with his new club does not make him a loser or a winner.

But then again, it’s hard to not talk about players like Alexis Sanchez, Philippe Coutinho and the other many players whose names constantly graced the front pages – or back pages maybe – of dailies around the world but couldn’t secure moves away from their current clubs.

The two players in question failed to secure moves to their preferred destinations because their respective clubs refused to play ball with those wanted to buy these players. You then begin to wonder, what joy is there in keeping a player who is not happy at the club?

What best can be gotten from players whose imaginations have painted them in the arms of another manager? Nothing in football is worse than having an unhappy player in the squad. They can quickly turn to those little foxes that spoil the vine, as described in the good book.

The clubs who refused to let unhappy players go are the losers. Yes, this is arguable – and we look forward to hearing from you about this in the comments section – but then again, it comes quite close to the truth.

What do you think? Did we forget to mention any winners or losers? Please feel free to mention them to us through your comments. We’d love to hear from you.