{"id":611752,"date":"2026-09-02T01:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T01:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/611752\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T01:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T01:10:09","slug":"maresca-de-zerbi-and-chelsea-revealed-as-winners-of-the-transfer-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/611752\/","title":{"rendered":"Maresca, De Zerbi and Chelsea revealed as winners of the transfer window"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enzo Maresca and Roberto De Zerbi were backed to the hilt, while Chelsea<\/a> have learned their lessons \u2013 and one club had the best window of all.<\/p>\n

The 2026 summer transfer window is over. Let us never speak of it ever again. After these 1,600 words.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brentford
From the capture of a phenomenal midfielder well under the preposterous Premier League-proven going rate<\/a>, to the retention of pretty much their entire squad and even sell-on windfalls from players sold years ago, Brentford might have had the best window of all.<\/p>\n

Mamadou Sangare is a Champions League-calibre addition to a Europe-adjacent setup. Every other signing elevates Brentford and gives them enough options to field two competitive Premier League XIs.<\/p>\n

Brentford! Two competitive Premier League XIs!<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the squad depth right now is as good as it\u2019s been,\u201d said Keith Andrews after they followed up a humbling of Spurs<\/a> with a second-string smacking of Birmingham.<\/p>\n

But never mind an all-time high for the club; their rotation potential is among the best in the country, making European qualification and\/or a trophy a realistic objective. It\u2019s not bad for a Hounslow-based bus stop.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Enzo Maresca
David Moyes was given a single Marouane Fellaini. Unai Emery had Stephan Lichtsteiner, Bernd Leno, Sokratis, Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi bestowed upon him. Arne Slot made do with a solitary Federico Chiesa.<\/p>\n

In order, those dynasty-replacing managers finished: unemployed, 5th and 1st. After breaking the record for most money spent by a team in a single transfer window, Manchester City might settle for just one of those results from Pep Guardiola\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n

It is an absurd level of backing, inextricably tied to an honestly stupid \u00a3360m worth of outgoings. A lavish transplant of the entire midfield and enhancement of their forward options might not have been fully funded otherwise without the sort of rule-bending an institution like Manchester City almost certainly wouldn\u2019t condone.<\/p>\n

Having unsuccessfully gone public with his transfer demands at Chelsea<\/a> in the final throes of his reign, Maresca must be thrilled with the support given immediately in his dream job. He cannot complain that he hasn\u2019t been given all the tools possible by Hugo Viana to win it all \u2013 but, knowing Maresca, he absolutely still will.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hull
There are two available avenues after attaining accidental promotion: do a Luton; or do a Sunderland.<\/p>\n

Luton basically had a deluxe Championship summer. Their signings were from Rotherham, Barnsley, Birmingham, Aston Villa, Wolves, Blackburn, Nice (an Englishman, Ross Barkley), Stoke, Norwich and Manchester United.<\/p>\n

They were also relegated. And then relegated again.<\/p>\n

Sunderland understood the assignment, snaring Bayer Leverkusen\u2019s captain alongside players from PSG, Ajax, Atletico Madrid and Coleraine.<\/p>\n

They qualified for Europe, which does seem like a better outcome than relegation.<\/p>\n

Hull have wasted no time analysing the dental hygiene of their gift horse, loaning \u00a325m Roma players, tempting whatever the reigning European Golden Boy Web is over to East Yorkshire, making only three of their 18 signings from the Premier League and ending up with a squad so large that they had to loan out the scorer of their most recent winning goal in the Premier League three days later.<\/p>\n

And their chairman has been forthright in updating us throughout. They are welcome to stay.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roberto De Zerbi
But crucially not necessarily Spurs, who simply could not help themselves even in this most outrageously ambitious of summers.<\/p>\n

By early July they had signed six players, breaking their transfer record twice<\/a> and accruing a bill of over \u00a3220m. It does rather beg the question as to quite how they have looked so hilariously unprepared for the first two games of the season, but still.<\/p>\n

Come September, they took on \u00a3125m of Manchester City deadwood and \u00a387m of Chelsea refuse, the latter in a particular panic, because Spurs simply have to Spurs.<\/p>\n

The climbdown from Cody Gakpo to Iliman Ndiaye and then suddenly Mudryk, a rival player Spurs will rehabilitate as he hasn\u2019t kicked a ball professionally since Ange Postecoglou had them in sixth, was an embarrassing end to a wonderfully aggressive recruitment push.<\/p>\n

Yet it underlines how firmly their colours have been nailed to the De Zerbi mast. Spurs do not make at least three \u2013 Mudryk, Tonali and Van Hecke \u2013 and likely a few more of those signings without the specific influence and pull of the Italian.<\/p>\n

De Zerbi took Spurs on at their worst and they promised to clean up their act for him in return. They could not have realistically done more to back him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leeds
Four signings measuring in at over 6ft 2ins, and a free agent with ample Premier League goalscoring experience, tick two mandatory Leeds transfer boxes.<\/p>\n

A real-life left-back and left-winger delivered on a deadline day finally rewarded those who didn\u2019t go to bed because there was still work to be done 12 years ago, too.<\/p>\n

It leaves a fair amount of responsibility on Dominic Calvert-Lewin\u2019s non-load-bearing shoulders, but as Daniel Farke said and as is true of every manager ever: \u201cThere was never a transfer window when I got all my wishes and all the players that I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leeds have sacrificed a degree of quantity for a clear uptick in quality. With just three fronts to compete on, it\u2019s likelier to pay off than backfire.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chelsea
A genuine question: is an honest appraisal of a transfer window very possibly featuring 427 separate transfers sanctioned by one club actually possible? Or worthwhile? Or humane?<\/p>\n

There cannot be much point in assessing a summer which included Chelsea setting a transfer deadline to sell a player they suspended last season for openly flirting with another club, watching that deadline pass and then selling said player on the actual real deadline anyway.<\/p>\n

Why bother evaluating business seemingly predicated on maintaining a \u2018some d*ckheads policy\u2019, with Enzo Fernandez, Marc Cucurella and Alejandro Garnacho replaced by Valentin Barco and Emi Martinez?<\/p>\n

When one of their final deals was to entangle themselves in the weirdly convoluted future of a player literally called Honest, it is worth asking whether this iteration of Chelsea has simply become a social experiment, concept rather than club.<\/p>\n

But there are welcome signs of lessons learned. The signings of a competent goalkeeper and some players old enough to remember Xabi Alonso as a player suggest that Chelsea are finally prepared to take matters on the pitch seriously.<\/p>\n

They have always had a big squad but now actually appear to have a good one, with capable options in various positions to allow for coaching fluidity. And it does seem like those who are left at Stamford Bridge actually want to be there.<\/p>\n

These seem like obvious prerequisites for running a someway adequate football club because they are. Yet having largely ignored them for so long, Chelsea have realised there is nothing stopping them having their player trading cake and eating it too.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newcastle
It feels a bit like cheating, considering the instinct would be to Fear For a club selling three of its best players and losing its manager in the same summer.<\/p>\n

But ultimately the nature of the window closing after the season has started allows for a preview of what might be to come. And under Matthias Jaissle it really does look promising<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This has not resembled anything close to Newcastle\u2019s ideal summer, but they do appear to have manifested lemonade from the rotten lemons thrown down at them by the world\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n

Eight signings, each no older than 25, have injected a sorely needed shot of excitement and intrigue, as well as simply fundamentally proving that some players really are happy to play for Newcastle. And without meaning to be glib or sardonic, that became genuinely important for the club at this juncture.<\/p>\n

It seemed close to unsalvageable when the manager and captain both simultaneously jumped ship after players had been poached by Barcelona and Spurs. But early results and performances indicate Newcastle have turned adversity into an advantage.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nottingham Forest
Really quite like their new transfer tactic of trying to tempt clubs into cashing in the pure profit on talented homegrown midfielders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Beyond Forest putting their arm around Harrison Armstrong and Trey Nyoni, pointing at Elliot Anderson and saying this could all be theirs, this was an unsettlingly quiet summer from Mr Marinakis and friends.<\/p>\n

One signing each at centre-forward, central midfield, central defence and in net is wonderfully quaint, with Daniel Munoz probably a necessary recruit if only just to help his new team-mates adjust to Oliver Glasner\u2019s idiosyncrasies.<\/p>\n

It was all a bit boring really. Where were the ransom videos and manager-versus-sporting-director clashes?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brighton
They did look a bit bare in midfield. Then you examined their squad and realised that pretty much every member of it can play in at least 427 positions. Then they signed an orthodox midfielder anyway.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bournemouth
Imagine loaning the Juventus No. 1 to sit on your bench, while not\u00a0selling any first-team players at an absurd profit to the elite. Some clubs just don\u2019t know their place.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alvaro Arbeloa
All the time in the world for a manager who just signs all their old players, but specifically only when that manager\u2019s coaching career consists of a literal single season.<\/p>\n

Fulham have spent about \u00a350m for roughly eight per cent of the rights to three Real Madrid players who had 22 first-team starts to their name. The tribute to Marco Silva\u2019s 2018 summer transfer window of lumbering Everton with a load of Barcelona cast-offs is touching.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ipswich
They\u2019ve spent \u00a3180m! On good players? Honestly can\u2019t be sure. They probably needed another centre-half at least. But they definitely spent \u00a3180m!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coventry
They\u2019ve spent \u00a3130m! On good players? Honestly can\u2019t be sure. Actually, it feels like we can be: they didn\u2019t<\/a>. But they spent more these past few months than they have in every other transfer window of their history combined, and in this of all summers, that absolutely is the real quiz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enzo Maresca and Roberto De Zerbi were backed to the hilt, while Chelsea have learned their lessons \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39,9418],"class_list":["post-611752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}