We’re nearly halfway through the 2024-25 Premier League season and the storylines are developing nicely at the top and bottom of the table. Although, depending on your perspective, or your team, they may not all be positive ones.
What is certain is that a handful of clubs will be hoping to improve their fortunes and their squads in January by delving into the market – and some might need to fare rather better in winter than they appear to have done in the summer with regards to transfers.
Here are the best and worst signings of the season so far, as picked by The Independent’s sports desk.
Best of the year
Miguel Delaney, chief football writer: Liam Delap. There are a number of Ipswich Town signings you could pick from, which may seem surprising given they remain near the bottom. The point is that purchases like Dara O’Shea and Omari Hutchinson have given a squad that had looked like it was mere Championship level a real fighting chance. They make almost every game ultra-competitive, in a manner almost nobody expects. That is best illustrated by Delap, who combines that abrasiveness with an attacking threat. Special mention too for Emile Smith Rowe, who has given Fulham a different dimension. There have been moments when it looked like Arsenal could still do with him.
Richard Jolly, senior football correspondent: Nottingham Forest were mocked, sometimes rightly, for signing vast numbers of players in recent years; so many that they didn’t have room in the squad for some of them. Yet recruitment has clearly been refined: less quantity, more quality. Their side now has a series of fine buys. Nikola Milenkovic may be the best: not merely in what he is – a giant, dominant central defender – but in terms of what Forest lacks. He complements the excellent Murillo wonderfully. Forest now have one of the best central-defensive partnerships and defences in the division. And at £12m, Milenkovic is a bargain.
Jack Rathborn, sports editor: Nottingham Forest have probably had the best window collectively of any club, but I’ll opt for Jadon Sancho, to rekindle that bright, energetic and fun side to a player lost in the wilderness speaks to the environment Enzo Maresca has started to create at Chelsea. With two goals and three assists already in the league for Sancho, despite the in-and-out nature of his role in the squad, shows a player diligent and prepared each time he is afforded minutes on the pitch.
Karl Matchett, sports writer: I’d say it wasn’t a vintage summer of super signings, but several standouts have been transformative for their teams. That includes another Nottingham Forest signing, in Elliott Anderson rather than Milenkovic, where the opportunity to sign him from a team that needed financial movement and lost midfield movement as a result has clearly benefited the buyers, not the sellers. Sander Berge, Georginio Rutter and the on-loan Facundo Buonanotte have all been very good too, though maybe haven’t played enough minutes to be the best of the bunch. So I’ll go for now for Lewis Hall, a loan made permanent who has shown consistency, played every game and even barged his way into the England squad. But another few months like the last two Maxence Lacroix has had for Crystal Palace and it would be him instead – he’s finally settling in and Palace look on an upward trajectory again.
Lawrence Ostlere, sports writer: For visible, instant impact on a team there is a strong case to be made for Nikola Milenkovic. The Serbian defender has helped turn Nottingham Forest into one of the best defensive sides in the Premier League under Nuno Espirito Santo’s guidance, with an old-school appetite for the battle with his centre-forward. He’s also added a set-piece threat at the other end of the pitch, with a couple of goals and an assist already this season, and must have added plenty of value to his £12m transfer fee.
Luke Baker, sports writer: Evanilson has been a very handy buy to lead the Bournemouth line, Emile Smith Rowe flashed as a playmaker for Fulham early in the season and Noussair Mazraoui looks like an immediate hit as a right-back for Manchester United, but it’s hard to look past Nikola Milenkovic at Nottingham Forest. The Serbian powerhouse has complemented Murillo perfectly at the heart of a Forest defence that has spearheaded their surprise surge into the Premier League’s upper echelons. Whether they can genuinely sustain a European challenge in the second half of the season remains to be seen but Milenkovic is a rock that has helped turn Nuno’s side into a tough, nuggety outfit.
And the worst
Miguel Delaney: Ilkay Gundogan. This may feel harsh, given that Gundogan is a club legend who came on a free transfer, but the issue is more what the signing now represents in terms of planning and where the Manchester City team are. They had been looking for a midfielder, until it was decided that they may as well go for their former captain since he knew the system and was available from Barcelona. It is at least striking that, in the summer before the outcome of the Premier League hearing, their only signings were a City Football Group player in Savinho and Gundogan. Would it have been more difficult to entice anyone else with so much uncertainty around the club? Either way, Gundogan hasn’t solved their tactical problems in the way he used to. He looks some way off his old level, although that isn’t completely his fault. The German has had to be deployed in the Rodri role that he just wasn’t suited to. His inability to fill the same space has simultaneously exposed the fact that this squad suddenly looks ill-equipped and stale.
Richard Jolly: Perceptions change. Go back a few months and Gundogan looked (to some of us, anyway) a candidate for best signing of the season. Back after a year in which Manchester City missed him, acquired on a free transfer, he seemed a coup. So far, it has not been a successful comeback and if it is not Gundogan’s fault that, in Rodri’s absence, he has been pressed into service as a defensive midfielder, perhaps City might have actually acquired one if he had not been available. The German’s displays against Newcastle, Tottenham and Liverpool have been particularly chastening. He has looked over the hill.
Jack Rathborn: Arsenal hoped to kick on this season and claim that elusive title, and while they’ve been able to spend lavishly under Mikel Arteta, they certainly need a quick return and an element of efficiency in the market. Mikel Merino, at 28 years of age, would probably have expected to play a bigger role so far, given the outlay of £32m, though the caveat with any of these picks is the laborious nature of the calendar and ample opportunities to leave a defining mark on the season. Federico Chiesa also fits here, though not up to full speed fitness-wise, it’s almost 2025 and Arne Slot hasn’t seen anything to encourage him to speed up his integration into the Liverpool side. The Reds’ title charge could depend on Diogo Jota remaining fit or a small but decisive impact from the Italian.
Karl Matchett: Brighton haven’t got enough yet from Ferdi Kadioglu for £25m and nor have Arsenal from the £32m signing Mikel Merino. And paying above a release clause fee to land a £36m striker who has so far yielded three goals and been picked for only 650 league minutes makes Joshua Zirkzee a contender too. Thankfully for him, Man United opted to spend even more on Manuel Ugarte, up to £50m with add-ons, and so far he’s played even less and been even worse. He, and the club, will hope a managerial change sparks an individual resurgence as well as a team-wide one.
Lawrence Ostlere: Joshua Zirkzee is clearly a player with potential, but I remain deeply unconvinced he will ever flourish at Manchester United. The Dutch striker seemed like an odd transfer, given his pretty mediocre record in Serie A over the previous two seasons, with only 14 goals in 58 games for Bologna. The noises from United were that the 23-year-old was signed for £36.5m on the back of some analysis which concluded he had a high ceiling, courtesy of an exceptional physical profile. But his technical ability has so far proved hit and miss – mostly miss, bar that one excellent performance against Everton in which he scored twice. And when you consider that United already have an improving No 9 in Rasmus Hojlund, who seems like a better player at a younger age, it is hard to see how Zirkzee will ever become Plan A at Old Trafford.
Luke Baker: Ilkay Gundogan’s Man City return has been a pale shadow of the first spell so far while, across the city, Manchester United’s newbies have almost all struggled, with Matthijs de Ligt perhaps the worst culprit, and the Raheem Sterling move to Arsenal has produced precisely zero memorable moments. But I’ll plump for Eddie Nketiah, whose £30m move to Crystal Palace has yielded just two goals so far – in the Carabao Cup. The thinking was that away from the Arsenal spotlight and given regular playing time, the 25-year-old would show his ability as a top-class Premier League striker, but it’s been tough going in a struggling Palace side who most certainly have not got their money’s worth.
