As this year’s January transfer window comes to a close, there are notable takeaways from clubs’ transactions. Coming into this window, a club that was to be watched was Newcastle as the club’s ownership was handed to Saudi Public Investment Fund, increasing their budget to work with by an absurd amount. Although the highly rumored transfer in of Jesse Lingard was of no avail, they brought in five new players: Chris Wood, Kieran Trippier, Dan Burn, Matt Targett, and Bruno Guimarães. With much more reinforcement in their weak areas, Newcastle handling of this window is hopeful as they look to climb above the relegation zone even though fans may have expected even more ambitious business this window.

Returning to managing in the Premier League, manager Frank Lampard found a home in Everton. Focusing on their players, Everton is arguably the most successful club this window. They initially were hit with a blow with a first team player, Digne, departing to Aston Villa, but were able to finance effective transfers. Bringing in five players, some of whom are stellar in their positions, Everton seems to have reimagined almost their whole strategy. Highly-rated Mykolenko comes in as a wide back and Patterson enters as more youthful depth in the defense. More notably, El Ghazi, van de Beek, and Dele came into the squad. These three are known for their ability to perform (El Ghazi at Villa, van de Beek at Ajax, and Dele years ago at Tottenham), and Lampard would be delighted to work with a proven selection of new players, especially in the midfield. 

However, Everton’s dealings should not overshadow Tottenham’s. With a new managing director Paratici and the relatively new manager Conte, they aimed to bring in the necessary elements to conform the team to their new systems while getting rid of excess players. Their only transfers came from the signing of Juventus duo Bentancur and Kulusevski. Bentancur looks to bring some much needed creativity into the midfield next to Højbjerg or Skipp while Kulusevski seems to serve as a more reliable option to start up front in the wing with Kane and Son as Lucas Moura and Bergwijn are consistently added and dropped from the starting lineup. However, much of Tottenham’s business was done with the departure of many of their players. The long awaited departure of Dele to Everton finally came this month as he struggled to perform in the team. Three players were loaned out: newcomer Bryan Gil to Valencia, Ndombele to Lyon, and Lo Celso to Villareal. The loans will provide these players with crucial playing time as they look to prove themselves worthy of a starting spot when they return, particularly Gil as he is still a young talent with high potential. 

Meanwhile, Aston Villa picked up attention as they signed several talents this month. They were able to put Barcelona’s Countinho into their squad on a loan deal. Returning to the league where he flourished, Countinho aims to put his heavily criticized performances at Barcelona and Bayern behind him and regain the outstanding style he was known for. Adding to Countinho, a strong signing was Digne from Everton, filling in the deep missing gap in Villa’s back line. 

A club whose window was quietly overlooked is Burnley. Although they lost their main striker Chris Wood to Newcastle, they were able to secure the signing of Wout Weghorst from Wolfsburg. In the Bundesliga, Weghorst defined himself as one of the most clinical strikers with great aerial presence, maintaining a record of 1 goal every 2 games. An eye should be out for Weghorst as he will be likely put straight into the starting lineups and working to prove his abilities in the Premier League. 

Despite clubs racing to pick up their necessary reinforcements for their teams especially on deadline day, this season’s January window was relatively quiet from star studded arrivals or dramatic revampings of squads. [1]

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/feb/01/january-transfer-window-verdict-how-

every-premier-league-club-fared