This summer has been one of the busiest ever for transfers and the premier league spending total reached a massive £1.165bn! Our resident expert Matt Bullin takes a look at the biggest movers across the European continent…
Spain
Surprisingly it was a quiet window for reigning European champions Real Madrid as they brought in just one high profile player, Alvaro Morata from Juventus, and they sold Jese to PSG to balance their books. And they did let Alvaro Arbeloa go on a free to West Ham. Barcelona on the other hand were one of the busiest sides in the window as they raided Valencia to sign Andre Gomes and Paco Alcacer for a combined £55m, as well as bringing in defensive pairing Samuel Umtiti from Lyon and Lucas Digne from PSG for £21m and 14m respectively. And they let experienced keeper Claudio Bravo go to Man City for £15m. Atletico have bolstered their attack by signing Kevin Gameiro and Nicolas Gaitan, but they sold Borja Baston to Swansea for £15m. Arsenal and Man United went shopping in La Liga too, taking Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia and Eric Bailly from Villarreal for the bargain prices of, £35m and £32m each.
Germany
There were also major movements in the Bundesliga as Bayern Munich signed Mats Hummels from Dortmund, with Mario Goetze and Sebastien Rode going the other way. Bayern also signed 18 year-old Renato Sanchez from Benfica after he impressed for Portugal at the Euros. But it’s Dortmund who have made huge changes to their squad this summer- as well as the transfers already mentioned, they brought in Andre Shuerrle, Ousmane Dembele, Raphael Guerreiro and Marc Batra- improving all areas of their squad. They funded these moves by selling Henrikh Mkhitarayan and Ilkay Gundogan to Man United and Man City respectively, and they let Jakub Blaszczykowski go to Wolfsburg for just £4m. The chasing pack all made signings too- Schalke brought in Breel Embolo, Benjamin Stambouli and Coke- whilst they lost Leroy Sane to Man City and Joel Matip to Liverpool. Bayer Leverkusen splashed out on Kevin Volland and Aleksandar Dragovic and Borussia Monchengladbach brought in Christoph Kramer and Jannik Vestergaard whilst Granit Xhaka went to Arsenal for £38m. Wolfsburg brought in veteran striker Mario Gomez from Fiorentina, Jeffrey Bruma from PSV and Yannick Garhardt from Cologne, whilst they let Brazillian centre back pairing Naldo and Dante go on frees.
Italy
Perhaps one of the weirdest transfers of the summer came out of Italy- Joe Hart going out on loan to Torino. Elsewhere Juventus made some massive signings – splashing out on attacking duo Gonzalo Higuain for £76m and Mirajem Pjanic for £27m. As well as bringing in Juan Cuadrado, Medhi Benatia on loan and doing a canny bit of business to bring in experienced defender, Dani Alves, on a free. Though they did lose midfield general Paul Pogba to Man United for a ridiculous £89m and Alvaro Morata returned to Real Madrid for £25m. The Milan clubs have also been relatively quiet this summer- AC getting rid of Fernando Torres, Kevin Prince-Boateng and Jeremy Menez on frees and selling Stephan El Shaarawy to Roma for £11m.Though Inter brought in Joao Marco from Sporting Lisbon, Gabriel from Santos and Antonio Candreva from Serie A rivals Lazio. Roma were also busy in the window signing Mohamed Salah, Edin Dzeko and Gerson, whilst they let Miralem Pjanic, Adem Ljajic and Dodo go.
France
Ligue One has dropped off the pace of the other big European leagues in the last few years, though there are still a few interesting movements that are worth looking at. PSG let David Luiz return to Chelsea for £32m, along with selling Lucas Digne, Benjamin Stambouli and letting Gregory van der Wiel go on a free. As well as the obvious Zlatan transfer to Man United. Though they did bring in Jese from Real Madrid, Hatem Ben Arfa from Nice and Grzegorz Krychowiak from Sevilla. Marseille did not bring in any names despite their disappointing 2015/16 season, though they did sell Michy Batshuayi to Chelsea for £33m and Georges-Kevin N’Koudou to Spurs for £9m. Monaco had a quiet window after their antics in the last few years, just signing some defensive cover, and Lyon sold defender Samuel Umtiti to Barcelona for £21m but signed no one of note.
Netherlands
The Eredivisie doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of money as the other European leagues, and their clubs have suffered in recent years because of it. Ajax sold Arkadiusz Milik to Napoli for £27m, Jasper Cillessen to Barca for £11m and Viktor Fischer to Middlesbrough for £4m. Though they did sign Tim Krul on loan from Newcastle and Hatim Ziyech from FC Twente for £9m. PSV also had a quiet window- the only major move being Jeffrey Bruma to Wolfsburg for £10m. Vitesse have signed Ricky van Wolfswinkel from Norwich and Sparta Rotterdam made a big name signing of sorts, bringing in Mathias Pogba, brother of Paul, from Partick Thistle on a free.
Elsewhere in Europe
Scottish champions Celtic signed Kolo Toure from Liverpool, and Besiktas have signed Gokhan Inler on a free from Leicester. Besiktas’ Turkish rivals Fenerbahce signed Marin Skrtel on a free though they lost Nani to Valencia for £7m. Portuguese outfit Sporting Lisbon also strengthened signed wide men Joel Campbell and Lazar Markovic on loan from Arsenal and Liverpool respectively, whilst signing Dutch striker Bas Dost from Wolfsburg for £8.5m. Though they also sold Algerian forward Islam Slimani to Leicester for £25m and Joao Mario to Inter for £34m. In Russia, CSKA sold Ahmed Traore to Leicester, but brought in Lacina Traore on loan from Monaco. And finally- in possibly the strangest move of the summer, Hulk better brush up on his Mandarin as he’s leaving Zenit for Shaghai for the small sum of £48m.
