2025 transfer market winners and losers: Who is taking a desperate bet and who is rebuilding?

For Europe's top clubs and leagues, the transfer window for 2025 has been officially closed, and they will not be able to operate again until January next year. Considering that the overall spending of the Premier League has set a new record, this may be a good thing.

Due to the special schedule of the Club World Cup, FIFA allows the club to start two registration periods this summer. The first is an additional window from June 1 to 10, while the second is officially closed on Monday: England, Italy, France and Germany are closed at 7 pm BST (2 pm ET), while Spain is several hours late.

Now, clubs, players, coaches and agents have to stop and reflect: some people get what they want, some people feel regretful; some people do it properly, and some people miss the opportunity. Next, let’s take a look at the winners and losers in this transfer window.

Liverpool

The first appearance is undoubtedly the biggest money-spending machine in this transfer window - Liverpool. Some people even called this "the greatest transfer window in history". Although it still takes time to test whether it deserves its name, their operations are indeed jaw-dropping.

The Red Army first introduced Florian Wilz from Leverkusen for a price of 100 million pounds and 16 million floating, setting a new British transfer record. Then on the deadline, he signed Newcastle core Alexander Isaac for 130 million pounds, breaking the record again. In addition, they also signed Ugo Ekitic (69 million), Milos Kelkez (40 million), Jeremy Flinpon (29 million) and Giovanni Leoni (26 million). These newcomers will add a lineup that is already the Premier League champions, and the team will also renew contracts with Salah and Van Dijk this summer.

In terms of cleaning players, Liverpool has been as exquisite as ever, cashing out more than 200 million pounds from the transfers from Dias, Quenza, Nunes and others. The only small episode is the deal for the central defender of Crystal Palace, and the £35 million agreement has been negotiated, but it ended up failing because Crystal Palace failed to find a replacement.

Authentic, too many new players may bring running-in problems in the short term, and Liverpool has also had some bumps in the start of the new season, but they are still winning. If this is a kind of "adaptation while running", the result is undoubtedly a red flag for other opponents. Is

Arsenal

out of opportunity, or is it forced to keep up with the pace of its competitors? In any case, Arsenal also spent a lot of money this summer and introduced eight first-team players to prepare for another championship.

They were reinforced in almost every position: the forward line brought in Victor Jucres, Eberec Eze and Noni Maduaike; the midfielder added Zubimendi and Christian Nolgo; the defense signed Christian Moscra and Piero Xinkapi; goalkeeper Kepaze was a reliable substitute for Raya.

This greatly increases the thickness of Arsenal's lineup, which can better deal with injuries and intensive schedules. For example, Maduaike performed well when Saka was absent, and Mosquera also took the lead when Saliba was absent.

What excites the gun fans even more is that they also intercepted the targets of their competitors: Zubimendi was originally Liverpool's key recruitment target in 2024, but finally chose to wait for a year to join Arsenal; Eze was snatched away by Arsenal at the last moment when Tottenham thought they had secured their wins. Real Madrid quickly made adjustments after a poor performance in the 2024-25 season. The early confirmation of the appointment of Xavi Alonso shows their modern and tactical side, marking the beginning of a new era.

Then Real Madrid strengthened their key positions: Trent Arnold joined at a low price to make up for the right-back's shortcomings; Huyson, as a new generation of top central defenders, eased the pressure on the defense; left-back Carreras balanced the offensive tendency on the right; Argentine star Mastantuno also successfully defeated Paris Saint-Germain to join the Bernabeu.

The main ones who left the team were veterans like Modric and Vosques, while Rodrigo, who was rumored to leave, stayed and has now become a rotation player. All this shows that Real Madrid is on high alert and wants to regain hegemony from Barcelona. Manchester United's operations this summer are mixed. The bad news: they spent a premium for Cunya (62.5 million) and Mbewumo (65 million) and failed to make up for the midfield center. But the upside is that they signed Cesco and goalkeeper Lamons to return to the strategy of cultivating young talents, which is a positive signal for Manchester United, who is still rebuilding.

At the same time, they also cleared out a lot of redundant staff: Anthony and Garnacho have confirmed their departure, Hoylund has almost finalized, and the salary pressures of Rashford and Sancho have also been alleviated to a certain extent.

Overall, Manchester United's performance can only be considered "very moderate". Manchester City is also in the "neutral zone". They have both beautiful operations and confusing signings.

The upside is that Reindez performed well, and Ait Nuri joined at an extremely low price; but the arrival of Cherki and Donnarumma is incompatible with Guardiola's system - the former does not defend, while the latter has poor skills at feet. Why did Guardiola want them?

What is even more puzzling is that they let Akanji and Ederson go at relatively low prices, as if they had to clean up because the lineup was too large.

Overall, Manchester City looks younger and more energetic, but whether it is really stronger remains to be seen.

Newcastle United

Newcastle was tortured by Isaac's transfer farce all summer. The players strongly demanded to leave the team and eventually sold it to Liverpool for 130 million, but this tug-of-war caused Newcastle to suffer consecutive setbacks in the transfer market.

They have pursued forwards such as Ekitic, Cesco, Joao Pedro, Drapp, and Larson, but they all failed. In the last moment, they had to spend 65 million to buy Waltermad and sign Visa 50 million, but the result was still far inferior to the forward configuration last season. Jacob Ramsey (39 million) and defender Theo (33 million) in the

midfielder are highlights, but overall, this summer is undoubtedly a failure for the "Magpies".

Leverkusen

Leverkusen made a lot of money, but his vitality was greatly damaged in combat power. Wilz, Flynnon, Tah, Adrie, Zaka, Hradetsky, Kosonu, Xinkapi - almost all the winning team left the team.

What's even worse is that coach Ten Hach was fired after only two rounds of the league because he was dissatisfied with the loss of the lineup. Although the team also signed Tilman, Quarenza, Bad and Ben Segil, it was obvious that reconstruction was inevitable. Bayern Munich has a bad summer window. They had exempted Tah early, but paid huge signing fees and high salaries, but they might not be able to improve their strength immediately. Nico Williams chose to stay in the team, Rashford went to Barcelona, ​​but failed to strengthen the wing.

At the same time, Sane joined Galatasaray, Muller went to Vancouver of MLS, Koeman went to Riyadh to win, and the worst was that Musiara was seriously injured in the Club World Cup. Bayern's attack line was in an instant.

In desperation, they spent 75 million to buy 28-year-old Louis Dias of Liverpool, which is generally considered a serious premium by the outside world. They also spent 16.5 million to loan Chelsea's Nicholas Jackson, with a mandatory buyout clause of 65 million. The result is: spending a lot of money, but no one can rest assured.

Aston Villa

Villa's summer window can only be described as "miserable". Due to UEFA financial penalties, they must remain competitive with a 20-25% salary cut or they will be expelled from the European arena in the future.

Rumors were overwhelmed by the core players throughout the summer, and they eventually sold the youth training core Jacob Ramsey. Before the end of the day, they signed Lindelof (freedom), Sancho (loan) and Harvey Elliott (35 million), but it is still difficult to hide the fact that they are weak.

What's even more embarrassing is that goalkeeper Martinez was originally going to Manchester United, but the deal was ruined. Although retaining the goalkeeper seems to be a good idea, it actually only further disrupted the management's planning.