Here, we look at which teams were the winners and losers of the January transfer window in the Premier League.
Winners
Manchester City
It’s difficult to look beyond Manchester City as the biggest winners of the January transfer window in England.
They went into January with two notable issues: a lack of goal threat beyond Erling Haaland, and an injury crisis at centre-back.
City addressed both problems by signing two players who arguably strengthen their first XI, with Antoine Semenyo arriving from Bournemouth and Marc Guéhi coming in from Crystal Palace.
Admittedly results haven’t exactly improved dramatically, winning just two of their last five in all competitions and yielding a two-goal lead at Tottenham on Sunday. But both Semenyo and Guéhi are players City should be able to get plenty out of in the long term as much as the present.
Semenyo is, of course, the most exciting of the two arrivals. The explosive winger scored 10 goals in all competitions for Bournemouth prior to making the move to City, and he’s already got four in five for them, only firing a blank in the 2-0 Manchester derby defeat. He’s just the second player to find the net in as many as four of his first five appearances for City as a Premier League club (from 1992-93), after Emmanuel Adebayor in 2009 (also four).
Also counting as a mark in City’s favour, it’s fair to say they did well to get a reported £27 million for Oscar Bobb. While clearly talented, the Norwegian had made only five starts in the Premier League this season and had played just 13 minutes since the start of November.
West Ham United
The perception of West Ham’s transfer window could shift pretty quickly, because if their form takes another turn for the worse, then they’ll be doomed to relegation and their January work will be for nothing.
But they can’t be accused of giving up and resigning themselves to their fate.
West Ham rank among the window’s winners probably as much because of their outgoings as their incomings.
They managed to shift dead wood such as Niclas Füllkrug, Guido Rodríguez and James Ward-Prowse, all of whom were well out of favour as the squad profile graphic below highlights.
Similarly, they received a decent fee – in the region of £35m – for Lucas Paquetá, who’d largely underwhelmed this season.
We should retain a measure of balance, however.
It cannot be ignored that the Hammers spent a lot of money on two centre-forwards who haven’t been prolific at the top level.
Taty Castellanos scored 13 La Liga goals for Girona in 2022-23 and 10 in Serie A for Lazio last term, but he managed only two in 12 appearances across all competitions this season for the Italians prior to costing West Ham about £27m.
Similarly, Pablo was brought in for roughly £21m from Gil Vicente in Portugal. The 22-year-old had only netted 20 times in 90 appearances in Portuguese football.
Ten of those were scored this season in fairness to him, so he did at least arrive in decent form – though it’s worth noting his 4.7 overperformance in relation to non-penalty xG is still the highest of any player in the 2025-26 Portuguese Primeira Liga.
Nevertheless, he offers a physical presence while Castellanos brings a bit of dynamism and work rate.
They also secured deals for Axel Disasi – on loan – and Adama Traoré. Disasi could be a useful option at centre-back if he’s able to find the level that convinced Chelsea to splash out on him a few years ago, while Traoré reunited with Nuno Espírito Santo.
Traoré’s end product is famously erratic, though he will provide explosiveness and pace out wide. At £2m, he’s a low-risk signing.
Aston Villa
Aston Villa’s winter transfer window was defined by the returns of two familiar faces.
Tammy Abraham and Douglas Luiz were both adored by supporters in their respective previous spells, and they returned to Villa Park in January.
Abraham’s signing on a permanent basis for about £19m gives Unai Emery depth beyond Ollie Watkins up front. The former Chelsea striker has done well in the Premier League before and boasts a profile that makes him a threat in numerous ways – he’s technically sound, tall, quick and a decent finisher.
He essentially takes the place in the squad of Donyell Malen after he was allowed to join Roma.
The Dutchman chipped in with goals here and there but rarely looked truly convincing either leading the line or on the wing; Abraham, however, is an out-and-out centre-forward, and he ought to be motivated by any outside chance of getting into the England squad for the World Cup.
Arguably more importantly, though, Douglas Luiz bolsters a midfield that had become a real worry for Villa.
They’ve lost Boubacar Kamara for the rest of the season, while John McGinn and Youri Tielemans are both expected to be out for well over a month.
Sure, Douglas Luiz may not have pulled up any trees at Nottingham Forest in the first half of the season, but he thrived under Emery before and is practically guaranteed plenty of minutes at least for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, Leon Bailey’s return from a loan spell at Roma sees him take the place of Evann Guessand following his move to Crystal Palace. Alysson, signed from Gremio, is more likely one for the future than for the present.
Losers
Crystal Palace
A little like West Ham, perceptions of Crystal Palace’s transfer window could change dramatically depending on what happens next.
However, at this point in time, it’s understandable if some supporters are frustrated or even concerned.
To be fair to Palace, they have spent money. Oliver Glasner was crying out for reinforcements and he got them in Brennan Johnson and Jørgen Strand Larsen – to the tune of about £80m in total.
Neither are bad players. Strand Larsen enjoyed a very promising first campaign in the Premier League last season and Johnson proved a semi-regular source of goals at Nottingham Forest and then Tottenham – well, excluding this term.
Nevertheless, Strand Larsen has managed just one league goal in 2025-26, and Johnson hasn’t made much of an impact since joining at the start of January. The chart below highlights their respective underwhelming outputs in front of goal this season.
They’d likely both insist there are extenuating circumstances; for Strand Larsen, that he was playing in one of the worst teams in Premier League history, and for Johnson, that he was out of favour at Spurs. So, they could have a positive impact.
Strand Larsen was supposed to be a replacement for Jean-Philippe Mateta, of course, but the Frenchman ended up staying. Granted, it sounds like he’ll need surgery, but if he’s able to return with plenty of time to spare for the end of 2025-26, Palace will have the depth up front that’s previously eluded them. Whether that outweighs the significance of having a player who wants to leave, however, is up for debate.
The other aspect of Palace’s window that has to be addressed is the departure of captain Guéhi. Getting £20m for a player who was otherwise expected to leave for free in June could be framed in a positive light, but they didn’t manage to get a replacement in.
Chadi Riad could turn out to be that long-term replacement, though the Moroccan has played just five times due to injury since joining in 2024. He remains something of an unknown quantity, but he is at least fit now.
Tottenham Hotspur
With several of their most creative players out with long-term injuries and the majority of their central midfielders more destructive than incisive, Tottenham fans were crying out for a playmaker who’d offer some progressive passing from the centre and get them on the front foot.
What they got was Conor Gallagher, whose proportion of open-play passes that were played forward (22.3%) was the ninth lowest among the 68 central and defensive midfielders to play at least 500 minutes in La Liga this season.
Gallagher could well end up being a useful signing, but he’s another midfielder known more for work rate and being disruptive when Spurs fans wanted someone who’d help them play through the lines.
They did beat rivals Arsenal to the loan signing of Hearts’ 18-year-old striker James Wilson, with an option of making the Scottish youngster a permanent transfer in the summer. Already capped by Scotland, becoming their youngest ever men’s international in history back in March 2025, he’ll initially join up with their under-21 side and is unlikely to feature for the first team this season.
Their other signing was the young Brazilian left-back, Souza. Aside from presumably being one for the future, Tottenham do already have two decent options on the left side of defence in Destiny Udogie and Djed Spence.
Of course, it’s not necessarily a bad thing that Spurs signed him. It might be one they’d considered a “market opportunity” that they felt they couldn’t miss out on.
Either way, Tottenham’s transfer window was seemingly defined by muddled priorities.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
This might be a low blow or a cheap shot given Wolves are pretty much doomed to relegation, but there don’t appear to be many redeeming aspects of their transfer window.
Angel Gomes is at least an interesting addition on loan from Marseille. The Manchester United youth product returns to the Premier League after five years in France and Portugal, and he should bring some quality on the ball in deep areas.
Otherwise, however, their only other addition for the first team was Adam Armstrong.
He will compete with Tolu Arokodare to fill the void left by Strand Larsen, but Armstrong has never previously managed to translate his goalscoring record at Championship level to the Premier League.
He’s averaged a goal every 705 minutes in the top flight; among the 354 forwards to play at least 4,000 mins in the Premier League, only eight have scored more infrequently than that.
However, in the Championship, he’s averaged one every 212 minutes. That’s enough for him to rank 54th out of 354 among forwards to play at least 4,000 mins in the competition.
Cynics will suggest it’s a move in preparation for their return to the Championship.
Liverpool
After lavishly spending in the summer, the expectation back in September was likely that Liverpool wouldn’t need to enter the market in January.
As it happened, they did try for more reinforcements, but not much came off.
Right-back has been a problem position this term due to injuries to Jeremie Frimpong and Conor Bradley, but a move for Lutsharel Geertruida – currently on loan at Sunderland from Feyenoord – didn’t come off.
Similarly, it was felt they needed at least an additional body at centre-back due to Giovanni Leoni’s long-term absence with an ACL injury and the questionable form of those actually playing there.
However, they were only able to secure Jérémy Jacquet’s arrival for next season. The young Frenchman is very highly rated and will likely be a fine signing, but Liverpool could’ve done with him immediately.
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