Big-spending Saudi Arabia, Inter Miami's Lionel Messi effect and Barcelona's book-balancing! Winners and losers of a history-making summer transfer window

There were plenty of sceptics when Cristiano Ronaldo claimed that he would soon be joined in Saudi Arabia by plenty of other high-profile players - but the Portuguese player's prophecy has come true in the most stunning fashion possible.

The last-gasp move for Mohamed Salah appears destined to fail because the window has now shut in England, meaning Liverpool wouldn't have time to buy a replacement, but Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante and Neymar are just three of the numerous world-renowned talents to have followed Ronaldo to the Middle East, bringing a level of media attention to the Saudi Pro League that would have been unthinkable even after the five-time Ballon d'Or winner signed for Al-Nassr in January.

However, what's really interesting is that the Public Investment Fund (PIF) - which took control of the country's four biggest clubs in a very blatant move to make as many massive moves as possible - hasn't just convinced ageing superstars to leave Europe for one last gargantuan payday. They've also acquired the likes of Ruben Neves, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and, most impressively of all, Gabri Veiga - players that are either still at their peak or have their best years ahead of them.

For that reason alone, this feels far more significant - and sustainable - than the Chinese Super League boom of 2016 and 2017. This incredibly ambitious project has full governmental support and a bottomless well of oil money to work with, meaning the Pro League is, as Pep Guardiola has pointed out, a very credible threat to the dominance of European football in the transfer market.

Indeed, only Premier League clubs spent more money this summer. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says he's not worried, while Toni Kroos labelled Veiga's decision to join Al-Ahli over Napoli "embarrassing" - but there is a very real possibility that even more exciting young prospects will follow in the Spaniard's footsteps.

Saudi Arabia has already taken over golf. Given it's already bought its way into the Premier League through Newcastle and turned the entire transfer market on its head this summer, do not be surprised if football is next.

Jordan Henderson is, at heart, a good guy. He proved that with his charity work during the pandemic. So, he certainly shouldn't be made the poster boy for all of the ills of the modern game. After all, he's not a powerful rule-maker or influential club president. Nor is he the only player to decide to accept an absurd amount of money to play football in Saudi Arabia. Many of us would have done the same in his position, as a 33-year-old midfield no longer regular first-team football at Liverpool.

The problem for Henderson, though, is that he's the only one that's looking like a hypocrite right now. Nobody was the least bit surprised when Ronaldo or Benzema moved to the Middle East for the money. However, Henderson's transfer stunned many of his supporters, particularly those that championed him as an ally of the LGBTQ+ community. As if anyone needs reminding, homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia, so there was inevitable - and understandable - shock when such a previously staunch supporter of the Rainbow Laces campaign decided to join Al-Ettifaq.

The issue of politics in sport, particularly in terms of human rights, is much bigger than Jordan Henderson - and it's a debate that really needs to be had out in the open, preferably as soon as possible. These are complex and divisive topics that Henderson should not be obliged to resolve.

But he did have a duty to those who looked up to him to explain his thought process here (even if we can all probably guess that he simply chose money over morals) - and the fact that he has not done that yet is shameful.

Henderson has undeniably set his family up for life by moving to Saudi Arabia - but he's also irreparably damaged his reputation as one of the game's good guys. Only he will know if it was really worth it.

Nobody is going to make the mistake of backing Paris Saint-Germain to win the Champions League. We are talking about the biggest bottlers in the tournament's history here. They specialise in spectacular and - let's face it - hilarious capitulations. There's also the fact that Kylian Mbappe changes his mind about staying at the Parc des Princes as regularly as Jose Mourinho attacks referees.

However, holding onto the world's deadliest forward (Mbappe, not Ronaldo) cannot be construed as anything but a major coup for PSG, who appeared resigned to losing their most prized possession earlier this summer. The Ligue 1 champions even accepted a bid from Al-Hilal for the World Cup winner's services.

Mbappe was never going to move to Saudi Arabia, of course, but that he's actually now considering extending his stay in the French capital is truly astounding - given his relationship with Nasser Al-Khelaifi & Co. appeared to have been broken beyond repair, as well as Real Madrid's continued interest in his services.

Whether he'll actually remain happy in Paris for long is open to debate, but he’ll definitely enjoy lining up alongside new arrivals - and France team-mates - Ousmane Dembele and Randal Kolo Muani.

There’s also a case to be made that this is the strongest PSG squad of the QSI era. For arguably the first time ever, the club has shunned superstars such as Lionel Messi and Neymar in favour of investing wisely in both their backline and defence, meaning that last-season's top-heavy team is now evenly-balanced thanks to the arrival of shrewd and/or sensible signings such as Milan Skriniar and Manuel Ugarte.

New coach Luis Enrique can obviously be a divisive figure, but he does at least have a very clear idea of what he wants to do, how he wants to achieve it, and with whom - as Marco Verratti discovered to his cost. The Spaniard is also a treble-winner from his time at Barcelona, meaning PSG, with a seemingly motivated Mbappe, are very much a team to watch this season.

RB Leipzig have a business model and it works wonderfully for them. They identify, sign and nurture exciting young talents - often through their sister clubs - and then sell those players on for enormous fees. The profits made fund the whole enterprise and enable Leipzig to remain competitive, both in Germany and continental competition.

However, even with all of that in mind, their supporters are hurting right now - and understandably so. In total, Leipzig lost four fantastic players during the transfer window: Christopher Nkunku, Dominik Szoboszlai, Josko Gvardiol and Konrad Laimer - all of whom played pivotal roles in Marco Rose's side finishing third in the Bundesliga and winning the DFB-Pokal.

Leipzig made roughly €220 million (£188m/$238m) from the sales of Nkunku (which had been agreed in January), Szoboszlai and Gvardiol (Laimer left on a free), and they've made some exciting signings with the money raised, chief among them Xavi Simons.

However, it would be impossible to brand this window as anything but heart-breaking for the fans. Sides like Leipzig are always going to see crowd favourites leave for bigger clubs, but to lose four in the same summer is undeniably devastating.

We've talked for a long time about 'The Cristiano Ronaldo effect' - and rightly so. So high is the Portuguese's profile, that his mere presence at a club can have a colossal economic impact, resulting in massive increases in social media followers, share prices and the value of commercial contracts. However, 'The Lionel Messi effect' is perhaps even more impressive, given it yields both sporting and economic benefits. Just look at what's happened at Inter Miami since the Argentine's arrival at the DRV PNK Stadium in June.

In the space of three months, the franchise has gone from the most embarrassing outfit in MLS to the biggest draw in the entire league. A team once being dragged down by Phil Neville - England's Lionesses know the feeling - has been transformed into the Barcelona All-Stars by Messi, who has managed to convince two former Camp Nou colleagues (Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba) and one ex-Blaugrana boss (Tata Martino) to join him in Miami.

The question now, of course, is whether the No.10 can now lead his new side into the play-offs - which would genuinely rank as one of the most impressive miracles of Messi's career given the bottom-placed ranking when he joined - but, in a way, it's not important. Because Miami have already won a Leagues Cup thanks to 'The GOAT', ticket prices have gone through the roof, viewing figures have sky-rocketed and MLS as a whole is benefiting from 'The Messi effect'.

Labelling United as one of the losers of the transfer window may seem harsh to some. After all, Andre Onana's distribution should end up adding a whole new dimension to the team's play, Rasmus Hojlund is a young striker of enormous potential, while Sofyan Amrabat should immediately add some much-needed aggression and steel to a midfield that has been far too easily overrun during the first few weeks of the season.

However, ask yourself this: Are United really any stronger than they were last season? The answer is no - and that's a staggering state of affairs after a summer outlay of just under £200m. There are just too many doubts, too many question marks over certain signings.

As many people feared, Mason Mount is looking every bit like a player that United simply did not need, Hojlund is not the guaranteed goalscorer that United were crying out for and even Onana has already exhibited the flaws that saw Inter supporters spend most of last season with their hearts in their mouths.

All three could come good - but there is simply no getting away from the fact this is not the summer the fans were eagerly anticipating. They did not expect to see Sergio Reguilon signing for the club on deadline day, that's for damn sure!

Granted, United desperately needed a left-back after unluckily losing Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia to injury, but if Reguilon is the answer, then different questions have to be asked! Indeed, what's really startling is that when you look at Ten Hag's entire panel of players, there are still plenty of holes in the squad. The whole purpose of this window was to close the gap to Manchester City but, if anything, the distance between the two has actually grown.

For decades, English players refused to even entertain the idea of moving to the continent. There were exceptions to the rule of course, intrepid explorers of varying degrees of quality, from Trevor Francis and David Beckham to Danny Dichio and Jonathan Woodgate. But then, in recent seasons, young English players began to see the merits of moving to Europe - and Germany, in particular, with Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham becoming stars at Borussia Dortmund.

Sancho, of course, has since come crashing back down to earth - ironically after returning to his native England, to join Manchester United - but Bellingham decided against going home despite intense interest in his services, and the utterly fearless 20-year-old has continued his European adventure by joining arguably the biggest club in world football, Real Madrid. It's all going swimmingly, too, with Bellingham already looking like a €103m (£88m/$111m) bargain after four goals in his first three Liga outings. Turns out Toni Kroos need not have worried - Jude is no Eden Hazard.

But now there's another stellar Englishman lighting up the Bundesliga: Harry Kane, who made the difficult decision to leave his beloved Tottenham for Bayern Munich during the summer. The striker was desperate to win trophies, while the Bavarians were in dire need of a belated replacement for Robert Lewandowski. Unsurprisingly, it's already looking like a match made in heaven. Bayern may have been stunned by RB Leipzig in the German Super Cup, denying Kane an early opportunity to end his search for silverware, but the England captain has hit three goals in two Bundesliga outings, meaning a domestic title is looking predictably probable, and a Champions League title a distinct possibility.

So, all things considered, maybe we'll soon see even more of Bellingham and Kane's world-class compatriots trying their luck in Europe.

Romelu Lukaku has already received a rapturous welcome at Roma, which was to be expected of course. The club's passionate and long-suffering fans always roll out the red carpet for anyone deemed capable of helping them win a first Scudetto since 2001; the scenes that greeted Paulo Dybala last summer, for example, were truly breath-taking.

Even with Lukaku on board, a Serie A title looks beyond Roma - this season, at least - but there is no denying that 'Big Rom' could rebuild his career under Jose Mourinho at the Stadio Olimpico. There's no hope for his reputation, though - that's now broken beyond all repair.

By entering into secret talks with Juventus after Chelsea had agreed to sell the striker to Inter, Lukaku achieved something truly astounding by upsetting three separate sets of supporters all at once. Chelsea fans were hoping that the club could at least recoup some of the £97.5m wasted on the Belgian, Juve-hating Interisti were enraged by the worst betrayal imaginable, while the Bianconeri faithful were aghast at the plan to replace their beloved Dusan Vlahovic with Lukaku.

It really was a staggering move on Lukaku's part, apparently motivated by Inter coach Simone Inzaghi starting him on the bench in last season's Champions League final against Manchester City. He had begged the fans for forgiveness after ditching them for Chelsea in 2021 and, having been welcomed back to San Siro the following summer, repeatedly expressed his love for the club, its followers and the city of Milan, while at the same time stating over and over again that he only wanted to play for Inter.

There is a very real danger, then, that Lukaku will be remembered as a forward whose word was about as reliable as his first touch.

It's usually strikers that fetch the biggest fees during the summer transfer window. They are, after all, the men that get the goals - the most precious commodity in football. However, this year, defensive midfielders proved arguably the most valuable players on the market, which perhaps makes sense.

In this era of high lines, inside forwards and buccaneering full-backs, defences arguably need more protection than ever before. Consequently, specialist No.6s became very highly sought-after. And they're not easily found, as Liverpool discovered as they attempted to find a replacement for Fabinho, so that's why we saw the likes of Moises Caicedo and Declan Rice going for record-breaking, nine-figure fees, and inexperienced defensive midfielders such as Romeo Lavia being bought for staggering sums.

Obviously, the mad money men at Chelsea were responsible for the purchase of two of those players mentioned, but it's clear that the role that they play is now considered utterly integral to a team's hopes of success in the modern game.

Bayern Munich were so close to having a near-perfect summer. The Bavarians managed to land their top two transfer targets by signing Kim Min-jae from Napoli and Tottenham's Harry Kane, while they also managed to bring in both Konrad Laimer and Raphael Guerreiro on free transfers.

However, just before the close of the window, Bayern allowed Benjamin Pavard to join Inter and Ryan Gravenberch move to Liverpool, believing that they would have sufficient time to sign replacements.

Deadline day proved a total disaster, though. Bayern failed to fill the void left by the versatile Pavard as they chased Trevoh Chalobah, meaning they are short on cover at both centre-back and right-back. Even worse, Thomas Tuchel is now light on numbers in midfield, as the club ran out of time as they frantically tried to seal a deal with Fulham for defensive midfielder Joao Palhinha. What a first day for new sporting director Christoph Freund, eh?!

Bayern are rightly regarded as one of the favourites to win this season's Champions League, but reinforcements will now be required in January because, right now, they lack strength in depth in two key areas.

The transfer market completely lost its mind this summer, but we did see some deals done that just made perfect sense. Christian Pulisic's move to AC Milan is a case in point. The American attacker very clearly needed to get as far away from Chelsea as possible. After struggling for so long at Stamford Bridge for form and fitness, Pulisic required stability - not insanity.

In that sense, Milan looked like a risky move when the United States winger signed, given San Siro was shrouded in uncertainty following the shock exit of club legend Paolo Maldini. However, even then, it felt like the right move for Pulisic, simply for the fact that he was seeking regular game time at top team, while the Rossoneri were desperately looking for a significant upgrade on Alexis Saelemaekers and Junior Messias - both of whom have since been sold.

It's already working out well for both parties, with Pulisic wasting little time in proving himself capable of lightening Rafael Leao's load by netting in his first two games for the club. In short, Captain America has quickly taken on hero-like status at Milan.

Players going on strike to force through a transfer is nothing new. The likes of William Gallas, Luka Modric and Raheem Sterling have all downed tools over the years. But that doesn't make such behaviour any less abhorrent.

For example, Wolves and their supporters were rightly disgusted with the conduct of Matheus Nunes, who refused to turn up for training simply because Manchester City were trying to sign him. At the very least, the Portuguese owed both the club and its fans some professionalism, given they had stood by him during a terrible first year at Molineux in which he had failed dismally to justify his £38m fee. Instead, he petulantly decided to stop doing the job for which he was being handsomely rewarded. It was as disgraceful as it was offensive.

Nunes won't care, of course. He's got what he wanted in the end. And that's the truly depressing thing: sometimes, striking works. It makes life so uncomfortable for a club that they are left with no option but to cash in on a valuable asset that would otherwise depreciate in value while rotting in the reserves.

In that sense, Nunes and fellow summer-strikers such as Randal Kolo Muani and Luis Sinisterra are winners, as their embarrassing antics paid off. In reality, though, they are complete losers and it's only right they be called out - just as Wolves did with Nunes, a pathetic excuse for a professional.

Credit where it's due: Barcelona are still managing to sign good players despite having next-to-no money to work with. The club is still counting the cost of Josep Maria Bartomeu's catastrophic reign as president, which has forced successor Joan Laporta into pulling economic 'levers' at every possible opportunity. Barca have essentially mortgaged their future on present-day success, which is a very risky strategy, but is paying off at the moment, with Xavi having led the team to Liga glory last season.

Europe is where the real money lies, of course, so a first appearance in the knockout stage of the Champions League in three years is imperative this season. A very kind draw in Monte Carlo on Thursday has seriously boosted their chances of achieving that goal, but so too has their recruitment over the summer.

Even though they've only spent around €10m, Barca have managed to strengthen their squad with the additions of Ilkay Gundogan, Inigo Martinez (both free transfers), Oriol Romeu, Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix. Granted, some of those players are far better than others - and they cannot be construed as anything but short-terms solutions - but it's not bad business, particularly when you consider that they've banked more than €70m from selling Nico Gonzalez, Franck Kessie and Ousmane Dembele.

Former big-spenders Barcelona are becoming brilliant book-balancers.

It might seem like Mauricio Pochettino is in a fantastic position. As Jurgen Klopp recently remarked with a hint of jealousy, usually a Chelsea manager gets whatever he wants in the transfer market - and that's arguably even truer now than it was under Roman Abramovich.

Indeed, the club's current owners have taken their spending to just under £1 billion since taking over last year with another historic spending spree this summer. The net result is that new boss Pochettino has seen his squad strengthened with a plethora of potential superstars.

The key word there, though, is 'potential'. Could the likes of Cole Palmer become great players? Absolutely, but there are zero guarantees. And, in truth, it's probably more likely that they'll end up struggling just as badly to prove their worth in such a chaotic environment as Mykhailo Mudryk.

It is Pochettino's job to ensure that does not happen. It is his responsibility to not only get the best out of this promising crop of youngsters - so he could do with a bit of patience. He'll not get any at Stamford Bridge, though. Chelsea, remember, started a project under Graham Potter but ruthlessly ditched it - and the manager - after less than seven months.

Essentially, Todd Boehly & Co. are thinking long-term with their transfers but want success in the short term in order to cover the costs of this ridiculously expensive endeavour. It doesn't make sense and it spells trouble for Pochettino.

Is Joao Felix destined to become the new Alvaro Morata? The early signs are promising, with the Portuguese securing another move to a top team without doing very much at all. He clearly still has some way to go match Morata: so far, only one club has wasted really big money on him.

However, it's undeniably impressive that Felix has managed to convince Barca to make room for him at Camp Nou by sending homegrown hero Ansu Fati to Brighton - after managing just four goals while on loan to Chelsea earlier this year.

Also, who knows, with one half-decent season, Felix might even be able to secure himself a permanent, multi-million move to Catalunya that would really put him in a position to challenge Morata for the title of the most mystifyingly expensive forward in world football.

Heading into the summer, it felt almost certain that Harry Maguire would leave Manchester United this summer. In mid-July, it was felt his time at Old Trafford was over as West Ham agreed a deal to sign the England defender. And yet, Maguire remains a United player following the closure of the window.

It feels doubtful that the ex-Red Devils captain will get much of a run under Erik ten Hag despite still being on the club's books, and real questions must now be asked as to whether he can do enough to keep his place in Gareth Southgate's squad for this summer's European Championship.

Maguire is not the only fringe player to remain at United despite having slid down the pecking order under Ten Hag. Clubs from Bayern Munich to Fulham were linked with Scott McTominay, but he has gone nowhere, while Anthony Martial is also still there despite the arrival of Rasmus Hojlund.

The news was little better for one player who did make it out of Old Trafford, either, as David de Gea remains without a club after being released back in June. Maybe Saudi Arabia will come calling for the free agent goalkeeper...