Transfer window verdict: Final grades for Europe's 10 richest clubs following their 2026 summer business

Arsenal made a cool £120 million ($163m) in outgoings after selling seven players during the summer window, including Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard and Cristian Norgaard. Selling Martinelli to Al-Hilal was a slight risk and a bad look, because Mikel Arteta doesn't have loads of cover on the left wing and the Brazilian still has a lot to offer at the age of 25, but you can't really blame the Gunners for accepting a club record £55.7m ($76m) offer for a player who only scored one Premier League goal last term.

Martinelli would have been destined to be a bench-warmer, too, because of the arrival of Cristian Tzolis, who already looks a bargain after his £34m ($46m) switch from Club Brugge. No, he's not at the same level as Vinicius Junior, but the former Club Brugge and Norwich City man is an exciting, direct assist machine with bags of potential still to unlock.

Arsenal also forked out £75m ($102m) for Bruno Guimaraes, which is as close to a sure thing as you can get in this market. The Brazilian, who proved his Premier League pedigree across four impressive years at Newcastle, has the profile to complete Arteta's midfield with his excellent press resistance, progressive passing range, and ferocious ball-winning ability.

Ezri Konsa was the final new face through the door, arriving from Aston Villa in a £55m ($74m) deal, and the England international's versatility at the back could be crucial as William Saliba battles back from a serious injury. Piero Hincapie will be a reliable option too, having made his move to Arsenal permanent following a very impressive loan spell.

Arteta has all the tools he needs to make sure the Premier League trophy remains at the Emirates, and perhaps even to ensure that the Gunners go one better in the Champions League.

At the start of the summer, Barcelona confirmed their long awaited return to La Liga's 1:1 Financial Fair Play rule, which means that every single Euro they generate from player sales can be spent on new signings again, without the limitations that had held them back in recent years. The Liga champions managed to raise €120m (£103m/$139m) by offloading five players, with Ferran Torres' €50m (£43m/$58m) move to Paris Saint-Germain making the most difference, while they also got Robert Lewandowski and Marcus Rashford off their wage bill.

The club also leveraged its high credit rating to secure a €210m (£180m/$243m) bank loan, backed by an advance on their expected TV broadcasting rights revenue over the next four to five years, so Hansi Flick was allowed to chase all of his main transfer targets. The German coach got two in the form of Anthony Gordon and Rodri, who set Barca back a combined total of €140m (£120m/$162m).

Former Newcastle ace Gordon is the perfect winger for Flick's high-pressing system, and Rodri is the best defensive midfielder in the world. Prising the latter away from Manchester City was perhaps the biggest coup of the entire window, because the 2024 Ballon d'Or winner can drive the Blaugrana on to their first Champions League crown since 2015.

Flick also covered for the losses of Lewandowski and Torres by signing Karim Adeyemi from Borussia Dortmund and Gabriel Jesus from Arsenal, while 18-year-old wonderkid Jesse Bisiwu arrived from Club Brugge. Barca concluded their business by signing Joao Cancelo on a free transfer, a move the 32-year-old fully deserved after making such a success of his initial loan return from Al-Hilal.

There were no other new defenders brought in, though, which is a worry, particularly after Ronald Araujo's loan move to Liverpool. A lack of cohesion at the back cost Barca dearly in Europe last season, but then again, they didn't have Rodri to provide protection. It's possible they will just outscore everyone with Spain's World Cup hero on hand to snuff out dangerous transitions, although their fruitless pursuit of Atletico Madrid's Julian Alvarez may leave a lasting scar, because the injury-prone Jesus doesn't nearly measure up as a reliable alternative.

Bayern Munich had a very quiet summer. Ten players left the club, including club legend Leon Goretzka, who had reached the end of his contract, with only Joao Palhinha and Noel Aseko fetching over €10m in direct sales.

Vincent Kompany made just two major signings in the end, the first being Ismael Saibari from PSV. Bayern paid €50m (£43m/$58m) for the 25-year-old, who scored 26 goals in the Eredivisie across his final two seasons at Philips Stadion and starred for Morocco at the 2026 World Cup.

Saibari was the Atlas Lions' standout player during their run to the quarter-finals, most notably scoring in a 1-1 draw against Brazil, and he bagged two assists on his debut for Bayern - a 5-1 Bundesliga victory over Stuttgart. Kompany can count on Saibari to bring tactical flexibility and raw power to his frontline, adding another dimension that former Chelsea loanee Nicolas Jackson could not.

Bayern also lured Germany international Nathaniel Brown away from Eintracht Frankfurt in another €50m deal, and the 23-year-old will provide valuable competition for Alphonso Davies at left-back. However, the most significant achievement of the window for the Bundesliga holders was keeping hold of Michael Olise.

Real Madrid were strongly linked with a world-record move for the France international for weeks, before they ultimately released a statement denying any formal contact with Bayern. It would have been a disaster to lose Olise, who is a contender for the Ballon d'Or after his incredible 2025-26 campaign, but now he will form part of an even stronger attack alongside Saibari.

Kompany's squad didn't need major surgery given how close they came to making the Champions League final in May, and opening contract extension talks with Harry Kane was also vital, but it was a conservative window overall. Only time will tell if that comes back to bite Bayern.

Chelsea attempted a structural summer rebuild tailored explicitly to the philosophy of their new head coach, Xabi Alonso, outspending their Premier League rivals with an outlay of £349m ($471m) on new talent, balanced by a £382m ($516m) recovery in player sales.

The headline deal was the club-record £117m ($158m) purchase of Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa, and the England international has hit the ground running with two goal involvements in his first two Premier League outings for the Blues.

The early signs suggest Rogers will live up to his mega price tag, having made an instant connection with Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer in the final third. Alonso also signed veteran duo Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson, who bring much-needed experience and leadership to a squad that sorely lacked the latter last season.

In defence, Chelsea invested a combined £111m ($150m) in Maxence Lacroix, Marco Palestra, and Pep Chavarria, and Emi Martinez followed Rogers from Villa in a cut-price £7.5m deal. The Argentina goalkeeper is a major upgrade on their calamitous previous No.1 Robert Sanchez.

Elsewhere, promising forward Emmanuel Emegha and Argentine midfielder Valentin Barco joined the Blues from their sister club Strasbourg, enhancing the squad depth even further. Chelsea covered nearly every base for incomings, and managed to shed the deadwood in equally efficient fashion.

Losing Marc Cucurella to Real Madrid was a blow, but they did brilliantly to get big fees for the likes of Andrey Santos, Nicolas Jackson and Liam Delap. Academy graduates Trevoh Chalobah and Tyrique George were also sold, to Como and Everton, respectively, for combined pure profit of £50m ($68m).

There was drama on deadline day, too as Chelsea cashed in on Enzo Fernandez in their most expensive sale ever, squeezing a Premier League record-equalling fee of £125m out of Man City. Recouping their entire initial investment in the Argentine, and a little bit extra was a great piece of business, but Chelsea did not get a deal over the line for his replacement, Monaco's Lamine Camara.

That will definitely bring down the optimistic mood at Stamford Bridge, because Alonso is now too short in midfield to deliver the league title. Even a disgruntled Fernandez could have brought a lot to the Blues' new project, and losing him could undermine it entirely.

Liverpool ended the summer in spectacular fashion, tying up a £120m ($162m) deal for Bradley Barcola that made the Paris Saint-Germain attacker their second-most expensive signing ever. Despite not always being a regular starter at PSG, Barcola made a vital contribution to both of the club's Champions League triumphs over the last two seasons, and there are only a handful of better left wingers in the European game.

The fleet-footed Frenchman has the skillset to become Liverpool's new talisman in attack after Mohamed Salah's departure. New boss Andoni Iraola was also able to sign Victor Munoz from Osasuna for just £34m ($46m), which could turn out to be a steal if the Spanish forward's stunning strike in Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest is anything to go by.

In defence, meanwhile, Liverpool finally welcomed French youngster Jeremy Jacquet, who agreed his £60m ($81m) move from Rennes back in January, and Araujo on loan from Barcelona. However, Jacquet is still very raw and only recently recovered from a serious injury, while Barca let Araujo go because he had become something of a liability.

Overall, Iraola has not received the backing he would have hoped for after making the step up from Bournemouth. In addition to Salah, Liverpool also said goodbye to Andrew Robertson, Ibrahima Konate and Curtis Jones - the latter of whom garnered a £30m ($41m) fee from Inter.

There is a sense that the Reds are weaker now, especially at the back. A title challenge certainly looks beyond them, and Iraola may also struggle to get them back in the Champions League places if he is dealt any bad luck with injuries.

Rodri, Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Nico Gonzalez, Tijjani Reijnders, Savinho, Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake, James Trafford: that is the full list of first-team stars who left Man City permanently over the summer. They generated the club £327m ($442m) in total, while Omar Marmoush and Jack Grealish also departed on loan to Tottenham and Everton, respectively.

That's a big chunk of the dressing room gone, along with legendary coach Pep Guardiola, and his successor, Enzo Maresca, now has a huge job on his hands. To counteract those exits, City shelled out a combined £421m ($570m) on three marquee signings: Enzo Fernandez, Elliot Anderson and 18-year-old Ayyoub Bouaddi.

City should still make the Premier League's top four after capturing that trio, and reach the latter stages of the Champions League, but they don't have enough to win either competition. The three midfielders don't measure up to Rodri in terms of individual quality (albeit with the caveat that Bouaddi is very much one for the future). Fernandez should settle quickly after reuniting with ex-Chelsea boss Maresca, but he is not going to be the transformative signing his £125m ($169m) price tag should guarantee.

Maresca can still count on Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki to give City a clinical edge up top, and Brazilian winger Allan - brought from Palmeiras for £32m ($43m) - gives Maresca another option in attack, but they've looked far too vulnerable at the other end of the pitch in their opening two Premier League matches. It's a team that suddenly looks disjointed, and it cannot be overstated just how devastating Rodri's exit is; he brought everything together.

The squad is not strong enough to get City back to the giddy heights of Guardiola's peak years, or even to repeat the modest success (by their standards) of last season's FA Cup and Carabao Cup double. They weren't proactive enough in the market and have left the new signings open to crippling criticism by failing to beef up the supporting cast.

Manchester United released Casemiro, Jadon Sancho and Tyrell Malacia when their contracts expired in June, and raised £50m ($68m) through the sales of unwanted striker Rasmus Hojlund and back-up goalkeeper Radek Vitek to Napoli and Middlesbrough, respectively. Those exits cleared plenty of room off the wage bill, but the INEOS-led ownership group were still quite cautious on the recruitment front.

Seven new players have been unveiled at Old Trafford for a cost of £160m ($217m), but only three fall into the bracket of major senior signings. They all play in the same area of the pitch, too, with Carlos Baleba, Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos brought in to fill the void left by Casemiro's exit and Manuel Ugarte's injury-enforced absence.

Baleba arrived nursing an ankle problem, and Carrick has confirmed his debut could be delayed for up to three weeks, but the former Brighton star should bring much-needed physicality to United's engine room. Tielemans is also an experienced Premier League performer, and gave fans the first real taste of his creative brilliance in Sunday's 5-2 rout of Ipswich, but he and Santos struggled as a pairing as United fell to a shock loss at Hull City on the opening weekend.

It could take some time for United's new midfield to gel, and in the meantime, they have real problems in defence and a dearth of natural No.9 options to call upon. At the very least, Carrick needed someone to compete with Luke Shaw at left-back after guiding the club back into the Champions League, and another experienced centre-back could have made a world of difference as Matthjis de Ligt continues to battle back from a long-term back issue.

United also stood by while their former academy jewel Danny Welbeck joined Chelsea from Brighton and Ollie Watkins swapped Aston Villa for Al-Hilal. Either one of those England internationals could have provided expert attacking cover and mentored Benjamin Sesko, and they wouldn't have had to break the bank to get them either.

As it is, Carrick has been left hamstrung by the board. It would be a miracle if United manage to take the next step and emerge as Premier League and Champions League contenders after such an underwhelming window.

Not too long ago, Paris Saint-Germain's transfer model was something of laughing stock, with a long line of superstars - including the likes of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar - unable to get them to their ultimate goal of Champions League glory. However, that all changed after the appointment of Luis Enrique, who has delivered successive European Cups after taking a far more sensible approach to signing players.

That theme continued this summer as PSG spent €50m (£43m/$58m) a piece on Ferran Torres and Maghnes Akliouche, €45m (£38m/$52m) on Mika Godts and €7m on Luca Digne. Torres, who helped Barcelona to back-to-back La Liga titles before firing Spain to World Cup glory over the summer, is exactly the kind of versatile forward Luis Enrique loves, and showed what a useful asset he will be by scoring a brace on his Ligue 1 debut against Rennes.

Akliouche, meanwhile, was one of the best players in the division at Monaco last season, and Godts is considered to be one of the most exciting young players to come out of the Netherlands for some time, having enjoyed a stunning breakout 2025-26 campaign at Ajax. The vastly experienced Digne, meanwhile, will be the ideal backup for Nuno Mendes at left-back, and he's returning to his homeland on the back of a Europa League win at Aston Villa and impressive World Cup with France.

PSG moved quickly to bolster their frontline after letting Goncalo Ramos and Randal Kolo Muani leave the club, the former in a ridiculous €74m switch to AC Milan, and the latter to Juventus for €41m. Barcola also left in the final stages of the window, which was a sad loss considering how much the Frenchman has contributed to PSG's recent success, but they simply could not turn down Liverpool's €125m offer. Generating €55m (£47m/$64m) from Ibrahim Mbaye's move to Aston Villa was also a masterstroke.

Luis Enrique's squad somehow looks even stronger now, and PSG are suddenly the gold standard for how to recruit efficiently. They are once again the team to beat at home and abroad.

Jose Mourinho has a long track record of complaining about transfers, but he will have no cause to bring them up as an excuse if his second spell at Real Madrid doesn't go to plan. The Spanish giants went all out for Mourinho's main targets, and got the majority of them, including club-record €125m (£107m/$144m) signing Yan Diomande, whom they stole from right under PSG's nose.

Madrid also signed Man City legend Bernardo Silva on a free transfer, so they're all set on the right side of the pitch. At the back, Ibrahima Konate arrived on a free after leaving Liverpool, and Real acquired Marc Curcurella and Denzel Dumfries from Chelsea and Inter, respectively, for a combined €75m (£64m/$87m). These players have made an instant difference to a defence that has only conceded twice across Madrid's first three Liga games.

Carlos Espi came in upfront - a shrewd €25m (£21m/$29m) buy from Levante - and the 21-year-old instantly endeared himself to fans by scoring a last-minute winner against Espanyol. Espi will essentially be filling the boots of Gonzalo Garcia, who was shipped off to continue working under Alvaro Arbeloa at Fulham, for €40 (£34m/$46m). Fellow academy graduates Cesar Palacios and Manuel Angel have also made the switch to Craven Cottage.

Madrid made another €4m by selling Fran Garcia off to Real Betis, and bid farewell to beloved defensive duo Dani Carvajal and David Alaba. It wasn't all plain sailing, though.

Mourinho's priority was to bring in Rodri from Man City, but the Spain captain chose Barcelona instead. That was a very tough pill to swallow, not least because Rodri is good enough to help Barca remain top dogs in Spanish football for at least a couple more years.

However, Real will be ready to fight until the end. They still have the superior frontline because Vinicius Junior ultimately decided to sign a contract extension instead of heading to Arsenal. Those successful negotiations proved that Madrid are still a super club and that Mourinho's new project has some real legs.

Last but my no means least comes the club that seemed to lose all inhibitions and burn through cash without a care in the world. Tottenham were so determined to avoid finishing 17th in the Premier League for a third straight season that they gave Roberto De Zerbi a £302m ($408m) war chest - the third-biggest in the division this summer behind only Man City and Chelsea - which shows they have great faith in the Italian.

However, you could easily argue that none of the players they've brought are worth the money Tottenham paid. Sando Tonali is a fine midfielder with plenty of Premier League experience, but Newcastle still pulled their pants down by demanding £100m ($135m).

Mateus Fernandes is an exciting young prospect at 22, but he was relegated with West Ham last season, and simply wasn't worth £85m ($115m). Then we have Savio, who only scored two Premier League goals in as many seasons for Man City, but Spurs believed to be worthy of the same insane outlay as Fernandes. That is one of the worst deals in English football history, and football history in general.

Spurs brought in a second Man City flop for good measure in the form of Omar Marmoush. He's joined on an initial loan, but Tottenham are obligated to buy him outright for £60m ($81m) next summer, which is more bad business. A strange last-minute swoop also saw Tottenham complete the capture of Chelsea reject Mykhailo Mudryk, with a £75m ($101m) buy option included in the agreement.

Brighton will have been delighted to get £52m ($70m) from Tottenham for Jan Paul van Hecke, too. The late signing of Tosin Ararabioyo from Chelsea for just £10m was the only deal that made financial sense for Spurs, without counting the free transfers for Marcos Senesi and Andrew Robertson.

Tottenham did sell eight players to try and balance the books, but left much to be desired at the negotiating table. Cristian Romero went to Atletico Madrid for £32m ($40m) and Djed Spence joined Inter for £30m ($33m), which was a poor return considering they were key players at the club and both enjoyed strong World Cups.

In recent years, the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United have shown that blindly throwing money around doesn't work. Spurs' awful start to the new campaign suggests they will be next to learn that lesson the hard way.