Franck Kessie, Richarlison and the best signings of the week

Neel Shelat

10 Jul 2022 04:00 BST
7 min read

Franck Kessie, Barcelona, 2022/23, Video Grab — © ProShots

The first full week of the transfer window began last Friday after it fully opened across Europe, and it has been a frantic seven days. To get you up to speed, we will be highlighting seven deals from as many leagues from across the continent in this column.

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Bundesliga: Sebastien Haller (Ajax to Borussia Dortmund, €31m)

Bayern Munich have won all 10 Bundesliga titles in the last decade, but Borussia Dortmund are aiming to end their dominance this time around, and they are working very hard in the transfer window. Sebastien Haller recently became their seventh signing of the window, following the likes of Niklas Sule, Nico Schlotterbeck, Karim Adeyemi and Salih Ozcan to Signal Iduna Park.

Haller joins the club on the back of an incredible season with Ajax, with his 21 league goals powering them to yet another Eredivisie title. His underlying numbers were equally impressive, as he boasted the highest xG and xGOT (expected goals on target) tallies in the league, both of which exceeded the number of goals he scored.

The Ivorian international was on fire in the Champions League too. Making his debut in the competition, he scored 10 goals in the group stage, becoming the quickest to reach that figure as he did so in just six matches.

Borussia Dortmund have lost a world-class striker in Erling Haaland this summer, so they will hope Haller will be able to replace him adequately.

Serie A: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Dinamo Batumi to SSC Napoli, €10M)

Napoli saw Lorenzo Insigne depart for Canada earlier this summer, and they have gone and signed an arguably even more exciting left winger to replace him. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has joined the club from Dinamo Batumi, who only signed him in March when he was allowed to leave Russian club Rubin Kazan after FIFA opened a special transfer window.

The Georgian winger spent around three years in Russia, and he absolutely lit the league up with his dribbling flair. Even though his campaign was cut short last time out, his numbers were still impressive enough to make him stand out as one of the best dribblers in the league.

Serie A has its fair share of exciting wingers already, but Kvaratskhelia should instantly be able to establish himself as one of the best of the lot.

Premier League: Richarlison (Everton FC to Tottenham Hotspur, €58M)

Everton narrowly avoided relegation from the Premier League last season, but they have lost one of the main men responsible for that as top-scorer Richarlison has moved to Tottenham Hotspur for a fairly hefty fee.

The Brazilian international scored 10 goals and set up five others in the league last season, meaning he was involved in over a third of his side’s goals. At Tottenham, though, he may have to resign himself to playing a backup role because Son Heung-min and Harry Kane seem undroppable at the moment, and they operate in Richarlison’s two favoured positions.

The ex-Watford man’s pizza chart makes for encouraging reading. His attacking numbers will naturally get scaled up when he plays for a better team, but his high defensive statistics indicate that he will be able to seamlessly integrate himself into Antonio Conte’s intense system.

Nonetheless, his high transfer fee means that there will be question marks around this move, so it is up to Richarlison to shut them down with his performances.

Ligue 1: Lois Openda (Club Brugge to Lens, €9.8M)

Sebastien Haller was on fire in the Netherlands last season as we previously discussed, but another man who was quietly impressive in front of goal was Lois Openda.

The Belgian striker scored 37 goals in all competitions across the last two seasons for Vitesse, where he was sent on loan from Club Brugge. Just under half of those came in the league last season, as he netted 18 times to keep his team in contention for European qualification.

Like Haller, his underlying xG and xGOT numbers were very eye-catching.

Openda also made his international debut recently in the UEFA Nations League, where he scored after coming off the bench against Poland.

He has become the latest addition to a rapidly growing Lens squad, which has also seen Adam Buksa, Brice Samba and Salis Abdul Samed join in the last couple of weeks. At this rate, they may have a good chance of returning to Europe.

La Liga: Franck Kessie (A.C. Milan to Barcelona, free)

Barcelona’s financial troubles are far from sorted, but they have been able to make a couple of free signings so far. One of those is Franck Kessie, who left Milan at the end of his contract after winning the Serie A title last season.

Kessie’s statistical profile last season was quite interesting as he played a very functional role in Milan’s midfield where his primary responsibilities were off the ball, regardless of whether he played in a double pivot or as an attacking midfielder.

Under Xavi, Barcelona have mostly used a 4-3-3 system with Sergio Busquets usually operating as the defensive midfielder, but he has often been left stranded in transition. The Catalan club will hope that the arrival of Kessie will bring some balance to their midfield, perhaps even enabling them to switch to a 4-2-3-1 system on occasion.

Eredivisie: Guus Til (Spartak Moscow to PSV, €4M)

It has been a very busy week in the Netherlands. After Haller's departure, Ajax have announced a deal to sign Steven Bergwijn from Tottenham Hotspur for a club-record transfer fee, but we will be focusing on their rivals PSV.

They signed Guus Til from Spartak Moscow in an absolute steal of a deal with a transfer fee of just €4m, which is very low for a player of such quality. The Dutch attacking midfielder was on loan at Feyenoord last season, and he ended the campaign as their top scorer in the league with 15 goals.

In fact, he was the best finisher in the country based on the xGOT model, as he had the highest finishing value added (xGOT-xG) at 3.8.

PSV will hope to see him continue operating at such a high level in front of goal.

Liga Portugal: David Carmo (Sporting Braga to Porto, €20m)

Defending Portuguese champions Porto have made a statement signing by bringing in young centre-back David Carmo from Braga, who finished best of the rest last season and had the fourth-best defence in the league.

Carmo played a key part in that and drew lots of praise as he was touted as one of the league's best centre-backs.