Winners and losers of the summer transfer window

Cameron Smith

• Updated: 30 Aug 2024 20:52 BST
• 5 min read

The 2024 summer transfer window is officially over, with clubs across Europe’s big five leagues now unable to add to their squads until January.

While no transfer fees exceeded the €100 million mark this summer, there were still a number of high-profile deals, including Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid, Matthijs de Ligt to Manchester United, Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal, and many more.

The Premier League was once again the highest-spending league, with English top flight clubs flexing their financial muscle with a number of huge additions.

READ MORE: Premier League summer transfers 2024 - All the Done Deals

However, insane financial backing doesn’t always equate to success and some clubs across Europe were able to operate smartly in the market and pick up some bargain buys.

Below, FootballTransfers runs through the winners and losers of the 2024 summer transfer window.

READ MORE: Who were the most expensive transfers of the summer?

Winner - Real Madrid

Kylian Mbappe made his long-awaited move to Real Madrid this summer, with the France superstar joining Los Blancos on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain.

Although his wages are insane, signing Mbappe on a free is superb business, while Carlo Ancelotti’s side also picked up Endrick - one of the most promising youngsters in world football.

Meanwhile, they have kept hold of the rest of their star-studded squad, and although they missed out on Leny Yoro to Manchester United, it was a wholly positive transfer window for Real Madrid.

The signing of Mbappe is immense and they are the clear favourites to retain the Champions League trophy.

Loser - Barcelona

Crossing the El Clasico divide and Barcelona find themselves in our ‘loser’ category.

The Blaugrana’s financial woes have plagued their progression as a club over the past five years and this summer was no different.

They failed to sign top target Nico Williams, largely due to Joan Laporta’s public pursuit of the Spaniard, were forced to let Ilkay Gundogan rejoin Manchester City on a free transfer and have effectively given up on Vitor Roque already - loaning him to Real Betis after just six months at Camp Nou.

Furthermore, Dani Olmo is a fantastic player, but signing a new No.10 shouldn’t have been a priority, with Gundogan perfectly capable in that position, and a quality out-and-out left winger not present in the squad.

Winner - Juventus

The hope and excitement has returned to Juventus after a revolutionary summer window from transfer chief Cristiano Giuntoli.

Juventus have signed a host of exciting players, including Teun Koopmeiners (Atalanta), Douglas Luiz (Aston Villa), Khephren Thuram (Nice), Nico Gonzalez (Fiorentina), Michele Di Gregorio (Monza) and Francisco Conceicao (on loan from Porto), as well as other useful additions like Pierre Kalulu (Milan), Juan Cabal (Verona).

Despite all these signings, Juventus’ net spend was not that significant as they sold a host of unwanted players, including Federico Chiesa, Samuel Iling-Junior and Dean Huijsen. Matias Soule was a disappointing loss, though.

Furthermore, Giuntoli managed to cut the wage bill whilst greatly strengthening the team and squad.

With the arrival of one of Europe’s most exciting young coaches in Thiago Motta, Juventus look like a potential force again.

Loser - Bologna

Bologna were the fairytale story of Italian football last season as Thiago Motta led the team to a miraculous fifth place finish in Serie A, qualifying in the process for the Champions League.

A team that has since the late 1990s typically fought against relegation or stuck in mid-table obscurity, this was an incredible achievement.

However, any hope of building on this has been shattered as their exciting team has been torn apart.

Manager Thiago Motta left to take over at Juventus, while their two best players moved to the Premier League. Attacker Joshua Zirkzee quit for Manchester United, while star defender Riccardo Calafiori signed for Arsenal.

They also failed to keep another key player in Alexis Saelemaekers, whose loan from Milan wasn’t made permanent, while their best midfielder Lewis Ferguson will miss the rest of 2024 with a torn ACL.

The new signings are well below the level of the players who have left. To make matters worse, new arrival Nicolo Cambiaghi from Atalanta tore his ACL in the first game of the season.

Winner - Brighton

Brighton & Hove Albion have been known for their incredible ability to sell players over the past few years, but this summer has been all about incomings.

The Seagulls have spent big after accumulating large fees for Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister last year, with nine new signings arriving this summer.

The most expensive of them all was Georginio Rutter, who cost a whopping €46.7m from Leeds United.

Yankuba Minteh, Mats Wieffer, Brajan Gruda, Ferdi Kadioglu, Matt O’Riley, Ibrahim Osman and Malick Yalcouye have also arrived on fairly big fees, while Amario Cozier-Duberry joined from Arsenal’s academy.

Brighton have spent €231.2m this summer and their squad looks vastly improved, especially in attack, despite the departure of club legend Pascal Gross.

Loser - Newcastle

Last season was marred with injuries among other things for Newcastle, but at least they had the summer transfer window to look forward to.

The club were set for a window of heavy spending - least that was the idea - but then it emerged that they faced a last-minute scramble to sell some of their home-grown squad members.

Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh were moved on, to Nottingham Forest and Brighton respectively. Meanwhile, they failed to bring in anyone of significance.

The saga involving Marc Guehi took up most of their energy and efforts, but in the final days, it was clear that the Crystal Palace man would not be joining.

Goalkeepers Odysseas Vlachodimos and John Ruddy joined, as well as William Osula and Lloyd Kelly. They made a play for Anthony Elanga on Deadline Day too but their efforts were knocked back.