The Winners and Losers of 2026 Summer Transfer Window
The biggest clubs and players throughout Europe stole headlines all throughout another chaotic summer transfer window, but only some emerged better off by the time the deadline sounded on Tuesday evening.
Premier League clubs took center stage on Deadline Day, completing a dizzying amount of incoming and outgoing moves to bolster squads at the last second. Records were shattered, dreams were crushed and money was spent with reckless abandon.
Over in Spain, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid were all rather quiet after already making major moves—and rejecting even bigger ones—earlier in the summer.
Now that the dust has settled, there are clear successes and failures from the 2026 summer transfer window.
Winners
Enzo Fernández
£100m. Twice over. pic.twitter.com/MuPDAM6pAo
— Sports Illustrated FC (@SI_FootballClub) September 1, 2026
Enzo Fernández played the long game this summer and it paid off. After getting publicly rejected by Real Madrid, the Argentine turned his attention to Manchester City, where he hoped to reunite with former Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca.
The move looked dead when City did not submit a bid by Chelsea’s arbitrary Aug. 14 deadline. But things quickly unfolded on Deadline Day to the tune of $169 million (£125 million), making Fernández the first player to ever command two transfer fees over £100 million.
Just the transfer alone makes Fernández one of the biggest winners of the window, but Chelsea following through on the agreement even after their own deal for intended replacement Lamine Camara fell through makes it all the more special.
Fernández now gets to leave behind Chelsea, a team not competing in any European competition this season, to represent Manchester City, the favorites to challenge Arsenal for the English crown. And to top it all off, he’s back with Maresca.
Real Madrid
José Mourinho (right) is loving life back at Real Madrid. / Antonio Villalba/Real Madrid/Getty Images
Real Madrid had a rather quiet Deadline Day, but that’s because they made all their big moves before the 2026–27 season kicked off. The club came into the summer with a list of problem positions and addressed every single one.
Los Blancos needed depth at right back? They signed Denzel Dumfries. José Mourinho doesn’t have a left back he can trust? He brings in World Cup winner Marc Cucurella. There’s a hole on the right wing? Here comes Yan Diomande. Real Madrid are thin at center back? Ibrahima Konaté makes the move on a free transfer.
Signing Rodri would have made it an incredible summer window for the 15-time European champions, but they had to settle for just Bernardo Silva. And so far, the contingent of new players have helped Mourinho’s return get off to a perfect start; Real Madrid have three wins in three games, scoring 10 goals and conceding just two along the way.
The club also locked down Vinícius Júnior to a six-year extension this summer, while also breaking its own revenue record from player sales this summer.
Anthony Gordon
Anthony Gordon made the Camp Nou his new home. / Adria Puig/Anadolu/Getty Images
Anthony Gordon went from Newcastle United purgatory to the defending Spanish champions Barcelona. The forward was staring down another season scrapping among the best of the best in the Premier League, without much hope for winning any silverware representing a ravaged Newcastle side.
Now, Gordon gets to play alongside some of the best players in the world. Lamine Yamal, Rodri, Pedri and Raphinha are his new teammates, and Hansi Flick is his new manager.
Champions League soccer is on his match calendar, and he has an incredibly high chance of at least hoisting one trophy with Barcelona. After all, the Catalans have won back-to-back La Liga and Spanish Super Cup titles, as well as the 204–25 Copa del Rey in the last two seasons.
Plus, with Raphinha playing as the team’s No. 9, Gordon gets free reign of the left wing—and he already has three assists in as many appearances.
Chelsea
Morgan Rogers is off to a flying start for Chelsea. / Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Chelsea losing out on Camara at the eleventh hour of Deadline Day cast a gloomy shadow over their summer transfer window. But by all other accounts, the Blues walked away from a major squad overhaul on the right side.
They won the transfer race for Morgan Rogers, finally addressed their goalkeeping problems by signing Emiliano Martínez and brought in a solid center back in Maxence Lacroix. They also welcomed the reigning Serie A Defender of the Year, Marco Palestra, from Atalanta.
Just as impressive as Chelsea’s incomings where their outgoings. The club raked in $169 million (£125 million) from Fernández’s move alone and banked a combined $157.3 million (£116.8 million) just from Cucurella and Nicolas Jackson’s exits.
In total, the west London outfit bid farewell to 26 players through either permanent transfers or loan deals. The likes of Alejandro Garnacho, Mykhailo Mudryk and Liam Delap were finally sent on their way to give Xabi Alonso a new-look team he can mold, without having to worry about a slew of players who were never going to cut it at Stamford Bridge.
Losers
Julián Alvarez
Julián Alvarez signed a long-term deal with Atlético Madrid just two years ago. / Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Just over two months ago, Julián Alvarez made a public plea to leave Atlético Madrid during the 2026 World Cup. A transfer saga for the ages soon kicked off, with Los Rojiblancos refusing to let the Argentine winger join rivals Barcelona through a series of viral social media posts.
Atlético Madrid CEO Miguel Ángel Gil Marín stoked the flames with interview after interview, blocking any move to the defending Spanish champions while also going toe to toe with Barcelona president Joan Laporta.
Arsenal even tried to step in and give Alvarez an escape route out of the Spanish capital, but the 26-year-old was very clear in his desires: Barcelona or nothing.
In the end, he got nothing. Now, he’s stuck at Atlético Madrid after tearing apart relationships with Diego Simeone, the club’s hierarchy and fans.
Liverpool
Liverpool failed to make any major moves on Deadline Day. / Peter Byrne/PA Images/Getty Images
Before the summer transfer window even opened, Liverpool knew they were losing Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson, and Konaté soon followed the two out of Merseyside. Work needed to be done to both replace the three club pillars and address mounting concerns on either flank.
What did Liverpool do? They signed two left wingers in Bradley Barcola and Víctor Muñoz, leaving a gaping hole where Salah used to command the right wing.
The Reds also finally signed 21-year-old center back Jérémy Jacquet, who they acquired during the January transfer window. Liverpool’s other defensive reinforcement came in the shape of the inconsistent and injury-prone Ronald Araújo.
Even after failing to win their two opening games of the 2026–27 season in which their fullback problems were on full display, the 20-time English champions only opted to sign Genk goalkeeper Lucca Brughmans on Deadline Day ... and the teenager is not even coming to Anfield until next summer.
Barcola is a major get no doubt, but he cannot solve the deep rooted issues plaguing Andoni Iraola’s squad.
Joshua Zirkzee
Joshua Zirkzee remains stuck on the fringes. / Ben McShane/Sportsfile/Getty Images
For a short moment on Deadline Day, Joshua Zirkzee thought he finally had a ticket out of Old Trafford. The striker was briefly linked with Everton amid Tuesday’s chaotic Folarin Balogun transfer saga, but Manchester United reportedly shut down the move.
The Red Devils were never going to sanction a last-minute move for Zirkzee when they did not have a replacement lined up; they would have been left with just Benjamin Šeško as their only natural, senior center forward.
For Zirkzee, who reportedly rebuffed interest from Fiorentina, it must have felt like a cruel joke to suddenly have an intriguing offer so swiftly rejected by United. The No. 9 is firmly on the fringes at Old Trafford and is lucky to log any minutes in a red shirt, let alone consistent ones.
After all, Šeško is still dealing with fitness woes and Michael Carrick did not even offer Zirkzee a single minute in the club’s opening two Premier League fixtures.
Instead of a fresh start on Merseyside, Zirkzee is stuck sitting on United’s bench.
Tottenham Hotspur
Mykhailo Mudryk is headed to Tottenham for a fresh start. / Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC/Getty Images
For a while, Tottenham Hotspur were looking like the winners of the summer transfer window. The club splashed some staggering cash to welcome Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes to Roberto De Zerbi’s midfield.
Spurs also signed Jan Paul van Hecke, as well as free agents Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi. Let’s not forget welcoming Sávio and Omar Marmoush from Manchester City, the latter on loan until next summer, bringing the club’s total spend to $413.8 million.
Yet they lost their two opening matches of the Premier League season by an aggregate score of 5–0. Tottenham’s response? Let’s sign Mudryk, who hasn’t played a competitive fixture in over 20 months since being hit with a doping suspension.
Spending all the money in the world cannot make a bunch of random players—no matter their skill—play as a cohesive unit. There’s plenty of time for De Zerbi to figure things out, but as of now, Spurs’ transfer window is beginning to look a lot like Liverpool’s last summer.
