We’re back with 5 more teams today, including the protagonists of every transfer window:

If you missed yesterday’s piece, we had transfer grades for the first 5 alphabetical teams, which included some very big moves for Arsenal and Aston Villa. On to today’s grades:

This was both a good and sane window from Chelsea, though it takes both a recruitment director and a forensic accountant to figure out what’s going on here. Rogers was an “overpay” that had SCR riders attached to him between Villa and Chelsea. He’s good, not great, but should benefit from the talent and coaching around him at Chelsea.

Lacroix is market rate for a good, not great CB. That’s a position Chelsea have struggled for years to fill. Good enough? Palestra I disliked on price, but the wingback profile is genuinely hard to find, so maybe they paid up for the best they could get.

Barco and Emegha came from Strasbourg and they are good, especially if Emegha is healthy again.

Quenda was last year’s business and not ready yet.

Emi Martinez was a fill for a desperate situation at GK and should be an upgrade in sanity over Sanchez. The two olds (Welbeck and Henderson) were judged absolutely necessary as dressing room stability life rafts.

Getting Lamine Camara across the line would have bumped this up a grade, but you can see the shape of things here and they ended up in a pretty good spot. —TK

Ted: B | Kim: B+ | Hayden: B

Santos feels slightly under market value compared to what the midfielder market looked like this season. The same is true for Nicolas Jackson. However, the Enzo and Cucurella deals were thefts, and Delap’s outgoing price was good business as well.

This is impressive work at scale, though Chelsea do employ a lot of people to make this a reality. —TK

Ted: A | Kim: A+ | Hayden: A+

The only thing holding us back from giving Chelsea some truly glowing praise here is that Rogers was a very significant overpay. It’s possible that overpay is the only thing that allowed them to get Jackson and Alejandro Garnacho out the door on the terms they did, but Rogers’ fee is still probably double what his production should have dictated he was worth. Still, this is an excellent window overall, and the Blues have given themselves an excellent platform to build on going forward.

Overall grade: A-

There is no standout egregious transfer here, but I did a big shrug or said “man, I guess” at every single one. There’s nothing here that’s particularly exciting, or stands out as a sensational piece of business.

Caleb Yirenkyi and Sidiki Cherif both represent risky, but I’d still say marginally +EV bets on young talents. Yirenkyi arrives from Denmark and has looked like he’s going to have a tough adjustment to Premier League football thus far. Cherif is just 19 and had some flashes of brilliance in France and Turkey last year, but looks way too inconsistent to be a regular contributor.

Rushworth feels very “I guess we have to” after a monster promotion campaign, and Brighton will have been thrilled to make so much on a guy they probably thought was a homegrown backup or potential sale to the Championship for 1/4 of this fee a year ago.

The rest of the group is… ok? Solid depth, but not ceiling-raisers. Unlikely to lose significant value. Might be great Championship players next season. Typical promoted team signings.

If I was a Coventry supporter, I’d have wished they went all-in on one strategy or another, trying to stay up for real or investing in young value transfers and accepting their fate. They’ve spent quite a bit in an attempt to do both, and I don’t think they were successful at either. —KM

Ted: B- | Kim: C+ | Hayden: C

We’re declining to give sales grades to the promoted teams, who mostly had to worry about how to add to their squads.

Ted: Inc. | Kim: Inc. | Hayden: Inc.

Overall, a pretty mediocre job done. It’s not a disastrous or aggressively stupid window, but it’s not setting the club up for immediate or long-term success. Finally, pure mid.

Overall grade: C

First, the good: Right wingbacks. Anan Khalaili looks like he’s going to replace Daniel Muñoz’s output immediately, and he’s 8 years younger. That swap ends up being a great piece of business. We’re also high on the future prospects of teenager Zavier Gozo, who was extremely productive in MLS this season and comes in at a very affordable price for his massive upside, though he’s not likely to play a huge role in year one.

Timber is a curious addition after the way his season went. He started strong for Feyenoord, but was sold for €4.3m after a dispute with management and refusal to sign a new contract. He was then very average for Marseille, who were probably thrilled to flip him for a big profit given his mediocre performance and their financial problems. If Palace get Timber’s Feyenoord production, he’s a steal. If they get his Marseille production, he’s a massive bust.

McNeil was not worth £22m to Palace, but if they had to take him to get Brennan Johnson off their books, it could be worse. It’s neutral for current grading purposes, but the previous purchase of Johnson earns a big fat F.

Despite the younger arrivals at right wingback, Palace have decided to kick the can down the road on rebuilding their back line after some key departures, with two loans and three free transfers arriving to reinforce that area. We’d have really loved to see a young or early prime center back come in to feel good about this group. They probably also should have added a younger central midfielder to develop in anticipation of a future Adam Wharton sale. —KM

Ted: C+ | Kim: B- | Hayden: B-

Losing Lacroix and Marc Guehi in back-to-back windows hurts, but a 3x ROI for a 26-year-old is a very nice sale for Palace. Getting this big of a fee for a 30-year-old Muñoz is a great piece of business too. The academy sales are a nice bonus, as is getting an out on the previously poor Johnson signing. Overall, good outgoings. —KM

Ted: B+ | Kim: B+ | Hayden: A-

Nothing Palace did here was poor, but they really should have been more aggressive about improving their long-term prospects. The center back, left back, and midfield groups have a lot of guys who are temporary solutions and/or old. The overall grade looks lower than it should be with what the ins-and-outs add up to because the overall approach was problematic.

Overall grade: B-

There’s a lot to like here, but plenty to be skeptical about too, and it’s also simply not enough players.

Johnson is an “I can fix him” situation, which is never a good way to start a relationship. If all of Hackney, Grealish, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall are fit and on the pitch, perhaps Johnson’s pure box-crashing wide forward gimmick will work, and he’ll return to his 2024-25 numbers. But if Everton are short any bit of playmaking, having a winger who does nothing but box-crashing becomes a pretty serious ball and chain.

George and Hackney are very promising young players who come in at affordable prices, and already look like solid players. Norgaard and Maitland-Niles are really good affordable veteran depth. Grealish is once again a low risk, high reward loan pickup. Rohl had an obligation from a previous loan and seems fine, though perhaps not worth that fee.

The problem for Everton is they really needed about 3 more signings. They currently have 21 players with senior experience, including their third-string goalkeeper. The Toffees need some serious internal improvement from their players who weren’t very good last season and great injury luck to survive to January without running into disaster. They’d probably get a B+ for these signings if they didn’t have that problem, but I’m knocking down the grade for what they failed to do. They’re the only team in the Premier League that just straight up does not have enough senior professional players. —KM

Ted: B | Kim: B- | Hayden: B-

Despite the lack of corresponding incomings, these are very good sales. Ndiaye’s production was average and getting £60m+ for him is a sensational piece of business. Beto was average and on the edge of declining physically. Iroegbunam clearly has some upside, but was not a good performer for the Toffees. Well done. —KM

Ted: B+ | Kim: A- | Hayden: B+

We hope they’re extremely prepared to go shopping in January.

Overall grade: B

We don’t actually know what happens inside of most clubs, but from the outside, Fulham are consistently the most disorganised Premier League team when it comes to transfers. Their moves always seem to come late, and the signings they make usually feel like they are average or worse.

Yes, Gonzalo Garcia is a striker from Real Madrid. However, he’s a low shot volume striker that played on a super team and has always been part of the Real Madrid structure, which means he never had any loans out into the world to prove his ability. These types of players almost always take a massive step down when no longer surrounded by the talent at a super team. And that’s okay if you are paying 20 million or maybe 25 even? But at £35m, it’s a big risk on a profile that rarely works out.

Shea Charles is a big price on a player who was a bit above average in the Championship and… that’s it. Cesar Palacios? Also a Real Madrid B player who last season played 2900 minutes in Spain’s third league. Hrmmmm. Hugo Larsson has been a warm midfield body at Eintracht Frankfurt the last few years and that is basically the entire value prop. Could he get better? Maybe! Is he good enough for the Premier League right now? Highly doubtful!

Affengruber is a deal I actually like, so well done there. But man, this squad feels underwhelming in a season where they really needed some stable talent upgrades to go along with a new head coach. —TK

Ted: D+ | Kim: C | Hayden: D

As noted above, Jimenez and Wilson left on frees and really needed to be replaced with performers. Lukic featured in more than half last season’s matches and it was probably time to move him on, but he stays in the Premier League for a nominal fee at Ipswich. Issa Diop was a blank last season, so getting anything at all to move him along is a minor victory. —TK

Ted: C | Kim: C- | Hayden: D

The overall impact of the incomings and outgoings are worse than their individual parts. Fulham got weaker this season while still spending a decent chunk of money. They are interesting to watch and have some exciting young parts in attack (Josh King, Oscar Bobb), but they desperately needed more legit good players in that squad to help Arbeloa bed in, and I’m pretty sure these aren’t it.

Overall grade: C-

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