Previously, we’ve had to go slightly out of order with our transfer grades to avoid getting too many rich teams in the same piece. But with some B and W teams getting relegated, it just happened to work out perfectly this year. Today’s teams are:

If you’ve missed our previous transfer grades pieces, you can find the first one featuring Arsenal here, and the second one featuring Chelsea here. We’ll wrap up the Premier League tomorrow before getting into the 20 most interesting teams on the European continent with Neel and Mohamed next week.

[deep breath]

If you didn’t count, that’s 18 players. The analytics community spent the summer getting their jokes off about Hull being the worst promoted side of all time, but we weren’t telling them anything they didn’t already know. They understood that they were bad and likely going back down, and had one opportunity to completely re-shape the squad. They took it.

There’s a clear macro idea with all of these transfers. They’re all relatively inexpensive up-and-coming youngsters who are likely to be really good in the Championship next year, or distressed assets that Hull will have a good chance of flipping for a profit if they’re anything better than appalling in the Premier League this year. Gourna-Douath, Gelhardt, Cho, Iroegbunam, Ansah and Vaz are all previously highly touted youngsters who have stalled out and seen their value drop. Rehabbing two of the six would probably see Hull make a profit on the entire group.

Any kind of detailed analysis of every single one of these signings would obviously be too long for this newsletter, but I’ll pick out a couple of particularly interesting ones. Herrington was excellent in MLS and played in the World Cup for Australia before arriving at Hull, and has a great combination of aerial and ball skills for a young center back. Tzolakis is as close to a can’t miss GK prospect as you’re going to find. Brooke Norton-Cuffy had a breakout season for Genoa last year, and looks to be great value.

The biggest risk here is Nobel Mendy, who Hull just had to pay the full fee for straight up, rather than attaching a big bonus in the event of staying up. He has outrageous, world class athletic tools, but made a lot of errors in La Liga last season. Mendy could very easily be the biggest boom or bust of this group.

Overall, I think it’s a brilliant window from Hull. I still don’t think they’re going to stay up, but that was never a realistic goal given the state of the squad heading into this summer. They’ve spent much less than Ipswich, and will end up spending less than Coventry if they don’t stay up and have to pay those bonuses, but they’ve improved more than the other two promoted sides. —KM

Ted: A- (with an ENORMOUS confidence interval) | Kim: A | Hayden: A-

We’re declining to give grades to promoted teams for outgoings, since that’s obviously never the focus for promoted teams. I’ll just add that it’s a lot of outgoings for a promoted team, especially one that had 5 loan returns they didn’t sign. It’s another sign that they knew they weren’t good and had to make dramatic changes.

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

Hull did exactly what they had to do. Brilliantly executed window.

Overall grade: A-

The incomings number is an eye-popping one for a newly promoted side. A handful of them are classic promoted team signings, guys who have been around the bottom of the Prem or top of the Championship for a while. But several of them are big haymaker swings.

Enciso is the most expensive of the bunch, but he’s also the one that we’re most confident is just a good player. Given that he’s just 22 and was so good for Strasbourg last season, Ipswich probably won’t have a problem flipping him for the same fee or slightly better if they do go down.

Emersonn, Fatawu, Palacios and Ouattara all feel like much bigger risks for one reason or another. Emersonn looks like a crazy talent at striker, but he’s all tools, never getting a ton of shots or goals anywhere he’s been previously. Fatawu is a similar story; he’s one of the most talented dribblers you’ll ever see, but takes a lot of bad shots and is a turnover machine. Palacios is brilliant when he’s fit, but he’s injured constantly. Ouattara had flashes of top ability at Strasbourg, but was extremely inconsistent. These could be the players that keep Ipswich up, or they could all be money down a toilet.

Maeda and Scherpen are the two signings I unequivocally like, despite the latter’s poor performances so far. Both had silly numbers for Celtic and USG respectively last season, could be exceptional Championship players, and will have buyers at the same fees next summer due to their previous great performances.

Overall, this is much more aggressive and risky than Ipswich’s previous post-promotion transfer window, and I’m not sure I like it. —KM

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

Same deal as Hull above on the outgoings.

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

If Ipswich stay up and a lot of these guys hit, you can pull this up and make fun of us in May. I don’t think that’s impossible, there’s a bunch of high upside talent here. But I also think they might be out a lot of money with no real return. —KM

Overall grade: B-

Of all the teams in the Premier League, this was probably the safest and most boring window, though one that ultimately looks pretty smart. Trafford is expensive, but unquestionably a good young goalkeeper. Muharemovic might be Leeds’ best player already. Elvedi and Wilson are excellent value. Bahoya is a big talent with some question marks, so getting him on a try before you buy is very smart.

There’s nothing spectacular here, but I also have no criticisms. I’m not trying to shortchange Leeds fans with less content here, but there’s just not a lot to say. These are solid signings. They’ll ensure Leeds aren’t in a relegation battle. They’ve solidified their position without spending like crazy. It’s just a very sensible window. —KM

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

Once again, nothing stupid, nothing exceptional. Struijk is a loss, but that’s an OK fee for a player with one year left on his contract. Gelhardt disappointed after being so highly touted as a youngster, but they finally made a nice profit on him. A few players who were on decent wages but weren’t good enough are out the door.

No huge sales, but job done. —KM

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

They understood the assignment and they completed it. Given Leeds’ history over the last 20 years, I’m sure their fans are thrilled with being boringly competent.

Overall grade: B+

I mentioned on the podcast, I think the players Liverpool targeted were good ones but they just didn’t get enough necessary business done to make the squad right.

Most importantly, they won the Bradley Barcola sweepstakes, and he’s probably the best attacker that transacted this summer. It gives them yet another elite game breaker in attack, but the fee is obviously massive. [Side note: PSG’s sales were insane this window.]

Jeremy Jacquet technically happened last season, but he immediately looks like a huge upside CB with all the tools to become a world beater with a bit more bedding in. And he’s playing next to one of the smartest CBs in football, so has a great mentor.

Victor Muñoz is not a signing I would have made given his season at Osasuna, but he’s looked promising in PL appearances so far. He’s clearly a gamble they hoped would have time to develop, but their summer didn’t quite progress how they wanted, and he’s been inserted into the starting lineup. I’m curious to see how he looks by the end of the season.

Brughmans had crazy shot-stopping numbers at Genk last season, and Liverpool bought him on a future development ticket, though if they reported fee is correct, they paid a big price for the privilege. That said, giant 18-year-old goalkeepers don’t exactly grow on trees.

The loan for Ronald Araujo was absolutely necessary and he seems to fit in well already.

tl;dr I mostly liked the business, but there just wasn’t enough of it to propel them into competition for the title, and that left the squad with similar glaring holes to last season. —TK

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

I am happy for Curtis Jones to go ply his trade in Italy. I think he’s excellent and will fit that league very well, even if Liverpool might have preferred he stayed domestic for a bigger fee. The rest of this is a lot of wages moving off the books alongside a lot of career productivity and trophies. Definitely the end of an era. —TK

Ted: C | Kim: D | Hayden: D

Barcola and Jacquet are great additions, but there were too many misses here to give a good grade. Fullback and midfield depth is lacking, and not taking an £80m offer for Cody Gakpo because you’re scared you can’t replace him is not something we’d have seen from Liverpool when they were the sport’s best market operators.

Overall grade: C

City filled some big needs, but did so at top of market prices. Enzo is a huge fee for a player that is not Caicedo, but apparently a favourite of Maresca. I’m not convinced the price matches the talent there. On the other hand, the Elliot Anderson deal makes sense to me. He is a long-term homegrown anchor for City that almost every team in the league would be delighted to have. Yes, they paid top of market, but that’s what you get for scarce luxury goods.

Bouaddi’s price is also top of market for a baby holding midfielder and I have concerns his shortcomings are not the type of things that naturally get better, but he does a job already and is apparently very tactically smart, so there are rays of light. I don’t dislike that deal, but they need him to be really good fairly quickly to justify that price.

The Ndiaye deal is a trap, but maybe less of a trap than Gakpo would have been. I know why they did it, but maybe don’t make desperate, last-minute deals for attackers that are not big upgrades? Allan is an expensive lottery ticket with a very uncertain production path. His production at Palmeiras does not scream “Premier League ready” but sometimes Brazilians will surprise you.

What’s a Detourbet, you might ask? And the answer is he’s pretty good, but also a related-party transaction for Troyes and on loan at Monaco this season. And Jeremy Monga is a 17-year-old wide forward out of Leicester. —TK

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

This is somewhere between a good and a great sales window, as City turn over the squad in transition between Pep and Maresca. The numbers above to not include Marmoush’s loan with obligation to Spurs.

Savio’s sale is outstanding. No one actually knows how good he will be, so selling him at high market prices while forcing the buyer to take on a lottery ticket is great for City. Getting out of the Reijnders deal for that price is solid as well (even if we hated the buy last summer), and they got a good final package for Rodri, though everyone would probably rather have him on the team than in Spain.

Nico Gonzalez was probably a bit below what the market dictated for midfielders this season, but he’s not quite proven good enough in the Premier League for teams to feel like they truly know what they are getting. Trafford’s sale after a buyback was a pure business transaction, and then the clearing of aging dead weight like Akanji and Ake is fine.

This is nice business in volume with no obvious fuckups and some excellent negotiating on the Spurs deals. —TK

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

City have been trying to rebuild this squad for two years now. This time they finally did it, with a very high volume of transactions to go from the Pep Era into the new one. They were certain Maresca was Their Guy before the year started, so presumably got a big run on who they needed to target as incomings before the summer started. If that was the case, this was a very mixed bag on the incomings, but it’s saved a bit by the deals they got done on the sales side. Which should also give them space to keep bolstering this squad in future windows.

Overall grade: B+

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