The winter transfer window was back with a bang in 2025 after a year off in 2024.
Clubs spent an estimated £314million, with the £170m spent by Manchester City alone more than the whole league last year.
Yet the top two teams stayed put while those around them got to work, and that could have huge ramifications on who will be travelling to the continent next season.
It’s lower down where things get interesting, and in a season where the European order looks to be upset like never before, moves that didn’t gather too much attention could prove to be crucial.
Here at talkSPORT.com we take a look at the winners and losers of the window, starting with those who came out on top.
Winners
Aston Villa
Through to the last 16 of the Champions League and with three Premier League wins to start January, it was all looking up for Villa until a few bizarre days when Al Nassr went big for Jhon Duran and Arsenal did the same with Ollie Watkins.
Unai Emery’s team managed to make the best of a bad situation, holding onto Watkins and receiving a whopping £71m for Duran to pack their coffers for the summer and ward off any PSR fears.
On top of that, they already began spending the new cash, following up their earlier purchase of Donyell Malen from Borussia Dortmund by landing Champions League and international calibre stars on loan in Marco Asensio from Paris Saint-Germain and Marcus Rashford from Manchester United.
With Emery’s mastery on the continent as a four-time Europa League winner, this could end in a solid run in the Champions League, and should that form translate domestically with the new editions, the Basque technician will be a very happy man indeed.
Crystal Palace
In fine form since Christmas, Palace were handed an unhelpful blow in January when Trevoh Chalobah was recalled by Chelsea to disrupt their new found stability.
However, Oliver Glasner’s side did manage to avoid any further moves for Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi, while they did what they do best by buying the Championship’s top talent in the form of Romain Esse.
The former Millwall man scored on debut and looks a serious talent, and with Ben Chilwell arriving on loan from Chelsea, Palace may well continue to sneak up the table and even enter the incredibly tight battle for European football.
Ipswich Town
Ipswich may well be building one of the greatest Championship squads of all time, or maybe, just maybe, a team that unexpectedly stays up.
Having already packed the squad full of young potentially top level talent in the summer like Omari Hutchinson and Liam Delap, Kieran McKenna’s side have added another in Jaden Philogene from Villa.
They’ve also shown that they’re in no way giving up on survival either with the loan additions of Julio Enciso from Brighton and Ben Godfrey from Atalanta – two players with international caps and regular Premier League experience who could well tip them over inactive relegation rivals like Leicester and Wolves.
Losers
Arsenal
Like the only team above them, Liverpool, Arsenal did nothing in the window. But unlike Liverpool, they may have needed to.
While Arne Slot’s Reds seem happy with a settled side, Mikel Arteta’s Gunners have one glaring hole in their squad, and they let the world know that they’re worried about it.
Arsenal bid £60m for Villa striker and boyhood Gunner Watkins, but ended up failing and they still have a vacancy up front.
Gabriel Jesus is out for the season having just rediscovered some form, and with Kai Havertz again showing his shyness in front of goal even despite scoring against City, the oversight may rob Arsenal of a title challenge.
Manchester United
If there’s one word that’s summed up Ruben Amorim’s approach to management so far, even at Sporting, it’s stubbornness.
Glued to his 3-4-2-1 system that brought him unprecedented success in Portugal, it’s abundantly clear that he’s trying to put square pegs in round holes at United, and it’s demonstrably not working.
Yet Amorim won’t budge, so the only answer is to get him some round pegs, but only one arrived.
The solo signing of Dane Patrick Dorgu from Lecce for £25m could solve one problem on the left side, but that’s almost certainly not enough to fix the biggest glaring errors at ‘the worst Manchester United team in history’.
Rashford and Antony have both been loaned out which may help Amorim detoxify the dressing room given his comments about both, but even finishing in the bottom half certainly isn’t out of the question given how little has changed since his arrival.
Tottenham
While Spurs did what they could to make up for an injury list from hell, it wasn’t enough and this season could quite easily end up being a write off, particularly if they don’t win the Carabao Cup and a tetchy Ange Postecoglou has to be replaced.
Antonin Kinsky has proved an able deputy for the easily-targeted Guglielmo Vicario and could even keep him out of the team, while Kevin Danso from Lens is a solid international who can shore things up at the back.
But they suffered more setbacks than successes in defence with Spurs having a late £70m bid for Marc Guehi rejected by Crystal Palace on deadline day.
Spurs also tried to sign Axel Disasi on loan from Chelsea but the French defender is intent on moving to Aston Villa if he’s to go anywhere.
Mathys Tel is on a whole other level as one of the Bundesliga’s most promising young talents, but given Spurs’ extensive injury list and Postecoglou’s training methods being put under the microscope, it wouldn’t be a big shock to see the new arrivals join the treatment room, or at least not be able to make up for those in there.
