For Europe’s biggest clubs and leagues, the time for transfers in 2025 has come and gone, and they won’t be able to do any more business until January. Which is probably a good thing given the overall spending record in the Premier League has been broken again.

Having had two transfer windows this summer — as FIFA allowed an additional registration period, which ran from June 1 to 10, due to the Club World Cup — the second period closed at 7 p.m. BST (2 p.m. ET) in England, Italy, France and Germany on Monday, and a few hours later in Spain.

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Now the clubs, players, managers and agents will sit back and assess. Some got their wishes and some didn’t; some excelled in their movements over the summer, while others will be lamenting missed opportunities.

With that, let’s look back at what happened during the window and sort the results into winners and losers (with a few who sit in between). Here’s who nailed it — and who didn’t.

WINNERS

Liverpool

We’ll start with by far the biggest spenders, Liverpool. Only time will tell if this truly is the greatest transfer window of all time (as some excited individuals have claimed), but it’s certainly an eye-popping haul of players.

The Reds broke the British transfer record twice this summer, first to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen for £100m plus a potential £16m in add-ons, then again on deadline day to sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle United for £130m. Outside of these two monster deals, they also scooped up Hugo Ekitike for £69m, Milos Kerkez for £40m, Jeremie Frimpong for £29m and Giovanni Leoni for £26m. All of this business supplements a title-winning squad that secured Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk to new contracts earlier in the summer.

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As usual, they played the exits game tremendously well too, raising over £200m in proceeds on players like Luis Díaz, Jarell Quansah, Darwin Núñez and more. Now, it’s a case of fitting all the new players together.

There was one hiccup in the form of Marc Guéhi for £35m: His £35m move from Crystal Palace was all agreed to on deadline day, but it fell through late on because the Eagles couldn’t secure his replacement. But it’s still a remarkable body of work on a massive scale.

Too much change in a short space of time can sometimes be a bad thing, and Liverpool’s early-season performances have been pretty ropey, but they’re picking up wins while still finding their feet. It’s ominous.

Arsenal

Sensing an opportunity, or feeling the pressure to simply keep up with their big-spending rivals? Whatever the reason, Arsenal went for it this summer, adding eight first-team players to the squad in an effort to bulk up for another title challenge.

The Gunners stocked up and improved in almost every position. Viktor Gyökeres, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke enhanced the front line; Martín Zubimendi and Christian Nørgaard beefed up the midfield; Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapié bolstered the defense; and Kepa Arrizabalaga will competently back up David Raya in goal.

This is now a tremendously deep squad, capable of covering injuries and absences in a way it simply was not before. We’ve already seen evidence of that, with Madueke impressing in Bukayo Saka‘s stead and Mosquera stepping in valiantly for William Saliba during Sunday’s defeat at Liverpool.

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What makes this haul of players even sweeter is that at least two of them were poached from under the noses of rival interested parties. Zubimendi was a major target for Liverpool in 2024, but held on for a year to move to Arsenal, while archrivals Spurs thought they had Eze wrapped up … only for the Gunners to gazump them in the 11th hour.

Real Madrid

Understandably furious with their 2024-25 performance, Real Madrid acted swiftly and decisively early this summer, setting the tone for what they’ll hope is a significantly better 2025-26 campaign.

Xabi Alonso was selected and installed as manager in time for the Club World Cup. The perfect combination of modern, suave and tactically astute, it signalled that change was afoot.

The club then furnished him with some superb signings: Trent Alexander-Arnold, one of the best right backs in the sport, was secured on the cheap; Dean Huijsen, one of the finest center backs in the game, was brought in to alleviate issues in the heart of defense; Álvaro Carreras, a more defensive-minded left-back, was recruited to balance out Trent’s attacking nature; Franco Mastantuono, the gem of Argentine soccer, arrived despite interest from Paris Saint-Germain.

In terms of exits, only a handful of aging stars — Luka Modrić and Lucas Vázquez — departed, meaning the oft-linked-away Rodrygo stayed put. That makes the Brazilian a depth option for los Blancos — a ridiculous thing to say really, given his talent — and underlines how seriously Madrid are taking the task of dethroning Barcelona this year.

NEUTRAL

Manchester United

The bad bits from United’s window were: Overpaying for Matheus Cunha (£62.5m) and Bryan Mbeumo (£65m) — ESPN’s Ryan O’Hanlon does a good job of explaining why — and not signing a new central midfielder. But there were some good bits, too. Signing striker Benjamin Sesko and goalkeeper Senne Lammens represented a return to their previous strategy of acquiring young talent to develop — considering they are deep into a painful rebuild, it’s the right idea.

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They also cleared out the majority of their unwanted players, most of them permanently. Antony, Alejandro Garnacho are definitely gone; Rasmus Højlund is as good as gone, and the financial burden of Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho has been mostly lifted for another season.

All of that combined leaves them in the neutral zone.

Manchester City

Joining them in that neither good-nor-bad zone are their archrivals Man City, who have done some really good business this summer, but also struck some deals that raise more questions than answers.

Starting with the good, Tijjani Reijnders has already shown flashes of his brilliance and Rayan Aït-Nouri‘s contract was surprisingly cheap to acquire from Wolves. But while Rayan Cherki and Gianluigi Donnarumma are obviously excellent players, they seriously jar with Pep Guardiola’s style — the former does not offer anything from a defensive standpoint, while the latter is one of the poorest goalkeepers with the ball at his feet you’ll see anywhere. Why would Pep want him?

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They’ve also let stalwarts Manuel Akanji and Éderson go for relative peanuts, which seems to be a direct result of simply having so many players, a few were destined to leave.

Off the back of 2025’s transfer work, City certainly look younger and more energized. But are they actually better?

LOSERS

Newcastle United

Newcastle’s entire summer was haunted, and effectively ruined, by the specter of Alexander Isak. He expressed his desire to leave the club in July, sparking a bid from Liverpool that was firmly declined. What followed was a very long, very draining staring contest between the two clubs, with the player continually making it clear he was determined to leave.

This standoff gave the Magpies roughly six weeks to source two strikers as replacements for the towering Sweden international (and the departed Callum Wilson), but every time they entered the market for a player, they seemed to lose out. They tried and failed to sign Hugo Ekitike, Benjamin Sesko, João Pedro, Liam Delap and Jørgen Strand Larsen — and those are just the ones we know about.

Finally, in the last hours of the window, they struck deals for Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade (£65m) and Yoane Wissa (£50m) and allowed Isak to leave for £130m. That said, it’s an exchange that unfortunately leaves them worse off than they were at the end of last season.

They did at least get some other business done: Jacob Ramsey joined for £39m to bolster the midfield, while center back Malick Thiaw was a good get for £33m from AC Milan. But it’s nowhere near enough to overcome what has been a very sore summer for the Toon army.

Bayer Leverkusen

Leverkusen made a lot of money this summer, but they also lost a lot of talent and experience. Every transfer window is an exercise in balance, and it’s pretty obvious die Werkself have tipped the scales way too far here in the wrong direction.

Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, Jonathan Tah, Amine Adli, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky, Odilon Kossounou and Piero Hincapié — all of whom made 20 or more Bundesliga appearances in 2023-24’s title win — left the club this summer. Former manager Erik ten Hag — yes! Former! He was sacked on deadline day after two league games! — openly complained about the talent drain out of the club this summer, so it’s not as if this all happened in secret.

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Leverkusen have been active with incomings, too — Malik Tillman, Jarell Quansah, Loïc Badé and Eliesse Ben Seghir are all good additions — but they’ve launched themselves backward, into a rebuild and as of Sept. 1, they’re also in search for a new manager.

Bayern Munich

It was a tough summer for Bayern Munich who, for the most part, really struggled to get deals over the line. That led to a lot of questions, a fair amount of panicking, and then two big fees dropped on Premier League players that could go either way.

June began with the signing of Jonathan Tah from Leverkusen, a long-term target. He was celebrated as a free transfer, but reports suggest they paid a substantial signing-on fee and handed him monster wages, despite the fact he does not definitively improve their XI. Then they turned their attention to signing a winger, but missed out on their No. 1 target, Nico Williams, who opted to stay at Athletic Club. They were then linked to Marcus Rashford, but he joined Barcelona.

Meanwhile, Leroy Sané left for Galatasaray, Thomas Müller departed for the Vancouver Whitecaps in Major League Soccer, Kingsley Coman joined Al Nassr and, worst of all, Jamal Musiala suffered a serious injury at the Club World Cup. It left them astonishingly short of attacking bodies, forcing them into action.

Paying €75m for Liverpool’s 28-year-old winger Luis Díaz has been universally scoffed at as an overpay, but after also failing to sign Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade (who went to Newcastle), it was obvious Bayern were running out of ideas.

On deadline day, they signed Chelsea‘s Nicolas Jackson for a loan fee of €16.5m plus an obligation of a further €65m — another huge commitment to a player who is good, but perhaps not great.

Aston Villa

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A flurry of deadline day activity brought three signings — Victor Lindelöf on a free, Jadon Sancho on loan from Manchester United and Harvey Elliott for an eventual £35m package from Liverpool — but it’s not enough to paper over what was a frustrating and genuinely uncomfortable summer window for Aston Villa.

Operating under extreme cost-cutting measures following a settlement agreement and fine from UEFA, Villa were faced with the task of at least treading water (and of course trying to get better) while reducing their wage bill by 20-25%, or else be banned from European competition in the future. That’s pretty tough to do.

Rumors stalked most of their key players all summer, creating a sense of unease during preseason, and it became clear Villa needed to clear out their squad depth and potentially lose an important asset before they could commit to making signings. They lost their homegrown, boyhood fan of the club Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle.

Entering deadline day, it was expected that Emiliano Martínez would leave for Manchester United, potentially creating more room to spend, but his move fell through. While the fact they haven’t lost a top-class goalkeeper is a positive on paper, it represented yet another zigzag to navigate for Villa’s decision-makers, trying desperately to improve the team while not breaching UEFA’s rules.

Bill Belichick had a “welcome to college football” moment on Monday night, as his North Carolina Tar Heels were blown out by the TCU Horned Frogs, 48-14, to begin the 2025 college football season. 

It was a night filled with expectation, celebrity appearances and pure hype at Kenan Stadium, as Belichick’s first taste of being a college football head coach started on home turf in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels were hoping to usher in a new era with a victory to not only notch another first under Belichick’s resume, but get the program heading in the right direction from the jump. 

The Horned Frogs had another thing in mind, though, as they were fazed by the screaming crowd of over 50,000, which included the likes of Randy Moss, Michael Jordan, Roy Williams, Lawrence Taylor and many more. 

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The Belichick era began with an impressive North Carolina opening-drive touchdown, as the Tar Heels went 83 yards down the field with Caleb Hood capping it with his first score of the season. 

But it was all TCU after that, scoring 41 unanswered points on their way to an easy victory. 

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Horned Frogs quarterback Josh Hoover was dicing up the Tar Heels’ defense, and it started with a 27-yard strike to Jordan Dwyer, who was a favorite all night long in the pass game, for a touchdown that tied the game at seven apiece following the extra point. 

TCU got more physical on defense, especially at the line of scrimmage, which hindered what UNC wanted to do when they had possession. The Horned Frogs held them to three straight three-and-outs, while taking the lead with a field goal early in the second quarter. 

Josh Hoover #10 of the TCU Horned Frogs drops back to pass during the first half of the game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Kenan Stadium on Sept. 1, 2025 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

North Carolina seemed to get some momentum back when Hoover’s pass was too high for his intended receiver, and the Tar Heels’ Kaleb Cost made an acrobatic interception to flip the field. 

But UNC quarterback Gio Lopez gave the ball right back to TCU, and it was in the worst way as veteran safety Bud Clark jumped a route and took the interception 25 yards to the house for a pick-six that made it 17-7. The Horned Frogs would end the half with a short field goal, taking a commanding 20-7 lead into the locker room as the crowd was stunned. 

That feeling wouldn’t end, though, as the very first play of the second half was a 75-yard touchdown run by Horned Frogs star running back Kevorian Barnes, who went untouched down the right sideline to break the game open. 

UNC was unable to come back at that point, as the Horned Frogs continued to run up the score with running back Trent Battle rushing for 28 yards to make it 34-7, and Lopez was sacked by Jonathan Bax, leading his Horned Frogs teammate Devean Deal to scoop up the fumbled football and run it back 37 yards for yet another touchdown. 

North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick on the sidelines in the first quarter at Kenan Stadium on Sept. 1, 2025. (Bob Donnan/Imagn Images)

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At that point, Belichick switched quarterbacks, going with Max Johnson, who led a touchdown drive late in the third quarter to add some points for the Tar Heels. But the game was out of reach, and it’s clear the Tar Heels have much to work on heading into next week. 

Meanwhile, Hoover showed out in front of many NFL scouts, going 27-of-36 for 284 yards with two touchdown passes and one interception thrown. Barnes had 11 carries for 113 yards, while Dwyer hauled in nine receptions for a whopping 136 yards to help TCU’s cause.

No one expected Belichick to immediately turn the program around and get them to compete for a national title, but this was a shocking result to be dominated at home to kick off his collegiate coaching career.  

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