5 losers of summer transfer window 2019

The summer transfer window has passed, at least until January offers that second chance.

The incomings and outgoings have shaped up some of the sides, while the rest have been hit with utmost misery.

Not only Premier League sides, but Serie A and French sides have spent lot in the summer transfer window. Some, though, have decided to stay quiet.

We bring you the 5 losers of summer transfer window 2019.

1. Roma

While Roma are not the only Serie A side to have plundered an array of Premier League offcuts over the transfer window, their late trolley dash smelt of desperation and, critically, a lack of imagination. Manchester United’s Chris Smalling and Arsenal’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan are hardly signings for the future and the latter has been on a downward spiral ever since leaving Borussia Dortmund. At 30, he is unlikely to recapture past glories.

Nikola Kalinic, now 31, was a success story with Fiorentina but has endured a fallow three years and seems little more than ballast for Paulo Fonseca’s squad. Fonseca himself should be a good signing having enjoyed a highly promising stint at Shakhtar Donetsk, but his squad looks like a hastily assembled team that will do well to return to the Champions League spots and will surely miss defender Kostas Manolas, who was sold to Napoli.

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2. Barcelona

Barcelona kicked off their new La Liga campaign with a great struggle. That is mostly because of their injury woes, with trio Ousmane Dembele, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez all sidelined with injuries. Not to mention the injuries by second-choice goalkeeper Neto, and defenders’ Samuel Umtiti and Nelson Semedo. However, their lack of transfer window activity is also to be blamed for the slow start of the season.

In an everlasting summer transfer saga, the Spanish champions managed to secure the signature of Antoine Griezmann from rivals Atletico Madrid and earlier, of Ajax’s youth product Frenkie de Jong in a combined fee of almost €200 million. And basically, that is where they stopped any special transfer activity this summer.

They eventually lured defender Junior Firpo, who impressed last season with Real Bestis, but soon enough, he was also sent to the infirmary with an injury. One of the protagonists of last season’s transfer sagas, Malcom left the club after a disappointing short spell with the club. Brazilian playmaker Coutinho also left Camp Nou after only a year at the club, a move that pointed out Barcelona’s poor squad planning during the past years. He was joined by Paco Alcacer, one of 2018/19 Bundesliga jewels, who left for Borussia Dortmund on a permanent deal, after spending the previous season on loan there.

Overall, the Blaugrana rather brought less quality and feature, than they sold.

3. Manchester United

Manchester United kicked off their transfer window with a sweetener. They confirmed the capture of the young Daniel James, and welcome Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire before the transfer window officially shut. In addition, the main interest of Real Madrid and Juventus, Paul Pogba stayed put, but to the player’s disappointment, since he publicly revealed his desire to leave Old Trafford.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is successful in his pursuit by clearing out a majority chunk, but there are no replacements for them. The lack of incomings has already started to hurt the Red Devils, who will be lucky to finish in the Champions League spot this season. They recouped nearly €70 million, with a majority through Romelu Lukaku. The midfield area has been a mess in the first three Premier League games and the Norwegian boss doesn’t have many options to call on to change it. Nemanja Matic looks so leggy, Fred has basically been discarded and Ander Herrera has joined Paris Saint-Germain.

The Red Devils need are in need of many reinforcements, such as a centre-back, left-back, defensive midfielder, box-to-box midfielder, winger, and striker. As time goes, the season will only get tougher for them with such a thin squad.

4. Eintracht Frankfurt

The Bundesliga side played some thrilling football last season and were astonishingly close to reaching the Europa League final, not to mention a Champions League spot that ultimately slipped from their grasp. But much of that came through the brilliance of their front three, Luka Jovic, Sebastien Haller and Ante Rebic – but none of them will be on show at Commerzbank-Arena over the coming campaign.

Those players will represent Real Madrid, West Ham and AC Milan respectively, the latter being confirmed when Rebic joined AC Milan in a season-long loan late on Tuesday. Eintracht have received more than €100 million in return but it is impossible not to feel that a golden chance to establish themselves among Germany’s front runners has gone begging.

Andre Silva, Bas Dost and the exciting Red Star Belgrade forward Dejan Joveljic go some way towards filling the gap they have left, but the drop-off in firepower is stark and Eintracht may well count the cost.

5. Chelsea

With a transfer ban in place, Chelsea were always going to suffer this summer. At least they made a real fist of the situation, appointing club legend Frank Lampard as manager and turning to their talented youth setup for fresh options. But their five points from four Premier League games speaks volumes – they have fallen behind in squad strength terms as they sold Eden Hazard and couldn’t replace him with another big-name star.

Christian Pulisic was acquired in January so he doesn’t count towards the summer work. He is an incredible player, but would have to perform miracles to make Blues fans forget all about Hazard. Mateo Kovacic was acquired permanently having spent 2018-19 on loan at Stamford Bridge, but he is not the player he was last season. The Croat is inconsistent and rarely brings the creativity part in the table.

Young Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount have done well, but their defence continue to be a calamity. Andreas Christensen and Kurt Zouma have struggled and it could be the story until the season ends. With no ban in place, it’s highly likely we would have seen Chelsea bolster at centre-back, left-back, winger and striker. These are now the positions in which they look a little short and they weren’t able to do anything about it.