Ranking the 20 biggest PL summer signings from Andrey Santos to Morgan Rogers

A break from Premier League action for three interminable weeks offers time for managers and clubs to take stock while most of their players are away playing international fixtures that they, we, pretty much everyone actually, could do without.

It also grants us a first natural opportunity to evaluate the summer transfer window, in which a record-breaking £3.49bn was spent by Premier League clubs to acquire new players.

Here we rank the 20 most expensive signings of the summer, from worst to best, excluding those individuals yet to make a Premier League start. Ayyoub Bouaddi and Carlos Baleba will enter the running in future updates of this indisputable list, so we start at 18.

18) Andrey Santos (Chelsea to Manchester United) – £48m

In an excellent example of how stats can be deceiving, Santos had 91% pass accuracy, recovered the ball five times and won 6/8 duels in his only start of the season, against Hull City on the opening day.

But him and Youri Tielemans, another addition in the Make Manchester United’s Midfield Great Again summer rebuild, resembled ‘deer in headlights’ against the newly promoted side, and the Brazilian immediately raised a question many Chelsea fans had frequently asked last season before their club made a miraculous £35m profit on him: What exactly does he do?

After being substituted for Kobbie Mainoo in that game he’s failed to recover his place, with his only other start coming in the 3-2 defeat to Brighton in the EFL Cup. With Baleba poised for his first minutes after the international break, Santos must already be concerned by what the future looks like at Old Trafford.

17) Matias Fernandez-Pardo (Lille to Newcastle) – £51m

“He did his job on a really high level,” insisted Newcastle boss Matthias Jaissle to scoffs from the gathered media when asked about Fernandez-Pardo’s 16-touch display in the 2-1 win over Hull City on Saturday.

“Maybe you saw it differently from me. He did an amazing job – out of possession especially he was stressing the opposition, the keeper.”

£51m is quite a lot money for a footballer doing the job of a Golden Retriever.

“Also, in possession, he threatened the opposition, even though maybe you don’t see it too often, but with his movement and speed, he is causing the opposition many problems,” Jaissle added.

A well-trained Golden Retriever, maybe.

16) Sandro Tonali (Newcastle United to Tottenham) – £92.5m

We wonder if Elliot Anderson thanked Tonali during the summer when the Italian took his place as the example for overinflation in the modern game. Even before he kicked a ball for Spurs the most ludicrous transfer prices were made reasonable thanks to the Tonali yardstick. “Liam Delap for £45m? Well If Tonali costs £10om…”

15) Bradley Barcola (Paris Saint-Germain to Liverpool) – £106m

We’re not sure the fans of Such A Well Run Club could take it if their third nine-figure signing in the space of a year flops like the first two and in punditry land Barcola’s gone from the great Arsenal transfer regret to a Liverpool one in 248 minutes of football, with the agreed-upon hot take being that he can run really, really fast but that’s about it.

In fairness, that has been about it so far.

14) Mateus Fernandes (West Ham to Tottenham) – £85m

As was well-documented in his time at Brighton and then Marseille, defeats and bad performances are never Roberto De Zerbi’s fault. The battered bodies of Tottenham players are already scattered across High Road outside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium having been thrown under the 149 from Edmonton Green.

“I didn’t like the performance of Mateus today,” De Zerbi said when it was put to him that replacing Fernandes with Mohammed Kudus at half-time in the 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa saw Spurs give up control in central areas.

“No, I think no,” De Zerbi said. “This is not the problem. The problem is, in the second half, we lost balance because we were losing. Just for that.”

That definitely sounds like the manager’s fault, mate.

Spurs are in such a pickle/three-year crisis that it’s currently very difficult to sort the chaff from the chaff, to the extent where it might be easiest to group all four of their signings on this list and assign them a derogatory group title.

13) Nico Gonzalez (Manchester City to Newcastle) – £48m

A footballer we were conscious of purely because of his howitzer to beat Southampton in the FA Cup semi-final last season and that still remains the case. But Newcastle capitulating in alarming fashion after Gonzalez was taken off with concussion against Leeds at Elland Road suggests he was doing a job for them there at least.

12) Maxence Lacroix (Crystal Palace to Chelsea) – £52m

A much-needed and reasonably well-vaunted signing by Chelsea, who have spent an inordinate amount of money on bang average centre-backs, brought in and out of the team by several managers consistently asked why they kept chopping and changing at the back, who all fell short of shouting the glaringly obvious answer: None of them are good enough.

Lacroix joins Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana in Xabi Alonso’s preferred back three and on paper that looks pretty good, even great, but in reality they have been somehow less solid than previous iterations. Chelsea have let in more goals (12) than any other team in the Premier League and Lacroix has got to shoulder some of the blame for that having been signed not only as a top defender but an experienced leader.

11) Jan Paul van Hecke (Brighton to Tottenham) – £52m

“We had imagined it would be different,” said Van Hecke after Spurs’ 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa, before subsequent results this weekend leave them at the foot of the table on two points heading into the international break. We didn’t, but we thought you might be, mate.

Of all the £300m-worth of Spursy Spurs summer signings, Van Hecke actually made some sense. He had thrived under De Zerbi at Brighton; other top clubs including Liverpool also wanted him.

Alan Shearer branded Van Hecke and centre-back partner Micky van de Ven “hopeless” after they were beaten up by Nicolas Jackson and Stuart Pearce said it looked like he was “playing in cement”, while Van Hecke himself displayed the strong team unity at Tottenham by not unreasonably suggesting to Andy Robertson that “it’s smarter to kick the ball out” rather than keep it in for an opposition player to set up a goal.

10) Bruno Guimaraes (Newcastle to Arsenal) – £75m

His goal against Sunderland was sublime, but as Paul Merson said, the Brazilian was “a million miles off it” in defeat to Brighton.

It will be hard for Mikel Arteta and the Arsenal fans not to pick him out as the big factor in the loss given Arsenal had been on a nine-game winning streak in the Premier League before what was Guimaraes’ first Gunners start in the competition. It might be a while before his next one.

9) Savio (Manchester City to Tottenham) – £75m

Currently in a battle with fellow Manchester City recruit Omar Marmoush to be hailed as the most Spursy Spurs signing of the summer having failed to get off the mark in the Premier League.

A footballer who promised plenty but delivered almost nothing at Manchester City appears on paper to have continued in the same vein at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He got a goal and an assist against Charlton but has no goal contributions besides.

He’s lacked end product at times and run down blind alleys, but he’s also created more chances (9) than any other Spurs player; not much less than Antoine Semenyo (10) or even Cole Palmer (11).

8) Iliman Ndiaye (Everton to Manchester City) – £60m

He’s yet to register a goal or an assist and Enzo Maresca will be hoping a player who has never been prolific in that regard can find his goalscoring and assisting touch at Manchester City.

Because crucial though he was to victory in the Manchester derby, getting City up the pitch, winning fouls and the like, a player occupying one of those coveted forward positions at the Etihad has to be delivering tangible results.

7) Nicolas Jackson (Chelsea to Aston Villa) – £47.5m

We always thought the criticism of him at Chelsea was harsh and that his poor finishing made far too many headlines while his hold-up play, desire to run in behind and general football IQ (aside from his terrible discipline) wasn’t praised anywhere near enough.

The ‘strikers will always be judged on their goals’ fallacy should perhaps be altered to ‘strikers who look like Jackson will always be judged on their goals’.

While we’re not for one moment putting Jackson in the same camp as low-scoring striker greats like Dennis Bergkamp and Roberto Firmino, you get the point – he’s worth far more to Aston Villa, as he was to Chelsea, than his ability to score goals.

As we saw against Tottenham, when he did score a fabulous goal, he stretches and terrifies defenders to grant acres of space for his teammates to work in. We suspect this might prove to be another very savvy bit of business by Villa.

6) Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa to Arsenal) – £51m

The Arsenal rearguard was obliterated by Brighton but before that, in William Saliba’s absence, Konsa has slotted in pretty seamlessly alongside Gabriel Magalhaes at the heart of the Arsenal defence.

He was also very good for England at the World Cup and is obviously a very good all round defender. That said, the Arsenal unit is such that we do wonder just how bad a defender could play alongside Gabriel, next to Jurrien Timber and in front of David Raya and still keep a clean sheet.

How would a League Two centre-back get on? There’s a 45-year-old electrician at 5-a-side who had a trial for Woking in 1997 who’s got a bit about him.

5) Johan Manzambi (Freiburg to Aston Villa) – £50m

A World Cup star and already a Villa star after a goal and an assist on his full debut against Tottenham on Saturday.

“I just took the ball and shot, and for me, the emotions were very amazing – for the fans, for me. I have no words for that,” he said after the game.

“For me, that was very important, but I heard the fans sing for me. They have good music for me! And if I can give more goals, I (will) do that.”

We’re already in love with him.

4) Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea to Manchester City) – £125m

Despite Fernandez’s brilliance in the Manchester derby, a key role in their Champions League victory over Porto and his imaginative, perfectly executed free-kick to get his side going against Sunderland, questions remain as to whether he was really what City and Enzo Maresca needed this summer.

After the bonkers 5-3 victory over the Black Cats, the City boss bemoaned the lack of “balance”, and plenty of people watching the game will have pointed to Fernandez as something of an inner ear problem.

That’s not necessarily a criticism of Fernandez’s performances. In fact, it would be very unfair to condemn a footballer for playing the football he played to earn him a £125m move. It’s a structural problem that Maresca needs to solve as Elliot Anderson is essentially doing the job of two players at the base of City’s midfield as things stands.

Can Fernandez move deeper? He was much less effective for Chelsea there. If not then it might end up being him or Rayan Cherki in Maresca’s starting XI.

3) Jeremy Jacquet (Rennes to Liverpool) – £55m

Jamie Carragher’s already apologised for getting a bit carried away in his praise of a young centre-back who looks very, very comfortable in the Premier League and has even made Old Man Virgil look more spritely alongside him.

2) Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest to Manchester City) – £116m

Only Lewis Dunk (90) has completed more accurate passes per 90 than Anderson (86.1), and no Premier League player has made more line-breaking passes (22.8). Add to that his outstanding reading of the game and frankly terrifying speed in getting up to the man in possession and you’ve got a very, very good defensive midfielder.

Worth £116m? Well if that’s what that costs these days, then yes.

1) Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa to Chelsea) – £117m

He’s been superb. Three goals and four assists, including a hat-trick of them in a stunning half of football off the bench against Leeds in the Carabao Cup, when the value in signing him to play alongside former Manchester City academy teammate and genuine pal Cole Palmer was at its most evident.

There may well be a point in the season in which a particularly outspoken group of fans might suggest he should have signed for their club rather than Chelsea if that hasn’t happened already in the depths of social media, but who’s to say Rogers wouldn’t rather have a helluva lot of fun playing some breathtaking football with Palmer and Joao Pedro than be the difference-maker in grinding 1-0 wins?