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January is often described as the grimmest month of the year but it can also be a time of renewal, a moment to make a fresh start. And for football clubs, the opening of the January transfer window is an opportunity for clubs to breathe new life into their disappointing campaigns and invest for the future.
Flailing Premier League champions Manchester City are expected to be active as they try to salvage their disastrous season, while Manchester United should use the window to begin their cultural reset by selling Marcus Rashford. Arsenal, meanwhile, can use the window to bolster their injury-ravaged squad and boost their chances of catching runaway leaders Liverpool.
Managers often complain that the winter window offers little value compared to the summer, when the bulk of business is done. And yet some of the most shrewd transfer moves have been made in the first month of the year. Here, GOAL breaks down the best January transfer window signings in Premier League history…
1. Seamus Coleman (Sligo Rovers to Everton, £60,000)
In terms of value for money, you could make the case that Coleman is the best signing in Premier League history. After receiving a tip off, David Moyes plucked the full-back from League of Ireland side Sligo Rovers in January 2009 for £60,000 ($76,000). And no, we haven’t missed out a zero or two.
Coleman could not have an instant impact as he had to undergo surgery on an infected blister on his toe almost immediately after joining Everton, and he later joined Blackpool on loan for half a season. But he has remained a Toffee since August 2010, playing under 11 managers.
He has made 426 appearances for Everton while contributing to 56 goals, breaking down to £140 per appearance and little more than £1,000 per goal or assist. He has also been one of their most consistent performers as well as their most loyal and passionate, resisting no small amount of big moves to stay with the club, which he has captained since 2019, and is still going strong aged 36.
2. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund to Arsenal, £56m)
It was always expected that Aubameyang would end up at Real Madrid when he left Borussia Dortmund, but Arsenal were the willing beneficiaries when he left the German side in January 2018. He was the Gunners’ record signing at the time, but quickly set about repaying the fee with a stunning 10 goals in 13 Premier League games.
He kept it up in the next two seasons, scoring 60 times in all competitions and almost single-handedly firing Arsenal to win the FA Cup in 2020, netting twice both against Manchester City in the semi-final and Chelsea in the final.
Things started to go wrong, however, after he signed a lucrative new contract, and just 16 months later he saw that deal torn up after falling foul of Mikel Arteta’s disciplinary regime. He joined Barcelona for free then had a miserable time at Chelsea, but has revitalised a stalling career with Marseille.
Despite the ugly end to his time at the Emirates Stadium, he still goes down as one of the most impactful January signings.
3. Gary Cahill (Bolton Wanderers to Chelsea, £7m)
Cahill left relegation-fighting Bolton for Chelsea in January 2012, but he first must have thought he had swapped one crisis club for another when Andre Villas-Boas was sacked less than two months after he had arrived. Cahill, however, started to shine under successor Roberto Di Matteo and came into his own in the Champions League. He helped Chelsea pull off a dramatic comeback win over Napoli, knock out Barcelona at Camp Nou – after John Terry had been sent off – and then see off Bayern Munich in their own stadium to win the trophy for the first time.
Cahill was no one-season wonder, though, and he was crucial to Chelsea’s league title successes under Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte. He won a total of eight trophies with the Blues and was named in the PFA Team of the Year on three occasions. Not bad at all for £7m.
4. Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid to Newcastle, £12m)
Many people questioned Trippier’s motives when he left La Liga champions Atletico in January 2022 to join struggling Newcastle just weeks after the club’s Saudi takeover. And he had a nightmare debut as Cambridge United knocked his new side out of the FA Cup.
Trippier, however, has proved to be a transformative figure for Newcastle, an inspirational leader who continued to travel with the team to matches in his first season even after sustaining a serious ankle injury.
Once recovered, he spearheaded Newcastle’s charge to the Carabao Cup final and to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in 20 years. He has contributed to 25 goals for the Magpies, outstanding numbers for a defender, while his experience and defensive qualities have helped sustain Eddie Howe’s side’s rise to become one of the top teams in the league again after decades in the wilderness.
5. Philippe Coutinho (Inter to Liverpool, £8.5m)
Coutinho saw Liverpool as an escape route from a frustrating period with Inter and it took just a few weeks for the Reds to realise they had hit the jackpot. He added real quality to Brendan Rodgers’ side, and in half a season scored three times and set up seven goals. He was even better the following campaign, helping Liverpool go agonisingly close to winning the title after forming a fine understanding with fellow South American Luis Suarez.
He outlasted Suarez and Rodgers and became a crucial part of Jurgen Klopp’s side, contributing to 62 goals under the German and briefly forming a mouth-watering attack known as the ‘Fab Four’ alongside Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.
Coutinho got too big for his boots, however, and ultimately could not resist the urge to join Barcelona in January 2018. But Liverpool had the last laugh, banking £142m ($178m) from his sale which they used to sign Virgil van Dijk and Alisson, laying the foundations for their future Premier League and Champions League successes. Coutinho, meanwhile, had a miserable time at Barca and is now seeing out his career back in Brazil with Vasco da Gama.
6. Bruno Fernandes (Sporting CP to Man Utd, £68m)
United had been courting Fernandes for some time, but walked away from a deal in the summer of 2019 after baulking at Sporting’s valuation. But with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side struggling and way off the pace of the top four, they eventually caved into the Portuguese club’s demands late in January, and boy were they glad they did.
Fernandes breathed fresh life into the Red Devils’ season and Solskjaer’s side remained unbeaten from the day he signed until the final day of the campaign. The Portuguese’s eight goals and seven assists across 14 matches lifted United into third in the Premier League on the final day, as well as helping them reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup and the Europa League.
Fernandes was even more dominant in his second season, scoring 28 times and setting up 17 goals in all competitions. Now into his sixth campaign at Old Trafford, he boasts an impressive record of 85 goals and 76 assists in 260 appearances. Fernandes might divide opinions among pundits, but he remains United’s most influential player and is beloved by fans, who know just bad things could have been had he not lifted their spirits.
7. Andy Cole (Newcastle to Man Utd, £7m)
Cole was the hottest young striker in the Premier League when the Red Devils made Newcastle an offer they couldn’t refuse in January 1995, sending winger Keith Gillespie the other way as part of the deal. The £7m fee made Cole the most expensive English player ever at the time, and it weighed heavily on him. He scored plenty of goals in his first season, but also missed big chances as United narrowly missed out on the title to Blackburn Rovers and lost the FA Cup final to Everton.
He soon made up for those setbacks by firing United to five Premier League titles, two FA Cups and the Champions League, scoring 121 goals in the process. He was never happier than when he was playing up front alongside close friend Dwight Yorke, by far the best strike partner he had. By the time he departed Old Trafford, that record transfer fee looked like an utter bargain.
8. Luis Suarez (Ajax to Liverpool, £23m)
Suarez was one of the stars of the 2010 World Cup after inspiring Uruguay to the semi-finals, but already had a devilish reputation after using his hands to infamously deny Ghana a goal in the quarter-final tie. No serious bids came in for him though, and he remained at Ajax, but soon found himself in more trouble after biting PSV midfielder Otman Bakkal and getting banned for seven matches.
His track record of controversy did not put Liverpool off, and they signed him for £23m just four days before the transfer window closed. Suarez had a slow start, scoring only four league goals over the rest of the season, but he eventually found his feet and proved to an absolute bargain. He scored 82 goals in three-and-a-half seasons and took Liverpool to the brink of the title in 2013-14, sobbing uncontrollably when it slipped away at Selhurst Park.
But his time at Anfield was also marked by huge controversy, receiving a 10-match ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic in 2013 and an eight-game ban after being found guilty by the FA of using racist language towards Patrice Evra.
He was still a Liverpool player when he was engulfed in his third biting incident after chomping Giorgio Chiellini during the 2014 World Cup, but was soon bought by Barcelona for £75m, triple the amount Liverpool had paid for him three years earlier.
9. Nemanja Vidic (Spartak Moscow to Man Utd, £7m)
The Serbian was an obscure figure when he arrived at Old Trafford and no one could imagine that he would inspire United to five Premier League titles and three Champions League finals, lifting the European Cup in 2008.
Vidic formed an unstoppable centre-back partnership with Rio Ferdinand which provided the platform for Sir Alex Ferguson’s last great team. His ferocious and unforgiving style of play made him the ideal partner for the calm and smooth Ferdinand, who focused on building from the back while his partner dealt with snuffing out any danger.
A fan favourite for his full-blooded style of defending, Vidic became United’s captain when Gary Neville retired in 2011. Their defence has never been quite the same since he left in 2014.
10. Virgil van Dijk (Southampton to Liverpool, £75m)
Liverpool had been courting Van Dijk for a long time and had hoped to sign him in the summer of 2017, so much that Jurgen Klopp arranged a private meeting with the defender in a hotel in Blackpool to tempt him to swap Southampton for Merseyside. That meeting infuriated Southampton and led to them increasing their asking price for Van Dijk, quashing his hopes of moving in the summer.
Liverpool were made to wait until the end of the year, and in late December finally agreed to pay £75m ($94m) for the Dutchman, who joined the Reds once the window opened in January. At the time it was a world-record fee for a defender and led to Klopp being accused of hypocrisy after decrying the fee Manchester United had paid for Paul Pogba 18 months previously. But, quite unlike with Pogba, Van Dijk proved to be worth every penny.
He was the missing piece of Klopp’s jigsaw and stabilised their defence, helping them reach the Champions League final four months later and then winning Europe’s biggest prize in 2019. He was also crucial to them winning a first league title in 30 years, and when he suffered a serious knee injury early in the following campaign, Liverpool effectively collapsed without him. He is now back to his best and helping lead Liverpool’s charge towards this season’s title.Tap Here for the Full Story
