It is often seen as a sign of a club’s disorganisation if they are scrambling to get deals over the line as the hours tick towards the transfer deadline.
Yet deadline day has, over the years, seen some of the biggest moves in Premier League history rubber-stamped.
From future club legends to costly flops, the final day of the transfer window has brought mixed fortunes for its top spenders.
Here are the 10 biggest deadline-day deals in Premier League history.
Enzo Fernandez – Chelsea, £106m
Named the best young footballer at the tournament for his role in helping Argentina lift the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Enzo Fernandez quickly became one of the most-wanted midfielders in the game.
Linked with big-money moves to a host of Europe’s top clubs, Chelsea moved quickest to snatch the young playmaker away from Benfica in a British-record £106 million deal on deadline day of the 2023 mid-season window.
A little over a year and a half into his Stamford Bridge stay, Fernandez has shown flashes of the magic that convinced Chelsea to invest so heavily in his purchase, although he is yet to deliver on a consistent basis for a club in constant flux.
Antony – Manchester United, £82m
Brazilian winger Antony was new Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag’s top attacking target when he took charge at Old Trafford in the summer of 2022. And after weeks of speculation and negotiation, the Red Devils finally secured his services, paying an initial £82 million to sign him from Ajax on deadline day.
Despite having shone under Ten Hag at Ajax, Antony has fallen desperately short of expectations in two seasons so far at United.
With just one goals and one assist from 29 Premier League appearances last term, the 24-year-old finds himself behind the likes of Alejandro Garnacho, Marcus Rashford and Amad Diallo in the pecking order of wide players at Old Trafford at the outset of the 2024-25 campaign.
GO DEEPER –Antony at Man Utd: The stats behind the Brazilian’s woeful spell since £81m transfer
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – Arsenal, £65m
Arsenal smashed their club transfer record on the final day of the January window in 2018 to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund.
The Gabonese striker had been prolific at Signal Iduna Park, scoring 141 goals in 213 games.
The size of the fee the Gunners forked out for the former AC Milan and Saint-Etienne star, despite the fact he was already 28 years old, reflected his pedigree.
And it initially proved money well spent. Aubameyang scored 10 goals from 14 appearances over the remainder of the 2018-19 campaign before winning the Premier League Golden Boot as part of a 31-goal all-competitions haul in his first full season at the Emirates.
Disciplinary issues saw the centre-forward stripped of the captaincy by manager Mikel Arteta in during the 2021-22 season and Aubameyang was allowed to join Barcelona on a free in February 2022.
Matheus Nunes – Manchester City, £53m
Portuguese midfielder Matheus Nunes had been a club-record £38 million buy for Wolves just a year before Manchester City swooped to sign him away from Molineux last summer.
The reigning Treble winners concluded a drawn-out sage when they finally sealed a £53 million move for the former Sporting CP man on the final day of the summer transfer window.
Nunes had initially caught Pep Guardiola’s eye when City played Sporting in the Champions League and the Portugal international had impressed in his debut Premier League season for Wolves.
But Nunes has thus far struggled to make an impact at the Etihad and, unless he can rediscover the form that sparked City’s interest in the first place, he is on course to be remembered as one of the worst signings of Guardiola’s tenure.
Fernando Torres – Chelsea, £50m
After scoring 81 goals in 142 games for Liverpool and winning a European Championship and World Cup with Spain, Fernando Torres had firmly established himself as one of the best strikers in the world after a 2007 switch to the Premier League.
And on the final day of the 2011 January transfer window, Chelsea splashed a British-record £50 million to take the rapid Spaniard to Stamford Bridge.
But Torres was a major disappointment with the Blues, scoring just 45 goals in 172 outings for the club. After an unsuccessful loan to AC Milan, he returned to Atletico Madrid in January 2015, initially on loan before a permanent switch after his Chelsea contract expired.
Brennan Johnson – Tottenham, £47.5m
The breakout star of Nottingham Forest’s promotion campaign in 2022-23, Brennan Johnson scored 18 goals and provided 10 assists as the East Midlands club earned a place in England’s top tier for the first time in 25 years.
And the Wales winger followed up that form by proving he could thrive at the Premier League level, with eight goals and three assists to help Forest stave off an immediate drop back down.
That earned Johnson a £47.5 million switch to Tottenham on deadline day last summer. And the 23-year-old has justified Spurs’ sizeable outlay by shining as a creative force in north London, with 10 assists to add to his five goals in 32 Premier League appearances last term.
Thomas Partey – Arsenal, £45m
Arsenal signed Thomas Partey from Atletico Madrid in the October of 2020 – with the transfer deadline pushed back due to the Covid-19 pandemic – to shore up the centre of their midfield, and the imposing Ghanaian initially impressed at the Emirates.
Partey racked up 99 all-competitions appearances over his first three seasons with the Gunners, scoring five goals – including a strike in a 3-1 victory over rivals Spurs in October 2021 that would go on to win the club’s Goal of the Season award.
But last season the 31-year-old was limited to just nine Premier League starts due to injury. The £105 million arrival of Declan Rice last summer and the recent addition of Mikel Merino could combine to force Partey into a diminished role with Arteta’s title-chasers.
Mesut Ozil – Arsenal, £42.5m
It was seen as a huge coup when Arsenal swept in to sign Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid for £42.5 million on the final day of the 2013 summer window, with the Gunners acquiring one of the most gifted playmakers in the world at the peak of his powers.
And while there remains a sense that the uber-talented German underwhelmed in his seven seasons in the Premier League, failing to consistently produce his best form at the Emirates, he still delivered 44 goals and 75 assists in 254 games for the north London side, contributing to four FA Cup triumphs.
Ozil was Arsenal’s Player of the Year and the Premier League’s top assist provider in the 2015-16 season and won three of his five German Player of the Year awards while with the Gunners.
Cole Palmer – Chelsea, £40m
In a move that sent shockwaves around the Premier League, Chelsea forked out what at the time seemed an exorbitant £40 million fee to sign Cole Palmer from Manchester City on deadline day of the 2023 summer window.
The England youngster had made just six Premier League appearances for City. But Palmer hit the ground running and Stamford Bridge. With a staggering 22 goals and 11 assists from33 league appearances, he made the sum the Blues paid for him appear a bargain by the end of his debut campaign.
A scorer in England’s losing effort against Spain in the Euro 2024 final, Palmer is set to be a superstar centrepiece for club and country for years to come.
Anthony Martial – Manchester United, £36m
Manchester United made Anthony Martial the most expensive teenager in football history when they paid an initial £36m million to sign the prodigious 19-year-old from Monaco on the last day of the 2015 summer transfer window.
And the French forward got off to a dream start with the 20-time champions on England, scoring a stunning solo goal in a 3-1 win over bitter rivals Liverpool in his Old Trafford debut.
But Martial was never fully able to fulfil his potential at United. A record of 90 goals from 370 appearances across nine years with the Red Devils reads favourably, but through injuries, inconsistent form and a disinterested demeanour, he left as a free agent at the end of last season with few fans mourning his departure.
READ MORE –Anthony Martial at Man Utd: Where it all went wrong
