The 2018 winter transfer market peaked early with names like Philippe Coutinho and Alexis Sanchez moving earlier in January.
But the precocious unfolding of the winter market did not take away from an active January 31 deadline day, as names like Aubameyang, Giroud, and Lucas Moura were on the move.
Here to recap it all for you is the latest midweek edition of 90 Minutes’ Top Five.
1. 890 million euros
That is the staggering Transfermarkt estimated total spent by teams in the top five leagues across Europe by the time January 31 came and went.
The figure blew away the estimated 651 million spent one year ago in a window featuring Oscar, Julian Draxler, Gabriel Jesus, Goncalo Guedes, Dimitri Payer, Memphis Depay, among others.
More than half of the 890 million were spent -not surprisingly- by the Premier League (leading with 460.75 million) and La Liga (trailing with 276.7 million), but the real eye-opener is the abysmal gap between the top two and the other three leagues. The Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and Serie A combined for “only” 153.09 million of the 890 million.
The same story is told in terms of club expenditure, as EPL and La Liga dominated the top ten list of clubs who invested the most this winter, occupying nine spots before Borussia Dortmund creeps in at number 10.
After a summer in which the transfer market exploded like a nuclear bomb, it was only natural that the winter would follow suit.
2. Retooling on the fly
One of the big protagonists of the winter window, and especially deadline day, was Arsenal.
The Alexis Sanchez-Henrik Mkhytarian swap has been talked about at length. But Arsene Wenger went all in to transform his attack for years to come in just 24 hours, finishing what he started when Sanchez left for Manchester. In a matter of 24 hours, Arsenal completed the evolution from the Sanchez-Ozil-Lacazette triumvirate to one featuring Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Lacazette, and a Mesut Ozil who cleared the dark cloud that hovered over his and the club’s head all season: his expiring contract.
Arsenal made the best move they could have done this winter -even more important than bringing Aubameyang- by locking up Ozil to a new contract to remain at the Emirates through 2021. Losing the German for free this summer, perhaps even to a Premier League rival, would have been a big setback in this impromptu retooling at Arsenal. With Sanchez gone, the Gunners could not afford to lose their top playmaker, once whose skill set would be very costly to replace.
Despite the tumultuous season on the pitch, and with defense still remaining as a major issues, Arsenal have managed to pull off a quick reshuffling that will set them up for the next several years.
3. Striker carousel
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The departure of Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund to Arsenal created a ripple effect reverberated across London and back to Germany.
The arrival of the Gabonian made Olivier Giroud expendable at the Emirates. Across town, Chelsea, who were keen on acquiring another striker, and having swung and missed on Roma’s Edin Dzeko, shelled out 17 million euros to bring on Giroud in the early hours of deadline day. Subsequently, Borussia Dortmund, fresh off the departure of Aubameyang, now had a whole at the position of their own. Giroud’s move to Chelsea made Michy Batshuayi, himself, expendable. So, in order to complete the three-pronged play, the Blues sent Batshuayi on loan to Dortmund to occupy the position left by Aubameyang.
It was a perfect triple threat move that benefits everyone involved. The Dortmund-Aubameyang divorce is finally over, and both parties involved can move on with their lives, Arsenal add a proven goal scorer in response to losing their best player, Antonio Conte has a proven goal scorer of his own as an option off the bench, and all three players are in the best situation possible to succeed.
4. Best of the rest
Aside from the before-mentioned Aubameyang, Giroud, and Batshuayi, deadline day also featured some very noteworthy moves before the clock struck zero and fax machines finally exhaled in exhaustion.
Tottenham pulled off perhaps the best move among the unheralded, scooping up out-of-favor winger Lucas Moura from PSG for 28 million. A fast, skillful, goal-scoring winger, Lucas looks to be the perfect type of player for Mauricio Pochettino, one who can slide right into the starting lineup and contribute significantly from the get go.
Before the final buzzer, Everton made one last move to obtain French defender Eliaquim Mangala on loan for the rest of the season from Manchester City. Mangala was the odd man out after City acquired Aymeric Laporte, and Sam Allardyce swiped in to add some insurance to his defense. Also adding a defender is Real Sociedad, bringing out Mexican center back Hector Moreno from Roma after the public relations nightmare produced by the departure of Iñigo Martínez to rivals Athletic Bilbao. The side from the Italian capital shored up the hole left by Emerson Palmieri’s move to Chelsea by acquiring Argentinian Jonathan Silva from Sporting CP.
5. Earn that new contract
Right before signing his new deal, Mesut Ozil flashed all those skills that warranted such new contract from Arsenal in Wendesday’s Premier League loss over Swansea.
It was another lackluster effort from the Gunners, but Ozil did provided this sublime assist to Nacho Monreal to open the score at the Liberty Stadium.