The most underrated transfers of the 2015–2016 Premier League summer transfer window
The English Premier League (EPL) 2015–2016 summer transfer window was yet another year of EPL teams throwing ludicrous sums of money at some of the world’s best players.
The big spenders did more than their fair share of buying, with Manchester City paying a cool 74 million Euros for Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester United purchasing Monaco starlet (and the supposed next Thierry Henry) Anthony Martial for 50 million Euros, and Chelsea swooping in to get Pedro Rodriguez from Barcelona for 27 million Euros.
Top-half teams and mid-table teams pulled out their checkbooks to keep up with the EPL’s biggest spenders, with Tottenham signing Heung Min-Son for 30 million Euros, and Liverpool signing both midfielder and striker combo Roberto Firmino and Christian Benteke, respectively, for a jaw-dropping 87.5 million Euros. According to onefootball.com, EPL teams spent a total of 1.15 billion (!) Euros over the course of the summer, more than double what the next highest league (Serie A) spent.
Yet with all of these transfers being documented as well as players going on loan to other clubs or being released from their respective EPL teams, it has been hard to sift out the transfers that have stayed hidden from the public eye, and yet may strongly benefit certain teams over the course of this season.
For every Premier League team not named Chelsea, Man United, Manchester City, Tottenham, Liverpool, and Arsenal, getting quality players on the cheap is the main goal, as well as signing players who can seamlessly replace players who have departed.
These five transfers have met these two goals, and although they haven’t received much fanfare or attention, these sneaky, under-the-radar transfers may give teams the boost to either stay up and avoid relegation, finish in the top half, or even qualify for Europa League or Champions League football. With that in mind, here are my five most underrated transfers (in no particular order) of the 2015–2016 summer transfer window:
- Pedro Obiang to West Ham United, 4.3 million Euros
With the introduction of new head coach Slaven Bilic for the upcoming season, and West Ham’s qualification to the Europa League qualifying round, reinforcements/more depth were a must for the team that only won three games in the last five months of their 2014/2015 campaign.
West Ham majority owners David Sullivan and David Gold duly obliged, signing 46.9 million Euros worth of players. While Dimitri Payet, the 2nd-most expensive signing in club history, Alex Song (on loan from Barcelona) and Victor Moses (on loan from Chelsea) have stirred up excitement with the club’s fan-base, it is Obiang who has caught the eye over the course of their opening games, earning an 8.18/10 rating and a Man-of-the-Match plaudit for his performance in a 3–0 victory against Liverpool, according to whoscored.com.
Obiang played 34 games last season and was the main reason his former club, Sampdoria, finished 7th in Serie A. Although West Ham have already been eliminated from Europa League qualification, if Obiang continues to perform as well as he did against Liverpool, West Ham may make a pretty penny off of him during next season’s transfer window, or may keep him as they look to climb the Premier League table over the next couple of years. Either way, the midfielder’s 4.3 million Euro transfer to the club is looking shrewder and shrewder every time the highly-coveted Spanish international plays.
2. Dimitri Payet to West Ham United, 15 Million Euros
Although Obiang was quite a bargain for West Ham United, the Hammers actually did themselves one better this transfer window by signing Frenchman Dimitri Payet for 11 million Euros.
It may be odd to call any club record signing “underrated,” but the ex-Marseille man has proven himself to be a brilliant tactician on the ball. Payet finished last year’s 2014/2015 season with 7 goals scored and 16 assists, tops in Ligue 1, France’s top soccer league. According to ESPN FC, Payet led all top European leagues (EPL, Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and Ligue 1) with 133 chances created by the end of the season, almost four chances created per game, and 22 more chances than the next-highest chance creator, the aforementioned De Bruyne.
He finished fourth in most assists and was second in most crosses completed. Some critics doubted whether Payet could continue to produce assists as he moved from Ligue 1 to the much more physical Premier League, but so far the early results look promising. Payet recorded an assist in the Hammer’s opening 2–0 victory at Arsenal, and he scored in a 2–1 loss against Leicester. He has received an average rating of 7.25/10 in his first four matches, and has even had success on the international stage, scoring in France’s 4–3 loss to Belgium. New manager Slaven Bilic claimed Payet is the “kind of player I thought we really needed, that’s going to make every player better than they actually are”, and if Payet is able to recreate some of the magic that he conjured in his final season with Marseille, he will give West Ham that final piece of the puzzle to help them qualify for the Europa League and a top-ten Premier League finish.
3. Andre Ayew, Swansea City, Free Transfer
If there is one transfer signing that describes Swansea City in a nutshell, it is new summer signing Andre Ayew. Swansea City are a team on the rise, as they had a club-record 56-point haul last year, and sit 7th in this year’s EPL table over five games. One of the main reasons for the Swan’s rise has been their clever signings over the last couple of transfer windows.
The team signed Michu for 2 million Euros in 2012 and then watched him score 22 goals in all competitions for the club during the 2012/2013 season. The Swans then signed current starting goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski and current starting striker Bafetimbi Gomis for free, and sold Wilfried Bony to Manchester City for 28 million pounds.
The signing of Ayew epitomizes the growth of Swansea, as they have signed international talent to help them compete against some of the Premier League’s best. Yet the signing also shows that Swansea may be the shrewdest team in the league, with their great transfer success in the past couple of seasons testament to this claim.
As for Ayew, he scored 10 goals and had 3 assists for Marseille in the 2014/2015 season to help Marseille finish 4th in the league. He is known for his work-rate, clever movement and leadership skills, and he was one of Ghana’s best players in their otherwise-disappointing 2014 World Cup performance. The 25-year old has already scored three goals and assisted on another through five games, and recently won the Premier League Player of the Month Award for the month of August. He has scored two goals against Chelsea and Manchester United, and if he continues his scintillating form against the league’s other top teams, he may become one of the most underrated signing in Premier League history.
4. Gerard Deulofeu, Everton, 6 Million Euros
It’s not every day that a Premier League club can sign a player from FC Barcelona, one of the world’s greatest clubs. Yet manager Roberto Martinez and Everton did just that when they signed Spain Under-21 International Gerard Deulofeu for only six million Euros. I say “only” because CIES Football Observatory, an organization that studies player values and works with FIFA, UEFA and top-flight football clubs, recently published a study on players who were undervalued in the transfer market during the recent summer transfer window. According to the study, Deulofeu was valued at 13.6 million Euros during the transfer by CIES, but was only signed for six million Euros, meaning Everton underpaid by 7.6 million Euros.
This shrewd piece of business by Everton will benefit them in the short term and long term. In the short term, Deulofeu is an exciting player who impressed a lot of Everton fans during his 2013/2014 stint with the club on loan from Barcelona, and although he scored only four goals in 29 appearances during his loan spell, he showed great promise as a then-19-year old. Deulofeu should challenge either Aaron Lennon or Kevin Mirallas or even Arouna Kone for a spot on the first-team, and he brings blistering pace and good finishing quality. In the long term, Deulofeu is still just 21, and Everton can loan him out for him to get playing time in case first-team opportunities become hard to come by.
The fact that Everton bought him at a cut-price is important as well, because if Deulofeu does perform well and attracts the attention of the world’s top teams, Everton can sell him at five or six times the price they bought him. Either way, the underrated signing of Deulofeu should be a no-lose situation for Everton as they look to challenge for Europa League spots this term.
5. Gokhan Inler, Leicester City, 7 Million Euros
Last season, Leicester City won seven of their last nine games to not only escape the relegation trap door, but also to finish in 14th place, very respectable for a newly promoted club. There were two main catalysts behind the club’s amazing finish to the season: a prolific offense that scored multiple goals in six of the last nine games, and defensive midfielder Esteban Cambiasso.
The former Inter Milan man had arrived at Leicester City as a free agent in the twilight of his career, but he surprised many Leicester fans by making 31 appearances and scoring 5 goals, winning the Leicester City Player of the Year Award in the process. Unfortunately for City, Cambiasso’s 1st year with the team would be his last, and he turned down a new contract to play for Greek superclub Olympiacos. Leicester City were in need of a new defensive midfielder to lead the team as they looked to climb further up this year’s Premier League standings.
This year, Leicester have been the surprise of the EPL so far, as they now sit 2nd in the table and are the only undefeated team besides Manchester City through five games. The fact that they have done this without the services of Cambiasso shows the team’s depth and a more balanced formation put in place by new manager Claudio Ranieri.
Instead of last year’s 3–5–2 formation with Cambiasso playing as a defensive midfielder of the five midfielders, Ranieri has used a 4–4–2 formation with two more defensive-minded midfielders (Danny Drinkwater, Andy King) roaming the center of the park. The 4–4–2 not only keeps the team organized defensively, it also allows a lot more freedom for Leicester’s dangerous wide men Riyad Mahrez and Marc Albrighton to fly down the wings, knowing that they have defensive help in the center of the pitch in case they lose possession.
Ranieri’s new formation has already led to 11 goals in five games, and is one of the reasons why the team is so organized and hard to beat. However, the one drawback to the 4–4–2 with two defensive mids in the center is that neither Drinkwater and King are true defensive midfielders, and thus, the Foxes of Leicester have yet to record a shutout through five games.
This is why Inler’s signing will be invaluable over the course of the season. The Switzerland national team captain has great experience playing as a more defensive, central midfielder for both Udinese and Napoli, and he is only 31 years of age. More importantly, he still can play at the international level, as he was considered by many English columnists to be Switzerland’s best player in Switzerland’s 2–0 loss to England on September 8th, 2015.
Playing in his preferred defensive midfielder role, he was calm and composed breaking up English attacks, leading Leicester Mercury columnist Gary Silke to write that it was “easy to consider why he was an ideal replacement for Esteban Cambiasso.” Inler played 64 minutes in his debut against Aston Villa in which Leicester won 3–2, and although Leicester won, the club hopes Inler brings that much-needed grit in the center of the park to help Leicester post more shutouts in its quest to finish in the top-half of this year’s EPL table.
