“Everton have a player who they’ve got no right to sign in normal circumstances.”
“To buy a Spain international for £21million is a hell of a signing.”
“Manchester United should have been signing him, but he’s probably not fashionable enough.”
Welcome to The Athletic’s 2025 agent survey, which analyses a record-breaking summer transfer window that saw the 20 Premier League clubs spend an astonishing £3.11billion ($4.16bn) on a total of 155 players.
Over the past month or so, The Athletic asked 20 agents to answer a series of questions on the back of the summer’s transfer activity, predominantly looking at the Premier League. We wanted to know their thoughts on the best and worst deals, which Premier League clubs had the most to smile about after the window closed, and which three teams appear doomed to relegation.
We also asked whether we will see more players going on strike in future to try to force through a move, in the manner of Alexander Isak and Yoane Wissa, quizzed agents on the impact of PSR, and wondered which under-the-radar signing from this most recent window might turn out to be a huge success.
When we posed that last question two years ago, a relatively unknown 19-year-old Hungarian left-back who had just joined Bournemouth from AZ in the Netherlands was identified as a star in the making:
“Bournemouth have got a Brighton-esque signing with Milos Kerkez. They will get amazing use of him while they’ve got the pleasure of him in the building and they will have a significant asset in probably quite a short space of time as well. He’ll go on to join a top-four club.”
After being reminded of that answer when Kerkez was on the verge of a move to Liverpool this summer, the agent quoted was quick to point out that in the same survey, he had wondered why on earth Chelsea wanted to sign Cole Palmer from Manchester City for £42.5million. He was far from alone in that respect. In fact, it’s easy to forget that Palmer’s move to Stamford Bridge was greeted with bewilderment at the time.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and agents don’t have the benefit of that here. What they do have, however, is anonymity — to protect their working relationships and to encourage them to speak freely and to be opinionated.
So, which £52million winger has joined “completely the wrong club”? Who cost “peanuts” but has made City title contenders again? And why is the £63.4m that Arsenal paid Sporting CP for Viktor Gyokores the best deal of the summer 2025 transfer window… and also the worst?
“Donnarumma. I also thought about Jack Grealish. I know he’s a loan and you pay a lot for his wages, but you’re not paying a (transfer) fee for a player of that calibre who has obviously got the bit between his teeth. But I think Donnarumma really pushes City back in the title mix. He will save them points this season. So he’s the best signing, especially given what they paid for him.”
That answer captures the two most popular responses, with almost half the agents torn between Gianluigi Donnarumma, Manchester City’s new No 1, and a rejuvenated Grealish, who switched from City to Everton on a season-long loan and already has four assists and a goal to his name.
“Everton have signed a player who they’ve got no right to sign in normal circumstances, and I’d suggest that has given them the room to do Tyler Dibling (signed for an initial £35million from Southampton) as well. I think it’s a clever deal for that reason,” said another agent, explaining why he chose Grealish.
With Donnarumma, it was a combination of the Italian’s talent, his age (26 years old) and the fee (£25.9million) that led to him polling the most votes.
“So much money is spent on other positions, but I still think the goalkeeper is undervalued,” said one agent. “I think Donnarumma is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, if not the best. So to pick him up for peanuts, just because Paris Saint-Germain want to play in a different style, is very impressive.”
“He might not be the best with his feet,” added another agent, “but he’s the best shot-stopper in the world and that was probably what City needed.”
The only other player to poll more than one vote was Viktor Gyokeres, who was described by two agents as a striker who gives Arsenal “something they’ve been missing”.
Elsewhere, there were mentions for, among others, Eberechi Eze (“In this Arsenal team, he’ll be outstanding”), Xavi Simons (“A good season and he’ll be worth a fortune”), Joao Pedro (“Great value considering age his and what other forwards have gone for) and Alexander Isak (“He will transform Liverpool’s attack for years and help to replace Mohamed Salah”).
The fact that Donnarumma came top for the previous question is directly linked to some of the responses here.
James Trafford, who rejoined City in July after two seasons with Burnley to replace Ederson but was relegated to second-choice in the wake of Donnarumma’s deadline-day arrival, was cited by three agents as the worst deal of the window.
“I just feel it was the wrong move,” said one. “Trafford would have played every week for Burnley, or he could have gone to Newcastle and played week in and week out there. Instead, he’s now sitting on City’s bench, and he’s behind the best goalkeeper in the world.”
A bad deal for Trafford’s career was viewed as a bad one for City, too. “Spending £40million on a goalkeeper to replace him weeks later?” questioned another agent.
Ultimately, though, it was Benjamin Sesko’s £73.6million (with add-ons) move to Manchester United from RB Leipzig that drew the most criticism. “Way too much money and much too soon,” said an agent.
“They were pressurised into making that signing,” claimed another.
“A lot of money for not much of a pedigree,” was the view of a third.
Other deals flagged included Jamie Gittens from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea (“Completely the wrong club for him”), Dango Ouattara from Bournemouth to Brentford (“Stinks of desperation to pay £42million for someone who doesn’t begin to fill the gaps left by the players they’ve sold”), Wissa from Brentford to Newcastle (“A lot of money for a 29-year-old who was way down the preference list”), and that man who seems to be footballing Marmite, Gyokeres (“The Premier League is about pace and sharpness, and I’m not sure he’s that”).
Isak’s £125million transfer to Anfield also came under the microscope. “Because of what Liverpool paid for him, but also in terms of the culture of the football club,” said an agent. “Eddie Howe, the Newcastle manager, is a good human being and handled that with as much dignity as he could. For me, (the way Isak behaved) goes away from Liverpool’s core principles — it’s always been about the club, not an individual, at Liverpool.”
“Christian Norgaard to Arsenal — he just doesn’t fit into Arsenal’s style.”
Arsenal’s midfield signing from Brentford can be filed in a folder marked ‘Didn’t see it coming’.
“Norgaard — because of his age and his profile,” answered another agent. “(Bryan) Mbeumo, Wissa and (Mark) Flekken moved — you expect those big hitters (to go from Brentford) because of what they’ve done. Norgaard’s been a good player for Brentford. Is he someone who is going to make Arsenal title challengers? Not in my opinion. But he might prove me wrong.”
Turning Arsenal into title challengers is unlikely to be Norgaard’s remit under manager Mikel Arteta. But that doesn’t change the fact that it was an unexpected transfer.
“It’s a bit odd, Brentford let him go for such relatively little money,” added a third agent, referring to a fee that rises to £12million. “I wouldn’t necessarily value him any more than that, but he was a critical part of their team.”
With four votes, Norgaard was tied with Donnarumma. There were several elements that caught agents by surprise with the latter move, starting with the fact that City had already signed Trafford weeks earlier but also taking in European champions PSG’s decision to allow him to leave. “And then you thought maybe Manchester United would come in for him, because of their goalkeeping situation,” an agent added.
Eze’s £60million (potentially rising to £67.5m) transfer from Crystal Palace to Arsenal was mentioned by three agents. “Because of his age,” said one. Another cited the same reason — a reminder that a 27-year-old player may as well be 72 in the modern game.
More than one agent flagged Marcus Rashford’s loan from Manchester United to Barcelona, with one admitting: “I just don’t understand how on earth he’s pulled that move off, really.”
Other ‘surprising’ deals included Simons joining Spurs from Leipzig (“Like everyone else, I spent all summer assuming he was going to Chelsea”) and former Arsenal captain Granit Xhaka leaving Bayer Leverkusen for Sunderland: “For a newly-promoted club to sign an elite-level performer who knows his way around top clubs, and to persuade him to move to the north east of England, is a real surprise — and they got an absolute bargain.”
As that Kerkez story from two years ago highlighted, this is the category to read if you want to be ahead of the curve. Well, kind of. As ever with football, nobody can be totally sure how a transfer is going to turn out.
“Veljko Milosavljevic to Bournemouth will age really well,” said one agent, making the 18-year-old Serbian central defender sound like a bottle of Pinot Noir.
Under-the-radar always means different things to different people. Sometimes it is less about the profile of the player and more about the noise around the transfer, or the lack of it, as the case might be. Either way, this question attracted a wide range of responses.
“Joao Palhinha to Tottenham,” said an agent. “I think he’s top-drawer. Manchester United should have been signing him. But he’s probably not fashionable enough.”
“Yeremy Pino to Palace,” said another. “I think it’s relatively under the radar because the whole Spurs-Arsenal Eze thing was capturing so many headlines. So to buy a Spain international for £21million is a hell of a signing.”
“It’s probably gone under the radar because Grealish took the limelight. But I think (Kiernan) Dewsbury-Hall is a really good player and just fits with what Everton are trying to do,” said an agent.
“Jordan Henderson. I think he’ll bring a lot of leadership and spirit to that group (at Brentford). They need a bit of steel there.”
Although only two players — Milosavljevic and Dibling — polled more than one vote, several Sunderland signings were mentioned, including Xhaka, Robin Roefs, their £11.7million goalkeeper — “proper value for money” — and Noah Sadiki, a 20-year-old DR Congo international who joined from the Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise.
“I saw Sadiki play last season against Ajax in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, and he was outstanding,” said an agent. “He can go on and become a top midfielder in the Premier League.”
“I know they’ve spent a lot, but on balance they’ve brought in a lovely mix,” said one agent, sounding like a man placating his angry wife at the cinema after stupidly giving the kids his credit card to get some sweets.
Actually, the agent was talking about Arsenal, whose £254million outlay on Martin Zubimendi, Eze, Gyokeres, Norgaard, Noni Madueke, Cristhian Mosquera, Piero Hincapie and Kepa Arrizabalaga made them the third-highest spenders in the summer. Add sales into the equation, too, and Arsenal had the biggest net spend.
“They have looked at the issues they had in their squad and addressed them,” an agent explained. “Gyokeres will score 20 goals in the Premier League this season, which is what they’ve needed for years, and Zubimendi is one of the best midfielders in Europe. Even (defender) Hincapie, who they’ve signed on loan as cover, would walk into most Premier League teams. If you add in Eze, they now have the best squad in the league.”
Arsenal actually came second with six votes. Liverpool’s £418million spending spree, which was offset by £190m worth of player sales, won them praise and top spot, even if several of those new signings have yet to click.
“I think if Liverpool had signed Marc Guehi on deadline day, it would probably have been the best window that anyone has ever had,” one agent said.
Looking at Liverpool’s defence at the moment, there’s an argument that Palace’s England centre-back Guehi would have been the most important signing of them all.
Beyond Arsenal and Liverpool, there was plenty of support for Sunderland and Bournemouth, who made an £85million profit after selling more than £200m worth of talent yet are currently fourth in the Premier League. “The amount of value they have extracted from PSG, Real Madrid and Liverpool is incredible,” said one agent.
“Yes, Liverpool had an unbelievable window, but they spent a lot of money to get those players,” said another agent. “Liverpool sold well, but they sold superstars who they’d had for a while. Bournemouth were selling players they’d had for a year in some cases, and flipped them for astronomical money for a club of their size. And I think they’ve recruited well, too. So, pound for pound, I’d say Bournemouth had the best window.”
Sunderland’s bold approach following promotion won them admirers.
“We’re in this era now where the three who come up (from the Championship) go straight back down,” an agent said. “I think as an ownership group, as a sporting director, you could be quite accepting of that, and I wouldn’t be critical of that if it was a long-term build: go up, come back down, go up again with your parachute money and then become a sustainable Premier League team.
“But I think for Sunderland to spend £160million, bringing in the likes of Xhaka, Nordi Mukiele and Habib Diarra is really brave and not stupid. I think a lot of those players are long-term signings.”
West Ham — and this hasn’t been said about them many times this season — were the winners here.
One agent was critical of Graham Potter, who was sacked as their head coach late last month, but accused the board of “hanging him out to dry” with their summer transfer activity. “Who is going to score goals for them?” he asked.
The answer to that has probably been the same for the past five years: Jarrod Bowen.
“They’re just all over the shop,” added another agent. “They signed Leicester’s goalkeeper Mads Hermansen for £18million — bizarre. They’ve also spent £35m on Jean-Clair Todibo from Nice (an obligation to buy was activated after West Ham retained their Premier League status), and they spent £40m on Mateus Fernandes from Southampton… they don’t seem to have a clue what they’re doing.”
Eight clubs in total were named, with Manchester United, Aston Villa and Brentford all polling four votes.
“In very un-Brentford-like fashion, it feels like they were lost for the first time,” said one agent.
In United’s case, there was bafflement that “they somehow contrived not to sign a central midfielder”.
Villa were described as “rolling backwards” after the summer window, Burnley “knackered it last season when they took so many players on loan with obligations”, and Fulham “will probably be looking over their shoulder” after doing so little to strengthen.
Oh, Nottingham Forest got a mention, too — and this was long before their new head coach Ange Postecoglou presided over a run of seven games without a win to begin his reign. “It’s not so much the signings but the way they’ve upset what was a winning formula,” the agent said.
“It’s everything that’s wrong with football. The guy who behaved with respect and integrity didn’t get what he wanted and deserved, and the two who f***ed it off, did,” said one agent, rather bluntly.
For anyone who took the summer off, the context to that answer is that both Isak and Wissa downed tools to force through summer transfers to Liverpool and Newcastle, respectively. Guehi, on the other hand, was the ultimate professional and missed out on a move to Liverpool.
“This is justification for some of the agencies that just don’t care about anyone,” said an agent. “And players will also now think that if you’re respectful and stay quiet, your club will take advantage of you — even someone like Guehi, who has been a loyal servant.”
“I don’t think we’ll see more (players on strike),” countered another agent. “But I think players will use it to say: ‘I don’t want to go down this route, however, you need to treat me with fairness’. And I think agents will also start saying (to teams): ‘We can’t trust your word any more, we need to put more buyout clauses in’.”
Several agents dismissed the idea that a precedent was set.
“It will all depend on the player’s character and personality, and how much of a tw** they want to be,” said one agent. “We can say: ‘If you want to go there, you’re going to have to do this. And if you don’t want to do that, that’s fine’ — and some players won’t want to do it.”
If there was total agreement on one aspect, it was that players going on strike is nothing new.
“I’ve been involved in situations like that (Isak and Wissa), and you do what’s right for your client,” said another agent. “So it’s always been there. But it’s not always been so ferocious and so black and white.
“It used to be phoning journalists and trying to get a narrative across, and a couple of days later, the story was either read or it wasn’t, and those conversations were also ongoing with managers and chairmen. Whereas now we live in a world where players can get that narrative out (themselves). It can be done in a statement. Or it can be done by unfollowing someone, or by taking pictures down (on social-media accounts). Everything is supercharged now. It’s all so public and done with so much more certainty.”
“There is no such thing,” replied one agent.
Well, for the purpose of this survey, there is an award — and it goes to Ali Barat, even if his name was said through gritted teeth at times.
“If you believe his press releases, Ali Barat,” answered one agent, capturing the mood.
In fact, if Barat was part of this survey, it’s hard to believe that he would have voted for anyone other than himself. “I think we have had the best summer without a doubt,” he told UK newspaper The Telegraph last month. “We analyse our competitors to see what they’re doing. I think we were far ahead of them.”
That’s quite reserved by his usual standards. “Ali Barat redefines the game,” read a press release from his company, Epic Sports, on the back of Nicolas Jackson moving to Bayern Munich from Chelsea this summer for a world-record loan fee.
“A visionary transfer. Another Ali Barat masterclass.”
You get the picture.
Ultimately, though, Barat was at the forefront of four of the biggest summer transfers.
“What’s he done… Jackson to Bayern, Dean Huijsen to Real Madrid, Simons to Spurs, Madueke to Arsenal. They’re ‘career’ deals, and he’s done four of them in a window. So it’s got to be him,” added a fellow agent.
“Yes. The real negative I see with it is that even top Premier League clubs are now willing to sell their homegrown players to balance the books, which to me is a false economy, and it’s turning academies into profit centres. It’s the opposite of what fans want to see, and it flies in the face of what academies are supposed to be for, which is to get local players into the first team.”
That comment brings to mind the story behind Elliot Anderson’s exit from Newcastle. “Do I really have to go?” Anderson asked, when told by Howe, Newcastle’s head coach, that he needed to leave in the summer of 2024 to prevent his boyhood club receiving a sizeable points deduction for a PSR (profitability and sustainability rules) breach.
A different agent shakes his head: “Despite processes (around recruitment and retention) being so thorough at clubs now, you’ve got: ‘Yeah, but he’s pure profit (as an academy graduate) so we need to sell him’.”
That said, an increased focus on selling and buying young homegrown talent isn’t a bad thing for some agents. “We do a lot in the academy market,” explained one, “and PSR has driven that market to new levels.”
More broadly, agents sounded sceptical about the way PSR is increasingly being used as a negotiating tool on all manner of things. “Even if clubs are being run sustainably, they can hide behind PSR,” explained one. “It’s very much leverage — and if we were sat on the other side of the table, we would be doing the same.”
At times, it’s hard for agents to make sense of the way clubs are operating and how serious they really are about financial fair play (FFP).
“One minute, a club says everything is focused on PSR, and the next minute, they might say: ‘Let’s kick that down the road. We’ll worry about that in a couple of years’,” added an agent.
“So, yes, there is the comment about: ‘We have to be careful to stay within our limits’. But that doesn’t mean you don’t float something different to them, because even at the highest level, with the exception of a couple of clubs, it’s all emotion (when it comes to transfers).”
There was a fairly consistent theme here on the back of what one agent described as “the longest window ever”.
“End it before the season starts. It’s ridiculous that deals are still being done once teams have started playing.”
“That it finishes in line with when the season starts; that would focus everyone in terms of getting deals done earlier.”
“I would make it 30 days; that would give everyone more focus and clarity.”
“Close it on July 31 each year — before the Premier League season begins.”
One agent, who was talking on September 8, a week after the window for many leagues had shut, said: “As I speak to you now, we’ve got deals on the go in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Belgium closes this afternoon… it doesn’t make sense to have these staggered endings. So, complete alignment and close it earlier to avoid the situations we’ve had where players’ futures and clubs’ squads aren’t set and they’ve got games (to focus on).
“Even from a human aspect — band of brothers, creating a siege mentality, getting away, organising team barbecues — all of that is disrupted because if it (a transfer) isn’t done by the first game, it’s probably not happening until the last week (of the window), so you get this six or seven week period of unrest that, I think, is avoidable.”
Another agent said that he would scrap transfer windows altogether: “I would let clubs trade domestically whenever they need to, I think it would reduce player prices and allow money to flow across the British pyramid.”
Other suggestions included finding a way to “get rid” of the transfer influencers. “That’s completely impossible. But fans don’t realise how much of it is just PR,” said an agent.
Prepare to be outraged, Arsenal fans.
“Arsenal have improved, definitely, but I’m still not sure they’ll have quite enough,” said one agent.
More than two-thirds (14) of the agents predicted that Liverpool will retain the title, despite their wobble before this international break.
The general consensus seems to be that if 15 points from the first seven games and being a point and a place off top spot is what ‘bad’ looks like for Liverpool, then how good will Arne Slot’s team be when everything starts to come together?
Four agents put Arsenal down as champions this season, with Gyokeres cited as the player who will make the difference for them, while two predicted that Manchester City will reclaim the crown they won four years in a row before Liverpool’s triumph last time.
Generally, though, Arsenal were still viewed as a ‘nearly’ team after finishing as runners-up three seasons running, City as a side in transition, and Chelsea as a club equipped to compete across multiple competitions without being ready to challenge for the Premier League title.
In terms of finishing in the top four, unsurprisingly, Liverpool, Arsenal, City and Chelsea dominated the answers. Outside of that quartet, five agents tipped Spurs to finish fourth and two suggested Palace following last season’s FA Cup final win.
“Wolves, Leeds and Burnley. I think to just have one promoted club staying up in Sunderland is quite extreme now, so for two to stay up feels almost impossible.”
Only two agents predicted all three promoted sides would be relegated for a third successive season, which says a lot about the positivity around Sunderland on the back of their impressive transfer window and the way they’ve started the season.
It also reflected badly on Wolves, who polled the second-highest number of relegation votes (13), behind only Burnley (18). “Wolves are just so milky now, and they’ve lost key players,” said an agent. “That’s a squad that’ll struggle.”
Brentford were considered more likely to go down than Sunderland, according to the agents surveyed, while West Ham, Forest and Fulham were also cited as potential relegation candidates.
“Wolves, West Ham and Brentford are in big trouble at the moment, but the difference between what they already had (in their squad) and what the promoted teams had was massive,” said an agent. “Sunderland, Leeds and Burnley did all the spending they could in the summer window. I think Brentford, West Ham and Wolves will all spend heavily in January on players to keep them up.”
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