Did Any Premier League Club Actually Win The ‘Summer Of Strikers’ Transfer Battle? – Recruitment Analysis

It may be tough to cast your mind back to the chaotic summer transfer window, but the moves that Premier League clubs desperately pushed for now look very different in the context of the season.

It was the summer of hotly tipped and hotly chased strikers.

If you take a closer look, players with potential scouted by the elite clubs are usually wanted by more than one club.

There are countless examples of teams wrestling for players before one decides where to go.

This is because players who explode in the Premier League or the top five leagues are already scouted; teams want the next big thing or the player with potential to grow and emerge.

This is precisely why so much money was splurged on strikers this summer, with saga after saga and clubs playing games with each other.

The chess game between Newcastle United and Liverpool for Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike springs to mind. 

It may be, though, that after pursuing strikers like Benjamin Šeško, Viktor Gyökeres, Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Yoane Wissa, and others, the results were more negative than positive or, at the very least, may require some time.

It was an incredibly boring end to the 2024/2025 Premier League season, with 10 or so game weeks when there was nothing to play for.

We knew who had been relegated and who would win the title earlier than usual, which left the race for the Champions League.

But compare that to seasons gone by, where everything was to play for late into the season, and the product became almost unwatchable. 

So, where did that leave everyone?

Well, the Premier League’s ‘big six’ were sick of losing matches to the likes of Bournemouth, Brighton, and Fulham, so they began to buy big.

After a merry-go-round and tumultuous, unpredictable summer transfer market, this Premier League recruitment analysis article focuses on analysing where each striker is at, and which teams, if any, ‘won’ the Premier League summer transfer window.

Alexander Isak Transfer Analysis

The Alexander Isak transfer was hailed as a needle-mover signing, but ultimately, Arne Slot was handed an expensive new attacker and is still figuring out how to make the most of it.

It’s tough to call Isak’s signing anything but a disaster at this point.

The Swede seems to lack the cutting-edge pace, dribbling ability, and confidence that made him one of the world’s most feared strikers.

Isak was meant to usher in Liverpool’s ‘Galacticos’ era; the plan in the summer was simple: sign some of the best attackers in the world, assert your dominance, and build on an excellent first season from Slot.

However, it has completely backfired, making it more difficult for Liverpool to quickly rebuild their attack.

It has raised the question of whether there was any need to tear it down and let someone as fantastic as Luis Díaz go.

The problem can be outlined with the images above.

The reason Liverpool were so dangerous in the Premier League last season wasn’t that they rode on the back of Mohamed Salah’s terrific form and relied on him for goals; it was the excellent connection in the middle of the pitch the Reds created with a dropping attacker.