January Transfer Window: Chelsea madness, Wednesday gamble and Burnley sign South African

January’s mad transfer window is finally over and football expert Joe Crann has noted some of the key moves across Europe as numerous clubs looked to bolster their squad.

Premier League

Only time will tell whether they had the best transfer window, but Chelsea’s last few weeks have certainly been eventful.

The Blues have signed: David Fofana (Molde), Benoit Badiashile (Monaco), Andrey Santos (Vasco da Gama), Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid), Mykhailo Mudryk (Shakhtar Donetsk), Noni Madueke (PSV Eindhoven) and Malo Gusto (Lyon), in the process spending so much money that articles have had to be written about how they have managed to circumnavigate the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. 

Graham Potter’s side, which was linked with what feels like hundreds of other players in the same timeframe, then sent Jorginho off to Premier League leaders Arsenal, before setting a new record with the purchase of Enzo Fernandez (Benfica). 

The Argentine could be one of the most exciting signings of the window – he should be based on his price tag! - as he showed a high level of technical ability during the World Cup.

Championship

If Burnley weren’t already well-placed to regain their spot back in the Premier League, they most definitely are now. 

Manager Vincent Kompany headed to his native Belgium and signed Ameen Al-Dakhil (Sint-Truiden) and Lyle Foster (Westerlo), while also acquiring Hjalmar Ekdal from Swedish side Djurgarden and Swansea City’s Michael Obafemi. With added quality and depth, they’re in a great position to get the job done in the Championship.

Maybe I’m biased given my South African connection, but I’m genuinely very excited about what Foster can do. He’s got so much potential, loads of experience under his belt for his age and the Clarets clearly rate him given the reported transfer fee.

The 22-year has also brought with him droves of South African fans on social media, who will now have a second team in Lancashire. 

League One

From the outside, Sheffield Wednesday’s January transfer window may seem a bit strange. The title-pushing Owls have been struggling with injuries, but Darren Moore has opted for a quality over quantity approach all season and was very clear that if he didn’t get the ‘right people’ then he wouldn’t sign someone for the sake of it.

The sole addition was Aden Flint, who comes in as a very experienced head and interestingly scored 14 goals in his last season in League One. It’s going to be fascinating to see whether a quiet January was the right call or not. 

League Two

For title-hopefuls Leyton Orient, January will have been as much about keeping things together as bringing new bodies in. They managed to do both. 

Three of their four signings came from teams in higher divisions, while the anomaly (Jordan Lyden) is very well known to manager Richie Wellens.

Ed Turns, who was picked up from Brighton & Hove Albion, and Rotherham United’s Jamie McCart have already played two lots of 90 minutes for their new club. While Kieran Sadlier feels like a brilliant signing given his wealth of experience in the Championship and League One. 

LaLiga

It’s been a relatively quiet window in the Spanish top-flight, but Atletico Madrid were busy right up until deadline day when they seemingly decided to try and recreate their Kieran Trippier success by signing Tottenham full back Matt Doherty.

They had another interesting addition in the form of Memphis Depay, who joined from Barcelona, but their outgoings were just as noteworthy as Joao Felix joined Chelsea, Felipe left for Nottingham Forest and Matheus Cunha was signed on loan by Wolverhampton Wanderers. 

Atleti remain fourth after 19 games and will be hoping that their new arrivals can help them secure the Champions League spot that they crave.

Serie A

It was a window of loans in Italy’s Serie A as pretty much all of the clubs opted to try and get through to the end of the season with short-term fixes rather than splashing the cash. One team that didn’t follow that trend, however, was Fiorentina. 

La Viola are mid-table and clearly want better from the 2022/23 season, so they opened up their checkbook to bring in Antonin Barak (Hellas Verona), Abdelhamid Sabiri (Sampdoria), and Josip Brekalo (Wolfsburg). Meanwhile, the experienced Salvatore Sirigu came in for free from Lazio.

Another player to keep an eye on is Diego Llorente, who joined Jose Mourinho’s Roma on loan from Leeds United.

Ligue 1

In a league that’s generally dominated by the spending of Paris Saint-Germain, it may come as a bit of a surprise that they didn’t bring in a single player in January. They looked to have secured Hakim Ziyech from Chelsea, but that deal didn’t get done in time.

This window could well have been ‘won’ by Olympique Marseille, who did a couple of bits of great business as they look to keep themselves hot on PSG’s tail.

Azzedine Ounahi is perhaps the most exciting. The Moroccan had a brilliant World Cup and was always going to be snapped up by a bigger club, so for Marseille to secure him and Vitinha (Braga) feels like a large feat. 

Centre forward Ruslan Malinovskyi, who is on loan from Atalanta, could also prove a savvy piece of business. It will be very interesting to see how Igor Tudor’s side perform once all three get into the starting squad.