As we prepare to raise the curtain on the 2026–27 Premier League season, plenty of questions remain.
Can anybody stop Erling Haaland from winning the Golden Boot? Who is going to be the breakout star of the new season? Those are two of many we’re asking, and we’re also on the hunt for the player that will be crowned the best new signing.
This past year brought the introduction of a formal Transfer of the Season award, which went to Manchester United goalkeeper Senne Lammens. Who will be joining the Belgian in the record books next summer?
Big-Money Risks
It’s easy to look at the blockbuster names when considering potential superstar signings. After all, they’re the ones that should have the biggest impact, which is why they were deemed worthy of monster price tags.
Chelsea made Morgan Rogers the most expensive English player of all time ($157 million), narrowly breaking the record set by Manchester City’s acquisition of Elliot Anderson ($153 million) just a few weeks earlier, while Tottenham Hotspur’s surprise bid to oversee the biggest transfer window in history was built around moves for midfield duo Mateus Fernandes ($112 million) and Sandro Tonali ($133 million).
The problem with these expensive moves is that they very rarely offer good value for money. Expectations are through the roof and anything short of perfection will attract major scrutiny.
If you look at the top 10 expensive transfers in history, the ratio of hits to misses is a real concern. The jury remains out on Rogers and Anderson, and Alexander Isak is given the benefit of the doubt after an injury-hit debut season at Liverpool, but we’ve got Philippe Coutinho and Antoine Griezmann to Barcelona, João Félix to Atlético Madrid, Enzo Fernández to Chelsea and even Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain. They were all fine. No better, no worse. Unfortunately, that isn’t good enough for this sort of money.
The only undisputed hit when you look at the top 10 is Kylian Mbappé’s move to PSG. That’s the sort of level players need to operate at—best-in-the-world territory—to deal with the expectation of these fees.
Sure, any of Rogers, Anderson, Fernandes or Tonali could have stellar seasons. They are all excellent players, that isn’t up for debate. The question is whether their impacts will be felt more than others around the league, and history tells us that is rarely the case.
Affordable Fees
It was in the bargain bucket in which last year’s winner was found. Lammens was far from the flashiest signing for United, who paid around $29 million to secure a deal that would have flown under the radar at 14 of the 19 other teams in the league.
Even the added scrutiny of the United badge could not inflate the pressure on Lammens to unsustainable levels. He kept eight clean sheets in 32 games—a statistic that hardly commands the headlines—but did the job expected of him perfectly. At such an affordable fee, it soon became impossible to argue that Lammens offered anything other than elite value for money.
It would, therefore, come as no surprise to see the 2026–27 Transfer of the Season award handed out to somebody in the same bracket.
United are looking to repeat last season’s success with the bargain pick-up of Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa for $47 million. The Belgian is a much-acclaimed talent with years of elite Premier League experience to his name, but will end up as the cheapest of the team’s three midfield signings once Carlos Baleba joins Andrey Santos in the locker room. With limited pressure on his shoulders, the room for success is far higher.
Chelsea will hope that Serie A Defender of the Year, Marco Palestra, earns the same acclaim in England after a $62 million switch from Atalanta, while Brighton & Hove Albion’s Luka Vušković ($66 million) is expected to hit the ground running in the Premier League.
Wingers Christos Tzolis and Víctor Muñoz (both $46 million), of Arsenal and Liverpool, arrived for affordable fees that could easily turn into bargains. Playing for the top teams usually makes it easier to win this award, such is the global audience they attract and the positive noise that comes with that.
Low-Profile Deals
The spotlight of the elite teams is both a blessing and a curse, and those that make the greatest impact are often the players many fans did not even realize moved to the Premier League.
Brentford’s signing of midfielder Mamadou Sangaré, a member of last season’s Team of the Year in Ligue 1, for $52 million has the potential to steal the show if he justifies comparisons to the likes of N’Golo Kanté and Moisés Caicedo.
Similarly, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest both went shopping towards the top of Portugal’s top tier to land elite defenders in the form of António Silva ($34 million) and Ousmane Diomande ($46 million). Do not be surprised to see both in the conversation next summer, when nine-figure transfer rumors could be aplenty.
Everton’s Hayden Hackney ($33 million) could be the next Championship star to make the jump to the Premier League, while Álvaro Arbeloa’s reputation at Fulham is likely to be defined by the success of striker Gonzalo García ($48 million), who followed him from Real Madrid.
Goalkeeper Zion Suzuki will be filling the gloves of Emiliano Martínez at Aston Villa after making a move worth around $40 million—a price tag that, while obviously fairly high, still gives the Japan international the chance to exceed expectations.
It is these sorts of fees, and the limited pressure they bring, that allow players to fly. If Rogers or Anderson enjoy superstar-level seasons, the award for the best signing will not even need a conversation, but there will be a queue of under-the-radar acquisitions waiting to capitalize if they do not live up to their billing.
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