Congrats, you just won the summer transfer window!
What's next?
You might not want to know -- just ask Liverpool.
After winning the Premier League trophy in the 2024-25 season, Liverpool spent the following transfer window stocking up on multiple record-price signings, attacking superstars, high-flying fullbacks, defensive depth, and a bunch of uber-talented prospects. Liverpool were the best team in England, and -- if you looked at who they added on paper -- they got so much better.
When it came time to play the actual games with this new-and-improved squad, well, Liverpool stunk instead. They finished fifth, and only qualified for the Champions League because of the new rule that gave the Premier League an extra slot. They won 24 fewer points than they had the previous season, and they fired coach Arne Slot a year after he won them their second-ever Premier League title.
This, too, didn't happen to just any club: it was Liverpool, the big club with what's supposed to be the best decision-making apparatus in the sport. So, if Liverpool "won the transfer window" and got worse, then what might that mean for whoever we crown as the victor in this summer's window?
It might not quite be a curse, but it turns out that "winning the transfer window" doesn't mean much if you're trying to win soccer games.
The winners of the last 10 summer transfers windows
This is an admittedly subjective exercise, and some summers have clearer "winners" than others. But I went through the last 10 years of summer transfers and identified which clubs various media outlets (including ESPN) declared the winner of the window.
Then, I applied an advanced analytical metric to each year called "what I remember feeling at the time" to identify a single winner for each summer. You may not agree with whatever team I've chosen, but that's not really important. What is important is selecting 10 teams that were close-to-universally praised for the players they signed during the window.
Here's the list:
2016: Manchester United. They broke the transfer record to acquire Paul Pogba right after he'd taken Juventus to a Champions League final. They added one of the top young centerbacks in Europe in Eric Bailly from Villarreal and one of the best attacking midfielders in Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Borussia Dortmund. Oh, and they nabbed some guy called "Zlatan Ibrahimovic" as a free agent.