Sam Tighe
Everyone has a “type.” This concept of preference extends far and wide, to all walks of life, and can ring especially true in soccer, where managers and clubs cannot hide what they truly desire.
Sometimes, the wish is simple: the best players in the world, whatever the cost. But at times it’s weirdly specific, such as Real Madrid targeting free transfers, or Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta’s taste in defenders.
This transfer window once again laid bare the infatuations — and at times, borderline obsessions — that have developed within the sport. So, with tongue firmly lodged in cheek, let’s take a look at what this summer’s moves revealed about elite clubs’ obsessions.
Mikel Arteta and the hybrid center back/fullback
In Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard & Co., Arteta has some of the world’s most luxurious attacking talents to work with. He also has a brand new striker in Viktor Gyökeres to unleash and an incredible midfield pool to call upon. But you know what really excites him? Players who can play both center back and fullback.
– Tighe: How players use data to show worth in contract negotiations
– O’Hanlon: Top 50 most expensive summer transfers, ranked by true cost
– Marcotti: Making sense of Premier League clubs’ record spending
The Spaniard has stuffed his squad full of them over the years. It started with Ben White and continued with Jakub Kiwior, Jurriën Timber and Riccardo Calafiori. Then late in this summer’s window, Arsenal added Piero Hincapié from Bayer Leverkusen.
Arteta probably awards bonus points to a deal if the player can cover both fullback positions (like Timber), or if they’re left-footed (like Calafiori and Hincapié) as this makes them even more versatile or coveted. Even Arteta’s more “regular” fullbacks barely look traditional: Oleksandr Zinchenko and Myles Lewis-Skelly love to invert into midfield and arguably look more at home in central positions.
Chelsea and signing teenagers whenever they can
In 2022, their first summer transfer window in charge of Chelsea, Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital splurged on a series of experienced talents. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (33), Kalidou Koulibaly (31) and Raheem Sterling (27) were the most notable names in a group that, quite frankly, failed.
Was it a scarring experience, or was the impending pivot simply always in the cards? Perhaps it was a bit of both, as the ownership group suddenly focused on signing exciting prospects, many of whom were still teenagers, to long-term deals.
From January 2023 to now, they have signed an astonishing 22 teenagers — a figure that includes the pending transfers of Geovany Quenda and Denner, due in 2026. On top of that, a lot of 20- and 21-year-olds have arrived, flooding the squad with high-potential players.
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Gab Marcotti and Julien Laurens discuss Alejandro Garnacho’s move from Man United to Chelsea.
There have been times when Chelsea have overindexed so heavily on prospects and ignored gaping holes in their squad makeup that, if plugged, could have allowed them to compete more closely with Liverpool and Arsenal in the past couple of seasons. The prime example of that is at goalkeeper, which has long been brushed aside.
An interesting quirk of the Blues’ relentless acquisition of top prospects is how many players they signed from Man City’s academy. There could easily be a game this season where you’d see five players developed by City — Roméo Lavia, Cole Palmer, Tosin Adarabioyo, Jamie Gittens, Liam Delap — play for Chelsea’s first team. That quintet cost a combined total of at least £171 million. Perhaps that’s the real obsession here.
Manchester United and buying specific players for specific managers
Manchester United operate in total contrast to Chelsea in the transfer market.
Chelsea’s scattershot approach yields so many players that any manager they employ would find it impossible not to craft a workable team out of the talent available. United sign incredibly specific players who suit their chosen manager. There’s nothing wrong with that in principle — why wouldn’t you sign players your manager can use effectively? — but the extent to which the Red Devils lean into this can be very damaging if things go awry, in part because they flit between managers whose styles differ so wildly.
A strong example of this disconnect is Cristiano Ronaldo, who was signed for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s counterattacking style in summer 2022, yet by November was being coached by gegenpressing magnate Ralf Rangnick. It’s a ridiculous situation to find yourself in.
Erik ten Hag was appointed in 2022 and by the time he was sacked, in 2024, the club had furnished him with six former Ajax players (Lisandro Martínez, Antony, Christian Eriksen, André Onana, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui), perhaps erroneously thinking he would recreate Dutch total football at Old Trafford.
Current manager Rúben Amorim has jettisoned Antony and Onana, while Eriksen has departed. He also willingly waved goodbye to Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho this summer, effectively uprooting the winger department to sign Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, who suit the “wide No. 10” roles in his 3-4-2-1 system.
What happens if Amorim departs the club and the next manager asks where all the wingers are? It sounds too silly a situation to happen, except it essentially has already in other guises.
Real Madrid and illustrious free transfers
After winning the UEFA Champions League an incredible 15th time in 2023-24, it appears Real Madrid began to think things had gotten too easy and decided to up the difficulty level.
They’ve seemingly chosen to spend as little on transfer fees as possible while still remaining a dominant force. In the past five years, they’ve signed four elite-level players on pre-contracts, coming close to adding a fifth. Antonio Rüdiger (Chelsea), David Alaba (Bayern Munich), Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) were all poached for free from close rivals at the top table of Europe. (OK, they did end up paying a fee for Alexander-Arnold, but only to register him early so he could feature at this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup.)
For much of the 2024-25 season, it looked as though they’d add Alphonso Davies from Bayern in this fashion too, but in the end, the Canadian international renewed with the German giants.
Los Blancos’ prestige and pull means they are genuinely capable of convincing elite players to see out their contracts and patiently wait for a move to the Bernabéu. For a club long famous for its galácticos philosophy, it’s an intriguing and surprisingly responsible wrinkle.
Barcelona and signing players when they probably shouldn’t
The following two statements are unequivocally true:
1. Barcelona are over €1 billion in debt
2. Barcelona have one of — if not the — best and most prolific academies in the world
You would think that a combination of these points would result in an almost complete reduction in spending and a complete reliance on La Masia, which in the last five years alone has pumped out Alejandro Baldé, Pau Cubarsí, Nico González, Gavi, Fermín López and, of course, Lamine Yamal — and that’s not even the full list. But it hasn’t. Barça are a competitive animal, so rather than experience a withdrawn couple of seasons, they’ve pulled every possible lever (literally) to allow continuous spending, which has seen the Blaugrana sell off major future revenue streams and wage a constant war against LaLiga’s spending limits.
This summer’s signing of Joan García captured this internal strife. The opportunity to sign an incredible goalkeeper directly from crosstown rivals Espanyol was just too good to pass up, but in order to register him, they forced club captain Marc-André ter Stegen to sign an injury report that would allow them to take advantage of a long-term injury rule in LaLiga.
Last summer, they signed Dani Olmo for €55 million off the back of an impressive Euro 2024 campaign, despite not really needing a player in his position and the fact that they would struggle to register him — so much so that they had to go to court to keep him registered for the second half of the season.
To millions of onlookers, the solution at Barcelona seems relatively simple: Stop spending big, rely on the current crop and burgeoning academy, and let the reopening of the Camp Nou fill the coffers to repay those debts. But that’s just not how president Joan Laporta rolls.
