Ten years on, I’ll take a look back at world football’s biggest summer deals in the 2015/16 season and how well their careers panned out at their new clubs and beyond.
Let’s catch you up with the state of play. The season prior to this summer saw Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea lift the Premier League title in style. Second-placed Manchester City were a force capable of winning titles but hadn’t yet transformed into the monsters we know today, this would be Pep Guardiola’s final season in Munich before joining the Citizens. Arsenal and, bizarrely in a modern context, Manchester United were the other teams deemed able to push for a Premier League title while Liverpool languished on the peripheries of the European spots with Southampton and Swansea. Oh how their paths have differed in the proceeding decade.
On the continent, a terrifying Barcelona side sporting the now notorious Messi – Suarez – Neymar attacking three had just blitzed their way to a famous treble, pipping Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid side to the league. They took down Manchester City, PSG, Bayern Munich and Juventus en route to their fifth, and still most recent, Champions League trophy. With a run-in like that there’s certainly no arguing if they were worthy winners.
Bayern had won a third successive Bundesliga title, Wolfsburg pushing them closest on this occasion but still falling short by ten points. In Italy, Juventus made it four in a row and topped the tree by a staggering seventeen points to their nearest opposition Roma. Finally, in France, Paris Saint-Germain were in the virginal beginnings of their modern monopoly over Ligue 1 as they won a third title in a row after a nineteen year drought, on this occasion it was Lyon they bested to claim the crown.
So, you’re all caught up. Barcelona were good. Bayern were good. PSG were good. Swansea were good. Same old, same old.
The final bell rang out on the 2014/15 season and the players skipped out of the classroom for summer vacation. Of course, off the field, the summer break is where everything livens up as the curtains are drawn back on the transfer window and creaky old wallets are prised open once more to splash the cash on that one (it’s never just one) signing that will propel the buying club into stratospheric success.
And then all the signings were brilliant and we all lived happily ever after. The End.
Unfortunately for the poor, overstressed directors of football and maniacal owners across the globe, this is never quite the case. There are your success stories and your failures, and the footballing public will usually judge you on the latter.
Let’s take a look at the ten most expensive incomings of this summer and see if they were money well spent or an undisputed disaster:
10: Arturo Vidal
Juventus – Bayern Munich | €39.25m
The tough-tackling midfielder made the move from serial winners to serial winners and, unsurprisingly, kept on winning. He won the Bundesliga at all three times of asking in his three years in Germany, as well as the DFB Pokal in his debut season. A defensive midfielder by trade, he still managed 22 goals and 14 assists across his Bayern career, more typically being deployed as a destroyer to allow his more creative colleagues to flourish without the burden of defending.
This is all very good, but domestic success isn’t the dream at Bayern. Winning Bundesliga titles is par, and the Champions League would be the hole-in-one. The club bought Vidal as their marquee acquisition of the window, plucked from the losing Champions League finalists and placed into their already strong midfield to guide the team to European glory. Ultimately the brief was never met by Vidal or his teammates during his time at the club, so while he performed very well in Munich, the club and player parted ways without achieving what they set out to do together.
While still at Bayern, Vidal won the Copa America with Chile on two occasions. He left for sunny Barcelona for a reported fee of €18m, going on to win a La Liga title with the Catalan club before continuing his tour of Europe’s biggest football teams with a move to Inter. Whilst there, he added to the collection he started at Juventus with another Serie A medal as well as winning the Coppa Italia. Vidal then left Europe altogether, spending three years in Brazil with Flamengo and Athletico Paranese before returning to where it all began at Colo-Colo in his native Chile. He’s still plying his trade there today at the tender age of 38.
As far as this transfer goes, he performed extremely well throughout his time in Munich, but the goal was to win the Champions League. They still managed to recoup a solid fee for the midfielder, taking a €20m loss after three good years together.
Transfer Rating: 7/10
9. Roberto Firmino
Hoffenheim – Liverpool | €41m
The first piece of the puzzle, Firmino went on to become the linchpin in one of the most devastating frontlines in Premier League history as Liverpool eventually added Sadio Mane and Mohammed Salah to their ranks. Speaking to fans of the club around that time, while Mane and Salah continually grabbed the headlines and the awards for the sheer amount of goals they scored, “Bobby” was the man that won the hearts of the fanbase.
His flair and tricks were amazing to behold, and the way he facilitated Mane and Salah’s attacking play made for the greatest years in modern Liverpool history. He was an amazing link-up man that didn’t shy away from a goal himself, scoring 110 and assisting 70 in his 8 seasons at the club. Not too shabby a return from a false-nine.
Trophies wise, he won the lot at Liverpool. An FA Cup, Carabao cup, Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Community Shield, Champions League and the all-important and elusive Premier League title. Firmino helped deliver it all to the fans of the club and, for that, they are eternally grateful.
He left on good terms as his powers began to wain and he made way for Liverpool’s new blood to ascend to Premier League glory once again. He joined Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia on a free upon the expiry of his deal in 2023 and enjoyed two strong seasons there before moving to Al-Sadd in Qatar at the start of this season.
A modern Liverpool legend.
Transfer Rating: 10/10
8. Paulo Dybala
Palermo – Juventus | €41m
Another player in a similar mould positionally to Firmino, Dybala made the move to Turin as a 22 year-old to play as their false-nine or behind the striker. He came in with a lot of promise and hit the ground running, scoring 23 goals in his first season on his way to a first of five successive league titles with the Old Lady.
Five titles, four Coppa Italias, still no Champions League. Much like Artuto Vidal at Bayern, Dybala was brought in with the goal of winning Juve their first Champions League title since 1995/96. Even with the eventual addition of Critiano Ronaldo and the ever-present defensive partnership of Chiellini and Buffon, Juventus still couldn’t get over the line.
Does that make Dybala a failure? Across seven seasons with the club he scored 115 goals assisted 44 times, a pretty solid return from a forward playing as a subsidiary to the main striker. Injuries plagued his later years at the club as the toll of near-constant full seasons of top level football since the age of 18 began to show in his body.
He was still creating and scoring goals but not at the levels he used to and, citing a change in the club’s project since the arrival of Dusan Vlahovic, Dybala was let go on a free at the end of the 2021/22 season. Roma were the side to pick him up, and he has done well to score and create plenty as the talisman in their team. However, injuries have continued to impact his consistency and he has only managed to feature in a maximum of 28 league games in a season for I Giallorossi since his move.
A bright spark and an incredibly talented player that, ultimately, couldn’t deliver the prize the Juventus hierarchy were after.
Transfer Rating: 7/10
7. Julian Draxler
FC Schalke – Wolfsburg | €43m
Then 21 year-old German wonderkid Julian Draxler left his boyhood club to join a promising Wolfsburg side on deadline day and is still the club’s record incoming transfer. He came with the weight of expectation heavy across his shoulders, a World Cup champion the summer previous and a highly-touted future star that had been playing regular Bundesliga football since he was a teenager.
Unfortunately for the player and Wolfsburg, he could never quite live up to his form and promise at Schalke. He played for a year at Wolfsburg and returned a respectable 5 goals and 5 assists in the league, but the performance level was never there. Just one year after he signed, he handed in a transfer request. Even worse for the young man, there were no suitors at Wolfsburg’s asking price and he was forced to play until January with the fans booing and jeering the once-lauded star. Finally, in the January window he got a move to PSG for €36m, a €7m loss on a once much-coveted young player after just 18 months.
Things improved in Paris, as they often do, and Draxler began playing regular injury-free football and won Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France four times each. The tragedy of Julian Draxler soon continued however, as PSG made moves for Neymar & Kylian Mbappe during his time at the club. With both of these stars demanding to play on Draxler’s preferred left-hand side, the midfielder was once again relegated to the bench. Things looked up briefly as Mauricio Pochettino came in, opting to play with a number 10 behind the striker and selecting the German to fill that role. Another string of positive performances followed and, just as things were looking up, a man by the name of Lionel Messi came and took his place. An unsuccessful loan at Benfica followed and it was clear he no longer had a seat at Europe’s top table. Qatari side Al-Ahli picked him up from PSG for €9m in 2023 and he has remained there since, a shadow of what was promised to the world as a 17 year old at Schalke.
Their biggest ever deal, a failure, and they are yet to recover. Wolfsburg found themselves finishing in the relegation play-off places twice since his arrival and only returning to the Champions League on one occasion. A tragic story for the player and the club, nobody is at fault and nobody wins.
Transfer Rating: 1/10
6. Nicolás Otamendi
Valencia – Manchester City | €44.5m
Otamendi arrived after one full season in Spain and was thrown straight into the City starting lineup. He was their starting centre-half for three seasons before becoming a rotation option as their super squad grew around him. Competing with the likes of John Stones and Vincent Kompany was tough, but Otamendi held his own and made 209 appearances for City during his time at the club.
He nearly won the lot at the club with 4 league cups, an FA Cup and 2 league titles to his name. However, as is becoming a theme with this list, the Champions League evaded him. After continued domestic dominance, the Champions League was always City’s primary target, and it evaded them until three years after Otamendi left the club.
He departed to Benfica in the summer of 2020 to play regular first team football for a fee of €15m, and he still starts every game he’s available for today, domestically and in Europe, at the grand old age of 37. Otamendi was also part of the Argentina squad that lifted the World Cup trophy in Qatar, a crowning achievement on an underrated career. He might not have won the big one in Manchester, but his legacy is that of a solid and dependable centre-half that helped lift the team out of the shadows of their rivals and turn them into the most dominant side in the country.
Transfer Rating: 7/10
5. Christian Benteke
Aston Villa – Liverpool | €46.5m
With one hand the transfer window giveth, with the other it taketh away. If Firmino is a modern Liverpool legend then Benteke is an old folktale that Scouse parents tell their children to make them behave. He arrived off the back of three pretty solid goalscoring seasons in the Premier League for Villa, a proven forward at this level, how could it go wrong?
Benteke scored 10 goals in 42 games for Liverpool and was shipped out to Crystal Palace the following summer for €31.2m, a €15.3m loss in 12 months. Jurgen Klopp joined the club just a few months into the season, and his team and system were moving in a direction that couldn’t accommodate a player like Benteke.
He went on to have an uninspiring Premier League career at Palace, scoring 37 goals for the Eagles over 177 games and 6 seasons before departing for the land of opportunity with DC United. To be fair to the big Belgian, he has been hammering them in over there in his twilight years, even winning the golden boot in 2024.
Part of many iterations of a disappointing Belgium side and his only redeemable moment for Liverpool being a stunning bicycle kick in a loss at Old Trafford, Benteke may look back on his career and think what could have been if he had stayed with Villa.
Transfer Rating: 1/10
4. Anthony Martial
AS Monaco – Manchester United | €60m
This deal included a clause in case the Frenchman won the Ballon D’or, this clause has not been activated. Martial arrived at the club as a 19 year old with seemingly unlimited potential, and on occasions he lived up to it. When he scored that amazing goal on his debut against Liverpool (the same game Benteke scored his bicycle kick) the football world let out a groan as United had found themselves another superstar to dominate Europe with for a decade to come. Hadn’t they?
Speculation around attitude problems and his personal life was rife during his time at the club, as it seems to be with a lot of United stars, but – putting that aside – he just wasn’t very good after a while. For a few years he had a pretty solid goal return, particularly for a young player that had been moved out wide to accommodate the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, then he just exploded in the Covid season. 17 goals and 6 assists in the league from out wide, providing amazing link-up play with Rashford and terrorising defences, Anthony Martial was HERE. He scored 12 Premier League goals across his next 4 seasons before leaving the club.
He won an FA Cup, a Europa League and 2 league cups in his time at United and managed 90 goals for the club, but never really lived up to expectation as the club rotted around him. €60m was a lot for a teenager ten years ago and, as much as he had his moments, I don’t think United fans would consider it repaid.
He left on a free and spent a season in Greece at AEK Athens before moving to Monterrey in Mexico this summer. Quite the fall from grace for the next Henry.
Transfer Rating: 4/10
3. Ángel Di María
Manchester United – PSG | €63m
A notably expensive failure at United, Di María moved to Paris to reignite his career after a disappointing stint in England.
7 seasons at PSG, 293 appearances, 5 Ligue 1 titles and 5 Coupe de France medals all while scoring 91 and assisting 110 goals. I appreciate the standard of the French league is widely regarded as sub-par and PSG should win everything with their financial muscle, but the Argentine’s return from out wide is remarkable all the same. At risk of repeating myself, the notable omission is the Champions League once again. Di Marìa, Ibrahimovic, Messi, Neymar and Mbappe all failed to deliver the ultimate prize to Paris as they only just got their hands on the trophy in 2025. Still, he had a hugely successful time at PSG and was a key component in their consistent domestic success amongst their other A-list players.
After Paris, he spent a year on loan in Turin at Juventus, winning the World Cup in Qatar in the process, before returning to Benfica. He didn’t fade away in Lisbon, scoring 36 times and assisting 21 in his 2 seasons back at the club before making an emotional homecoming at Rosario Central in Argentina. He re-signed for his boyhood club this year and has started life well back in Liga Profesional.
A gold band to which the diamond-studded PSG attack was fixed, but he never quite achieved the pinnacle for Paris.
Transfer Rating: 8/10
2. Raheem Sterling
Liverpool – Manchester City | €63.7m
Sterling burst onto the scene as a teenager with Liverpool and was a huge part of the Brendan Rodgers side that came so close to winning the league title only to be pipped to the post by Manchester City. He joined the Citizens under a cloud of controversy as Liverpool fans saw him as moving to a direct rival. Money talks.
His first season he was just bedding in, he scored 6 times in the league and 3 in the Champions League as City went on to win just a league cup, disappointing by their standards. If any fans were worried Sterling might be a waste of money, those worries were soon put to bed as Guardiola joined the club and morphed him into a machine. The winger went on to play 7 seasons in sky blue, making 338 appearances, scoring 131 goals and assisting 74. He also became a member of the illustrious Premier League 100 club as he forged beautiful partnerships with Sergio Aguero and Leroy Sane amongst others.
Sterling left Manchester a four-time Premier League winner with an FA Cup and five league cup medals weighing down his neck. He joined Chelsea in the summer of 2022 for €56.2m, a loss of just €7.5m after 7 excellent years as he made way for City’s new blood as they continue to develop. Not bad business at all (for City) as he has struggled for game time in London and, after an unsuccessful loan spell at Arsenal, he now finds himself in Chelsea’s “bomb squad” of unwanted players training apart from the first team. A dramatic fall from grace for one of England’s all-time greats. At just 30 years old it looks like the constant football and battling on all fronts since he was just 16 has seriously taken its toll.
The elephant in the room, and the albatross around the neck of nearly everyone on this list, is no Champions League medal once again. Obviously only one team can win it every year but it is remarkable how many big money moves were made this summer with the aim of delivering their club European success to no avail.
Domestically, Sterling dominated and became part of a frightful City attack capable of picking apart sides and reaching the untouchable heights of 100 points in the league. We may never see a side like it ever again. His career has faltered of late, but I hope his legacy is of a player that starred for both club and country for years on end.
But he wasn’t the most expensive arrival at Manchester City that summer…
Transfer Rating: 9/10
1. Kevin De Bruyne
Wolfsburg – Manchester City | €76m
Let’s get this out of the way to start – this signing is a 10/10. An 11 even. What a footballer Kevin De Bruyne was and what a servant he was to Manchester City. I’ve been dying to talk about him but managed to hold my tongue until now, he created an amazing partnership with the aforementioned Sterling as he used to split defences open for him to run into and he was the sale that facilitated Wolfsburg to spend their record sum on the ill-fated Julian Draxler.
Let me read you the Belgian’s rap sheet:
• 6 Premier League titles
• 2 Fa Cups
• 5 League Cups
• 3 Community Shields
• 1 Club World Cup
• 2 Premier League Player of the Year Awards
• 1 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Yes, this one actually won one. De Bruyne won absolutely everything there was to win at City and was integral for the club for his entire ten year tenure. Everything went through him, nobody could beat him.
Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s the fact the team I support haven’t been anywhere near the Premier League in KDB’s era so I haven’t had to suffer at his hand, but for me he is the best player the league has ever seen. 108 goals and 169 assists for the club from midfield is an astounding record, and the consistency with which he delivered was unparalleled at this level. He only had 2 seasons where he delivered less than 20 goals+assists, both hampered by injury and even then the worst he managed was 14.
Kevin De Bruyne scored amazing goals, provided assists that seemed to bend the laws of physics and refused to lose. He delivered against his price tag and then some, if you were to offer City fans to go back in time and pay double they still would. He is a modern day City legend, perhaps the modern day City legend and his name will be etched into Manchester folklore forever more.
He finally left the club this summer and joined Serie A title holders Napoli, where he has already settled in and started scoring goals.
The best to ever do it? Maybe not. But not far off.
Transfer Rating: 10/10
Roundup:
So, there we are. Some high highs and some low lows as is usually the case with a big transfer window.
After all this money spent it was Leicester City who did the impossible and won the title, the €9m move for N’Golo Kanté just the 116th most expensive of the window but certainly the best value.
10 years later, football has moved on drastically and the fees payed for players have skyrocketed. De Bruyne is the only player from 2015/16 that would make it into the top 10 from this year, sitting in 5th just behind Benjamin Sesko’s move to Manchester United. The money City paid for Sterling now gets you Anthony Elanga, and the De Bruyne money can stretch to Bryan Mbeumo.
Give it another decade and I’ll be telling you all about how Mbeumo won everything possible at United and how the €500m move for Lamine Yamal that summer is a bargain, I’m sure.
Don’t judge a book by its cover and don’t judge a signing by their first season. They might just turn into a world-beater.
White Noise 