Premier League clubs splashed out £3 billion ($4bn) on transfers in a record-breaking summer window, more than those in the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A combined, with Liverpool accounting for £415m ($561m) of that eye-watering amount on the back of their 2024-25 title success under Arne Slot. Mega-money was also spent by the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham, with Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Fulham the only three clubs to invest less than £50m ($67m) in strengthening their respective squads.
High expectations come with high fees, and in some cases, they have been met. Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders and Gianluigi Donnarumma have all impressed for a resurgent Man City, Martin Zubimendi and Eberechi Eze have helped Arsenal emerge as frontrunners for the Premier League crown, and Manchester United should get plenty of bang for their buck with the captures of proven forward duo Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha.
However, the overall success rate for the summer arrivals has been low. For a wide range of reasons, many of the big-money buys have been unable to live up to their price tags. Injuries have held back an unfortunate crop, while others have been unable to settle into their new surroundings or adapt to the rigorous demands of the English top-flight.
There is still plenty of time to silence the critics, but 11 players stand out above the rest for failing to deliver any sort of value for money in the first half of the campaign, and they will have to do some serious soul searching to avoid being branded major flops.
Below, GOAL runs through the most disappointing signings of 2025-26 so far…
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11Randal Kolo Muani (Tottenham) – loan
Tottenham have gradually lost their status as one of the Premier League's 'Big Six' since selling Harry Kane to Bayern Munich in 2023, with the likes of Richarlison, Dominic Solanke and Mathys Tel all unable to fill the void upfront. There was hope that Randal Kolo Muani could buck that trend after his summer loan switch from Paris Saint-Germain, with the France international having plundered eight goals in an eye-catching temporary spell at Juventus last term, but he has been equally as toothless as his new team-mates.
Kolo Muani has drawn a blank in each of his first 11 Premier League outings, and while he scored a brace in a 5-3 defeat to parent club PSG in the Champions League, he has otherwise offered practically zero penetration as a central striker, or when asked to play out wide.
The Frenchman is an impressive physical specimen, but doesn't have the killer instinct or technical skill to be a truly elite attacker, and under-fire boss Thomas Frank certainly can't rely on him to reignite Spurs' hopes of a push for European qualification.
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10Jamie Gittens (Chelsea) – £52m
Jamie Gittens racked up 17 goal involvements for Borussia Dortmund in a breakthrough 2024-25 campaign to attract the attention of Chelsea, earning widespread praise for his unpredictability in one-v-one situations, being blessed with the pace and two-footedness to bamboozle defenders. But the fearless version of Gittens has been replaced by a meek, unimaginative one at Stamford Bridge, and he finds himself playing second fiddle to Alejandro Garnacho, who the Blues spent £12m ($16m) less on in the summer.
Perhaps bogged down by the pressure of his £52m ($70m) price tag, Gittens now sits on the fringes of matches instead of imposing himself. The 21-year-old did produce a Player-of-the-Match turn in Chelsea's thrilling 4-3 Carabao Cup win over Wolves, complete with a stunning winning goal, but has been almost completely ineffective in the Premier League, registering only two assists in 16 appearances.
Gittens was particularly poor in a 2-2 draw at Brentford back in September, as he managed just 17 touches before being hauled off for Cole Palmer early in the second half. There's still no question about his talent, but it's far too easy for opposing teams to mark him out of the game right now, and his chances of booking a spot in England's World Cup squad are fading fast.
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9Thierno Barry (Everton) – £28m
Thierno Barry was chosen to be the lead striker for Everton to begin their Hill Dickinson Stadium-era after recording a combined 15 goals and assists for Villarreal in La Liga last season, and expressed his determination to emulate two of the club's modern-day icons, Wayne Rooney and Romelu Lukaku, in his first official interview, before insisting, "I'm not scared to play here".
However, fear has been an obvious driver in the France Under-21 international's very slow start to life on Merseyside. There is no faulting Barry's work rate; he ran himself into the ground to help Everton beat Manchester United with 10 men at Old Trafford and valiantly played for 20 minutes with a dislocated shoulder in a home win against Fulham, but he's only found the net two times in his first 21 appearances in all competitions.
That impotency in front of goal stems from a lack of composure and an inability to protect the ball. Everton have only scored 20 goals in the Premier League since Barry's arrival, the joint-worst record out of the top 16 clubs, which is in no small part because of the 23-year-old's failings as a poacher and target man, leaving Moyes with no choice but to scour the market for new No.9 options in January.
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8Jadon Sancho (Aston Villa) – loan
Gittens is in danger of treading the same path as Jadon Sancho, who also shone at Dortmund before losing all his confidence in the Premier League. Manchester United sent Sancho out on loan for the third time in the summer after Chelsea paid a penalty fee to get out of an obligation to buy him outright, this time to Aston Villa, where he has continued to flitter between underwhelming and completely ineffective.
Villa reportedly agreed to cover 80 per cent of Sancho's insane £350,000-per-week wage packet, which has been a total waste so far, because he has gone 15 games without recording a single goal involvement. A lively appearance off the bench in Villa's 2-1 win at Chelsea last weekend served as a reminder of what Sancho is capable of, but the hunger that underpinned his success at Dortmund still appears to be absent.
Sancho's attitude has also come under scrutiny again, most notably after he suffered the indignity of being subbed on and off again when Villa beat Man City at home in October. The 25-year-old has a huge six months ahead of him before his contract at United expires, and unless he rediscovers his lost spark quickly, Villa won't hand him the opportunity to extend his stay in the Premier League.
