No Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United deals in the top ten Premier League signings of 2023 | OneFootball

A true Todd Boehly special

More than £1bn was spent by Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United this year but not a single one of their signings rank among the ten best made in 2023.

10) Craig Dawson The list of permanent managers Dawson has played for in the Premier League, presented in chronological order, is a thing of beauty: Hodgson, Clarke, Mel, Irvine, Pulis, Pardew, Gracia, Pearson, Sanchez Flores, Moyes, Lopetegui and O’Neil.

The penultimate and perhaps most incongruous name had apparently been so affected by Dawson’s inspirational turn during West Ham’s run to the 2022 Europa League semi-finals, in which Lopetegui’s Sevilla were dumped out by the Hammers in the round of 16, that he immediately sought to sign the centre-half when the opportunity first presented itself.

Dawson helped keep Wolves – out of the relegation zone on goal difference alone – clear of the drop by seven points, with a debut goal in a thrashing of Liverpool particularly memorable. This season has brought more quietly consummate excellence, as Erling Haaland can attest. And all for little over £3m.

9) Mohammed Kudus The uniquely-placed World Cup shop window helped bring many fresh wares to the Premier League in 2023, among them Enzo Fernandez, Cody Gakpo, Josko Gvardiol and, most hilariously of all, Sofyan Amrabat. But perhaps no player maximised their chance better than Kudus, who put himself out of Everton’s reach with some fine showings in Qatar.

Kudus was linked most vociferously with Chelsea, Manchester United and Brighton in the summer but it was newly-minted West Ham who offered him the most compelling platform, as well as the apparent clinching promise of playing alongside Lucas Paqueta.

That pairing shone against Wolves and the nine goals Kudus has scored so far for the Hammers has already marked him out as one of the best attacking signings of the current ownership’s entire regime.

8) James Maddison Without the injury 11 games into his burgeoning Spurs career, Maddison would undoubtedly rank much higher. The 27-year-old was the standout performer in the first 10 of those matches – all unbeaten – and left the pitch in that mad defeat to Chelsea with the scores level at 1-1. Having not played for a month and a half, only six players have assisted more goals than Maddison, who has scored more than Gabriel Martinelli, Marcus Rashford and a fair few others.

Before being sidelined, Maddison had taken to the vice-captaincy and increase in leadership and responsibility commendably. The bloke went off at half-time on November 6 and has only just been surpassed as the Premier League leader for shot-creating actions (80) by Bukayo Saka (85) and Bruno Fernandes (90).

James Maddison celebrates during Tottenham’s win over Fulham.

7) Edson Alvarez The last Premier League club to make a signing this summer, West Ham at least dispelled the vague panic with some glorious business. But Alvarez was brought in so late that Moyes did not even deem it sensible to name him on the bench for the opening game with Bournemouth, coming as it did two days after the midfielder arrived from Ajax.

Alvarez had seen a summer move to Dortmund collapse around 12 months after his Chelsea dream publicly went up in smoke, but the option of a London-based club actually qualified for European competition finally presented itself when West Ham finally bucked up their ideas and swooped in.

Moyes has been “really pleased with the things he’s done” and individual praise rarely gets more effusive from the Scot. Alvarez absorbed most of Rice’s job specification and has taken to the task impeccably; since that opening-day draw, the only two league games he has missed have resulted in 3-2 and 5-0 defeats.

6) Pedro Porro It hardly feels as though Porro only joined Spurs in January, which is entirely down to him being signed on loan at the time by Antonio Conte in a convoluted deal put together by Fabio Paratici. It was a different time.

Ange Postecoglou has been the beneficiary, inheriting a player most felt was only suited explicitly to the sort of wing-back role Conte favours, yet who has excelled as an inverted full-back and one of the most rounded defenders in the entire league.

Few players have embraced the creative burden relinquished by Maddison so effortlessly, with Porro thriving in an attacking system as the player to take the most shots in the Premier League without scoring so far this season (28, five more than second-placed Antony).

5) James Ward-Prowse The output has slowed somewhat, presumably to the knowing delight of the clamour-conquering Gareth Southgate. But Ward-Prowse has nevertheless been as reliably excellent as most anticipated when West Ham restored his Premier League status in August.

While that burst at the start of the campaign, when Ward-Prowse scored two goals and assisted nine in his first 16 appearances, could never be maintained, it did provide a tangible foundation from which the sack-inducing midfielder has built another fine campaign on a personal level.

4) Pau Torres For most of his four years in the Villarreal first team, Torres was regular Premier League gossip column fodder. The speculation surrounding a move to Arsenal, Manchester United or Tottenham had persisted for so long that it felt as though the ultimate reality could not match the hype.

Aston Villa felt like a curious landing spot, too, a destination made possible solely by the presence of Unai Emery. But it is as part of his compatriot’s high defensive line that Torres has thrived.

From the initial plan of being deployed as a ball-playing left-back, Torres was immediately propelled to the centre due to injury and despite the wide-open spaces behind him, has not looked back since. Until coming off in the closing stages of the Brentford win, Torres had played every domestic minute for the future champions beyond the opening day.

3) Declan Rice Manchester City made a handful of mistakes in the summer, not least apparently assisting Arsenal in signing Rice when they really could have done with the central midfielder’s services themselves.

The idea Rice would nevertheless prefer a move to Arsenal over the Treble winners was treated with widespread consternation, as if it was not actually an entirely understandable decision on both a personal and professional level.

Beyond staying in London, Rice was enticed by the project shown to him by Mikel Arteta, which underlined how pivotal he was to the club’s plans in the way he perhaps never could have been in the Rodriverse at the Etihad.

It remains to be seen just how prescient Rice’s decision was but the early signs are that Arsenal enacted their British transfer record plan perfectly and have been rewarded with some influential displays summed up in part but not at all entirely by three goals which have included two late winners and a draw and awe-inspiring strike at Stamford Bridge to keep the Gunners top.

2) Anthony Gordon It took a little bit of time to get started but that first goal on the final day of last season teased a metamorphosis few outside the Newcastle dugout foresaw. This season has seen Gordon enhance his devilish streak, which makes his six goals, six assists and six yellow cards in 2023/24 entirely fitting.

The summer of 2022, when Chelsea’s talent sweep brought rejected bids and Frank Lampard suggesting a £100m valuation would not be unreasonable, seemed like the surreal peak of Gordonmania. But when the dust had settled and Everton finally relented by January, Newcastle took advantage to snatch a rough diamond they have since polished.

1) Guglielmo Vicario Maddison captured the general mood when admitting he had not heard of Vicario before this summer. Tottenham’s transfer window of reinvention did not stop at the appointment of a new manager and the departure of their greatest goalscorer. It was time to replace their captain of eight years and starting keeper of 11. But the identity of the man chosen raised a few eyebrows.

With greater money spent elsewhere, Spurs instead focused on the capture of a keeper whose only two full Serie A seasons had both ended in 14th-placed finishes. Vicario was the first signing of the Postecoglou era and thus far the best.

The 27-year-old has been a revelation both statistically and in terms of the eye test. Even before winding up podcast critic Callum Wilson, Vicario had already pretty much justified the outlay and faith shown in him to step so seamlessly into Hugo Lloris’ shoes.