Transfer deadline day winners and losers: Alexander Isak and Marc Guehi, a tale of two Liverpool targets

A transfer window of remarkable drama has finally reached its conclusion with a host of the biggest names in European football having made their moves. Liverpool ended the transfer window having broken the British transfer record, twice, well over half a billion dollars spent as Arne Slot’s champions look to build from a position of strength.

Deadline day was no less exciting in Manchester, where both United and City made major moves for goalkeepers. It is the latter’s which may be the starriest as Gianluigi Donnarumma, a European champion with club and country, moves from Paris Saint-Germain. Away from the Premier League, home of transfer turmoil, top clubs have been on the move. Inter have acquired Manuel Akanji, Juventus swooped for two new additions and Napoli have been active in the market too.

Let’s recap some winners and losers:

Winner: Alexander Isak

Alexander Isak took on the richest owners in football and won. Newcastle had insisted throughout the summer that they did not want to lose their star striker and that it would take over $200 million to bring them to the table. When Liverpool demurred after an initial bid was rejected and pivoted to Hugo Ekitike, Isak might have been entitled to fear the worst. Newcastle might be constrained by PSR, but they are still buttressed by PIF, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund. Had ownership really wanted to, they could have held their nerve and presented Isak with two scenarios: return to Eddie Howe’s squad or spend the months before a World Cup watching football from afar.

Instead, Isak held his nerve and was rewarded with an 11th hour breakthrough. His $169 million move will doubtless bring pressure but it also offers everything that a footballer strives for. At 25 years of age, Isak is moving to one of the biggest clubs in football, one where he has a realistic chance of winning the sport’s biggest prizes. His best years ought to dovetail with the best of a great many of his teammates, and he doesn’t need to doubt his footballing fit. After all, Ekitike always profiled as the guy you would get if you couldn’t get Isak and the Frenchman has fitted into Arne Slot’s side like a glove.

Loser: Marc Guehi

There was no striking, no refusing to turn up for games and training. Marc Guehi’s reward for following a more fair-minded path than a string of big name strikers? No move to Liverpool. The Reds held on until the last hours of the window before putting $47 million down on the table for the best English center back. They would have got their man if it hadn’t been for pesky West Ham. Or was it something from with Igor Julio’s medical? Whatever the issue it soon became clear that Crystal Palace were only going to get one of the two center backs they felt they needed to replace Guehi and strengthen Oliver Glasner’s backline for the Conference League.

Could this deal actually end up holding more long term significance in the window than plenty of those that actually happened? It remains to be seen, but surely there will be players in years to come who remember well what happened when Guehi didn’t make a fuss, when he thought he’d capped off his Crystal Palace career with a goal on Sunday night. Doing the right thing does not necessarily get rewarded in the transfer window.

Winners: Juventus

Igor Tudor has got his reward for a strong start to the new season. Two wins from two and now his attack is strengthened with the arrivals of Eden Zhegrova and Lois Openda. The vision with the former is obvious; Zhegrova had a great understanding with Jonathan David at Lille and the two should help each other make a bright start to life in Turin. Nicolas Gonzalez moved out to Atletico Madrid off the back of a three goal, two assist Serie A season in 2024-25 and Zhegrova should offer real competition to Francisco Conceicao down the right flank.

As for Openda, that is a tidy striker Juventus are picking up. Like many at RB Leipzig, the Belgian had something of a down year in 2024-25 but is only recently removed from a 24 goal Bundesliga campaign. Openda offers a real burst of pace that no Serie A team should be without and could play both alongside David or instead of him. Suddenly their squad is coalescing quite nicely, more players in their mid 20s than is the norm at Juventus and more players on sensible wages. 

Loser: James Trafford

One of the more heartwarming story of the transfer window was James Trafford’s return to the club he had first joined as a 12 year old, the star of Burnley’s promotion campaign given the sort of upgrade in teammates that isn’t really supposed to happen anymore. Trafford looked like he could be Manchester City’s next goalkeeper for a decade or more, an elite shot stopper who could develop into something even more under Pep Guardiola’s tutelage. And that could all still happen. Trafford is only 22, there is time for him to develop into something very special, to make those early season jitters against Tottenham, look like a non-event.

The problem is that there is now another high quality shot stopper above him in the depth chart. And at 26 it is not as if Gianluigi Donnarumma is of the sort of advanced age you’d expect from a goalkeeper with nearly 500 senior games to his name. Donnarumma will be arriving at great expense to City and with a reputation to justify his lofty salary. The Italian was the best goalkeeper in the Champions League last season; it somewhat eclipses the best goalkeeper in the Championship, who is going to have to accept being the number two during a pre-World Cup year.

Loser: Erik ten Hag

You sweep into the recently deposed German champions, intent on “[continuing] with the ambition shown in recent years.” You find the squad you inherited sold out from under you. Some of that might have been expected — there was precious little chance that Florian Wirtz or Jeremie Frimpong were hanging around when Xabi Alonso went — but others that you were publicly insistent must stay were sold off, your bosses concluding that getting money for Granit Xhaka was a “win-win-win.” The first three games of your tenure were hardly outstanding but one win, one draw, one defeat: it’s hardly a career-ender, is it?

For Erik ten Hag it might be, at least at the highest level of management. Bayer Leverkusen’s deadline day sacking of their manager was emphatic. There wasn’t any particular reason why he had to go. It was just, well, “everything was heading in the wrong direction”, sporting director Simon Rolfes said.

Ten Hag’s statement rippled with rage. “A new coach deserves the space to implement his vision, set the standards, shape the squad and leave his mark on the style of play,” he said. “I started this job with full conviction and energy, but unfortunately the management was not willing to grant me the time and trust I needed, which I deeply regret. I feel this was never a relationship based on mutual trust.”

You can see why the Dutchman feels so hurt. There was no alternative lined up for the man Rolfes and CEO Fernando Carro had turned to when they couldn’t extricate Cesc Fabregas from Como. Leverkusen didn’t have a new manager they wanted. They just didn’t want to employ Ten Hag anymore. Ouch.

Winners: The transfer content industrial complex

For all the lemon-hued ceremony around transfer deadline day, it has been a while since the final hours of the window have felt like they carry any real weight in the season. Good teams get their business done early and there is only so much hype that can be rustled up from Chelsea trimming back their squad and whatever panic buy West Ham are making. But Monday? That was kind of fun.

You had long bubbling storylines reach their conclusion in a dramatically satisfying fashion, the Donnarumma and Isak deals, for instance. Moves like Randal Kolo Muani’s to Tottenham are proper chin strokers, just the sort of analytics-heavy mullers that we’re going to need over a fortnight of international football.

Then you had a pair of proper twist and turners. Nicolas Jackson was prevaricating over whether he should get on a plane like Rachel from Friends. Guehi wanted to join Liverpool. Liverpool got him in front of a doctor and got their deal lined up only for Oliver Glasner to insist he couldn’t quit his club captain. Proper drama this.