10 EPL Transfers Who Will Star in Their 1st Year in England
It was another summer of frenzied spending in the EPL, as the 20 clubs bought, bought and bought some more.
The total sum was a staggering £870 million, a new record.
Here we rank the 10 players who will waste no time adjusting to life in England and will make an immediate impact at their new clubs.
Will Manchester United’s Memphis Depay top the list, or will it be the one they let get away, Pedro, who takes the No.1 spot?
Players are ranked based on skill level and their importance to the team.
Honorable Mentions
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Ramiro Funes Mori—River Plate to Everton
Christian Fuchs—Schalke to Leicester City
Jeremain Lens—Dynamo Kyiv to Sunderland
Salomon Rondon—Zenit St Petersburg to West Bromwich Albion
10. Ibrahim Afellay
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Ibrahim Afellay is the first of two Stoke City signings on this list.
The Dutch forward has never been able to fulfil the promise Barcelona expected when they signed him from PSV in 2010, but Mark Hughes has signed him to be an integral part of Stoke’s attack.
There are downsides to this signing—injuries are a recurring issue with Afellay—but they are heavily outweighed by the upsides.
Stoke have entered a new era under Hughes where technical football is the theme, and Afellay will buy into that, having learned his trade at PSV and Barcelona.
Injuries have affected his pace, but the 29 year old’s intelligence and crossing ability remain at a high standard.
He faces a new test in the Premier League, but Stoke is the perfect place for Afellay to revive his career.
9. Roberto Firmino
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Liverpool hope Roberto Firmino will help them to forget about Raheem Sterling, and based on a comparison by WhoScored.com, that’s certainly a realistic goal.
Last season, with Sterling at Liverpool and Firmino at Hoffenheim, the Brazilian bested Sterling in assists, minutes per shot, minutes per dribble and minutes per tackle. They tied on the number of goals scored, but Firmino started one less game.
It’s been a slow start to life in the Premier League for Firmino, but the season remains young and expectation remains high.
He scored seven goals and had 10 assists in 2014/15. He made 139 successful dribbles and was among the Bundesliga's top 10 for both shots and key passes, according to Sky Sports.
Brendan Rodgers will admire Firmino’s versatility, the 23-year-old's able to play on the right wing or as a main striker.
Liverpool paid £29 million for Firmino and received £49 million for the sale of Sterling. It could prove to be great business.
8. Georginio Wijnaldum
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Typically the No. 5 shirt is reserved for a centre-back.
Though in Newcastle United’s case, their No. 5 is an attacking midfielder who became the third-most expensive signing in the club’s history when he signed from PSV Eindhoven for £14.5 million.
Georginio Wijnaldum joins a Newcastle team in need of revitalising after enduring some doldrums years.
And in Wijnaldum, they have the perfect man for the job.
He netted on his debut against Southampton, and that's likely to become a frequent sight for Newcastle fans.
The Dutch midfielder scored 14 league goals last year in what was an acclaimed season for the player.
Wijnaldum was Dutch Footballer of the Year, ahead of Memphis Depay, as he captained PSV to an Eredivisie crown.
The 25-year-old has the ability to link midfield and attack, something Newcastle lacked last season when Siem de Jong was injured for eight months.
St James' Park can be an overawing stadium but Wijnaldum has done it on one of the biggest stages of them all, netting for the Netherlands in the World Cup third place play-off.
7. Dimitri Payet
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If Sam Allardyce was still in charge, Dimitri Payet probably wouldn’t be playing for West Ham.
Payet, the flashy midfielder with an array of tricks, isn’t an Allardyce type of player.
But with Allardyce gone new manager Slaven Bilic has afforded Frenchman the opportunity to dazzle the Upton Park crowds.
The 28-year-old was instrumental in West Ham’s opening-day defeat of Arsenal and scored his first Premier League goal a week later against Leicester City.
With Cheikhou Kouyate, Mark Noble and Pedro Obiang doing the defensive work, Payet can play with two intentions in his mind: scoring goals and creating them.
Payet led Europe’s top five leagues in key passes made last season, with 134 for Marseille, according to WhoScored.com.
He also racked up an impressive 16 assists in that campaign, per WhoScored.com.
The Frenchman is incredibly exciting to watch, but it would be wrong to suggest Payet’s game revolves around skills. He uses trickery to beat a player, not to show off.
6. Xherdan Shaqiri
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Xherdan Shaqiri and Stoke City. No, it still doesn’t seem right.
Somehow Mark Hughes managed to lure the Swiss winger away from Champions League football with Inter Milan to Stoke-on-Trent.
He joins Bojan Krkic and Ibrahim Afellay in Hughes’ attempts to turn Stoke from a bruising team into a beautiful one.
Gone are the days when Stoke relied on long passes towards Peter Crouch. Shaqiri provides a different dimension to Stoke’s attack.
He isn’t afraid to run with the ball and dribble past players, utilising his stocky frame to ensure he isn’t knocked off the ball with ease.
Shaqiri will be given the freedom to roam by Hughes, who is fully aware that Stoke’s offence will flow through the nimble forward.
His set-piece ability was on display against Norwich when he whipped in a pinpoint cross from the right that Mame Biram Diouf headed in.
The reason he isn’t included higher in this list is due to concerns over his attitude. There were hints that Shaqiri’s brief spell at Inter ended abruptly—he made just 20 appearances—due to a fallout with manager Roberto Mancini, per the Daily Telegraph.
Shaqiri spearheaded Switzerland’s march to the knockout stage of last year’s World Cup, netting three goals. If he can influence Stoke the same way, then Europe is an achievable target.
5. Matteo Darmian
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Manchester United’s lineup is harder to predict than the British weather at the moment, but the first name on Louis van Gaal’s team-sheet this season is Matteo Darmian.
The 25-year-old has started all six of United’s games, including against Club Brugge in the Champions League, and capped off an impressive start to life in England by earning the club’s Player of the Month award.
Darmian plays with an assuredness that breeds confidences in those around him and has established an understanding with Juan Mata that sees Mata cutting inside and Darmian providing the attacking threat down the right.
He earned rave reviews from Van Gaal, per manutd.com.
"A full-back firstly has to defend, and then secondly he has to build up. Thirdly, he has to attack and give an option to his fellow players in front of him. He has fulfilled my expectations of him so far."
Four years on from his retirement, United still haven’t found a suitable replacement for Gary Neville, but that may be about to change.
4. Jordan Amavi
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Aston Villa have a left-back at last.
Last year Aly Cissokho and Kieran Richardson shared duties at the position, but neither is as exciting going forward or as solid defensively as Jordan Amavi.
Amavi signed from Nice for £10 million, and the pacy defender has been an instant hit with Villa fans on social media, re-tweeting their messages of support.
The 21-year-old will continue to please if he carries on performing to the level he has in the opening four league games.
On his debut against Bournemouth, Amavi completed four dribbles and won four tackles, according to premierleague.com.
Against Sunderland he had 107 touches, the joint-most of any Aston Villa player, as per the BBC, and showed his crossing ability with a teasing cross, which Scott Sinclair tapped home.
Last year no player in Europe’s top five leagues had more interceptions than Amavi’s 165, per premierleague.com.
The Frenchman’s arrival ensures solidity in a defense than had the third-worst defensive record last season.
3. Andre Ayew
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Many players transferred from Europe to the Premier League struggle to adjust to the Premier League's speed and physicality.
It made a fool out of Andriy Shevchenko, Steve Marlet and Sergei Rebrov.
Andre Ayew, however, will certainly not go down as a flop.
The Ghanaian, signed by Swansea on a free transfer, marked his first month in the Premier League with a Player of the Month award.
Swansea boss Garry Monk likes to pack his midfield with versatile, technically gifted players, and Ayew fits the mould.
This was evident when Ayew carved open Manchester United’s defense with a deft, outside-of-the-boot flick to assist Bafetimbi Gomis’ winner.
The former Marseille winger, who can also play behind the striker, provides a level of skill that Wayne Routledge and Nathan Dyer are unable to reach.
He’s scored three goals in four games, including the equaliser in that 2-1 win over United.
Not bad for a player who didn’t cost a penny.
2. Pedro
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Chelsea added a regular winner to their ranks with the signing of Pedro from Barcelona.
There was simply no way the Spaniard was intruding on the Messi-Suarez-Neymar strikeforce, and Chelsea should be applauded for acting quickly to secure Pedro’s signing.
Manchester United looked set to clinch a deal for the winger until Jose Mourinho swooped.
In Pedro, Mourinho has a player who won five La Liga titles and three Champions League titles during his time in Spain.
Mourinho was desperate for talent in the summer, but his demands were not met by owner Roman Abramovich, who refused to break the bank for Everton defender John Stones.
But Pedro ensures they haven’t fallen behind title rivals Manchester City in terms of talent.
He scored 99 goals for Barcelona and wasted no time scoring his first for Chelsea, netting after 20 minutes of his debut against West Brom.
The reason Pedro isn’t No. 1 on this list is because Mourinho’s style of defending is different from what Pedro was accustomed to at Barcelona. Chelsea’s forwards must be dogged in their defensive duties, even if it means tracking back into their own half.
Meanwhile Barcelona, in the rare times they find themselves out of possession, apply suffocating pressure to the extent that rarely does the ball find its way into their half.
Now out of Messi’s shadow, Pedro can lead Chelsea to back-to-back titles.
1. Memphis Depay
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He drives a camouflage car, has a tattoo across his chest that reads "Dream Chaser" and now shares something in common with George Best, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Memphis Depay is Manchester United’s new No. 7.
The 21-year-old signed from PSV Eindhoven in May, and his performances have already ignited comparisons with Ronaldo, who, like Depay, signed for United at a young age and excited Old Trafford crowds with pace and trickery down the left wing.
Depay tops this list because he brings to Louis van Gaal exactly what he needs to restore his team to title contenders.
The Dutch international is powerful, fast, skilful and perhaps most importantly in a United team that features only two recognised strikers, he scores goals.
Depay topped the Eredivisie scoring chart last season with 22 goals in 30 games.
He operated on the left for PSV, and although they played a 4-3-3 system, Van Gaal’s 4-2-3-1 still ensures Depay can cause defenses trouble by cutting inside from the left.
In the first leg of United’s Champions League play-off encounter against Club Brugge, Depay scored two spectacular goals, the first showcasing his trickery and the second his vigorous right foot.
The addition of the Dream Chaser turns United into title chasers.
