beIN SPORTS

By Graham Ruthven (@grahamruthven)

Premier League

Chelsea had been expected to bring in a central defender for quite some time, but few envisaged David Luiz securing a return to Stamford Bridge. Of all the panic buys made on deadline day, the Blues’ £32 million purchase of a player they sold for £50 million just two years ago looked the most panicked.

Although Tottenham’s capture of Moussa Sissoko from Newcastle United could be a contender for that particular wooden spoon. Having missed out on many of their top targets, the White Hart Lane club splurged £30 million on a player who doesn’t really improve their squad or plug a gap in Mauricio Pochettino’s team. 

Leicester City also spent big on the final day of the window, signing Islam Slimani from Sporting Lisbon for a club-record fee of £30 million. But the headline move came in the form of a loan move, as Jack Wilshere left Arsenal to join Bournemouth for the season. Can the midfielder get his career back on track on the south coast? This is now make or break for Wilshere.

La Liga

There were no sagas to be concluded at either Barcelona or Real Madrid this year. There was no sign presentation platform that is normally constructed at the Santiago Bernabeu in the final days of any given transfer window, with both clubs closed for business. It was Sevilla and Valencia who instead made deadline day their own.

Both benefited from Manchester City’s desperate desire to offload deadwood, with Samir Nasir joining Sevilla on loan and Eliaquim Mangala also ending up at Valencia for the rest of the season on loan. Ezequiel Garay also joining the Mestalla side on loan, moving another Jorge Mendes client to the Liga club following the sale of Shokdran Mustafi to Arsenal earlier in the week.

Bundesliga

The window shut at 6pm (CET) in Germany, meaning the Bundesliga largely bypassed the deadline day mayhem inflicted on the rest of European soccer. Werder Bremen still managed to push through the signing of Serge Gnabry from Arsenal though, with the German international keen to seek the first-team action he wouldn’t have received at the Emirates Stadium.

Elsewhere in the Bundesliga, it was relatively quiet. Wolfsburg completed the loan signing of Philipp Wollscheid from Stoke City, while Shani Tarashaj made the move from Everton to Eintracht Frankfurt also on a season-long loan deal. 

Serie A

Perhaps the strangest deal of transfer deadline say saw Juan Cuadrado re-join Juventus on a three-year loan deal from Chelsea. That’s the soccer equivalent of borrowing your neighbour's lawnmower and then never giving it back and claiming it as your own. Joe Hart’s loan switch to Torino was bizarre enough.

Mati Fernandez made the move from Fiorentina to AC Milan, signing for the San Siro club for an undisclosed fee, while Luis Alberto finally left Liverpool to join Lazio. There was also a deadline day move for Greek international Vasilis Torosidis, who left Roma on loan to sign for Bologna.

Ligue 1

There was only one headline incoming move to consider in Ligue 1 on deadline as Mario Balotelli completed his move to Nice from Liverpool on a free transfer. The south coast club will reportedly pay the most enigmatic striker in world soccer an annual salary of €4.5 million, illustrating the risk they have taken. However, it could still pay off for Nice with Balotelli still a talented player. Can they make the most of him?

Continuing a common deadline day theme across Europe, there were a number of loan deals struck by Ligue 1 clubs, with Clinton Njie joining Marseille for the season from Tottenham Hotspur. And of course there was the £32 million deal that saw Luiz swap PSG for Chelsea.