Updates From a Loaded January Transfer Window in European Soccer

With the closing of the January transfer window in European soccer, team personnel is now set for the rest of the season. Teams can no longer make transfers until the summer, so let’s take a look at how the January window fared for some of Europe’s biggest clubs.

We’ll start with Inter Milan’s busy January window. After a loaded transfer haul coming into the season, acquiring Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez from Manchester United, they didn’t lose any steam in the winter window.

Inter Milan made several moves, including the signing of Christian Eriksen from Tottenham for just under 17 million pounds.

The midfielder will bolster the Inter attack and link things together in the middle of the park. Tottenham will surely miss their Danish maestro in their Premier League campaign.

Inter also signed Ashley Young from Manchester United and Victor Moses to a loan deal from Chelsea. Young and Moses won’t have the same impact that Eriksen will for the Milan side, but will definitely see the field quite a bit in their time in Italy.

Overall, it has been a good window for Inter as they look to challenge Juventus at the top of the Serie A table.

Despite Tottenham losing one of their best players in Christian Eriksen, their window did have a lot of promise as well.

Let’s take a look at their January transfers. The first thing Tottenham did was go out and get Gedson Fernandes, the young Portugese player, on loan from Benfica.

He’s a very promising young talent that has Spurs fans excited to see what he can do.

Spurs also made permanent the move of Gio Lo Celso from Real Betis and secured the signing of young Dutch star Steven Bergwijn from Philips Sport Vereniging. Bergwijn made an instant impact, scoring a stunner in his debut against Manchester City in a 2-0 win. Jose Mourinho should be optimistic about his new forward.

Now let’s take a look at the other North London club, Arsenal. They brought in a couple of defensive reinforcements that were necessary for them to have any chance to even compete in the Premier League.

They signed Pablo Mari, a center back from Flamengo, to a loan deal and signed pacy wing-back Cedric Soares from Southampton on loan as well for the rest of the season. The Gunners’ hopes are that Mari will be a strong replacement for Sokratis at the back and will be permanently signed in the summer.

Soares is a smart loan signing to deal with the injury-ridden outside back scenario that Arsenal deals with week in and week out. Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney are both very injury-prone and Ainsley Maitland-Niles is a natural midfielder so he could return to his role in the middle with the addition of Soares.

Arsenal didn’t wow anyone in the January window in Mikel Arteta’s first transfer deadline at the helm but they did get some much-needed help at the back.

Another team with a relatively busy window and arguably the best window out of anyone in Europe was Borussia Dortmund from the German Bundesliga.

 On the first day of the January transfer extravaganza they nabbed Norwegian starlet Erling Braut Haaland from Red Bull Salzburg for just under 20 million pounds. Haaland is one of the most promising, if not the most promising young talents in Europe.

He proved that scoring seven goals in his first three matches with Dortmund, including a hat-trick in only 23 minutes on his debut.

Dortmund also brought in Emre Can from Juventus on loan and offloaded Paco Alcacer (to Villareal) and Julian Weigl (to Benfica).

Emre Can will be a formidable force in Dortmund’s midfield alongside Axel Witsel and Julian Brandt.

He may struggle for time, but if he plays at the level that he did with Liverpool then he surely will make an impact for the German side. He scored a beautiful curling goal on his debut that will have Dortmund fans excited to see him play more. Dortmund will be a fun side to watch going forward in their Bundesliga campaign as well as the Champions League.

Manchester United also made a big splash in the January window, signing explosive Portugese midfielder Bruno Fernandes from Sporting Lisbon for 47 million pounds.

He’s a great player with an eye for goal from distance that should help United’s Champions League push. The Red Devils also signed Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo to a loan deal after spending time in China.

The ex-Watford striker should bring some goals to Manchester and he’ll likely be a substitute behind the likes of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial.

Other notable signings during the transfer window were Zlatan Ibrahimovic going back to AC Milan on a free deal, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez making the move to L.A.Galaxy from European giants Sevilla for a little over 7 million pounds, and Reinier Jesus moving to Real Madrid from Flamengo for about 25 million pounds.