Who Had The Best And Worst Transfer Window In La Liga?

Finally, after what seems like an absolute age, the European transfer window has finally closed.

Coming some weeks after the closure of the English Premier League’s deadline and the start of the 2019/20 season, has proved to be less than helpful in a number of cases.

For example, the will-he-won’t-he saga of Neymar potentially heading back to Barcelona has unsettled both his former club and his current one, Paris Saint-Germain.

Even if the Catalans had managed to secure the Brazilian’s services, to complement the signatures of both Frenkie De Jong and Antoine Griezmann, they can’t lay claim to have had the best window of La Liga’s 20 teams.

That accolade must go to Atletico Madrid.

As more and more star names had either made their decisions to leave known before the end of last season, or had left during the early stages of the window, the Rojiblancos were being written off by almost everyone.

Lucas Hernandez, captain Diego Godin, Griezmann and Rodri… just under £250m worth of talent heading to the exit, not to mention the free transfers of Filipe Luis and Juanfran who, despite their advancing years, were still great servants for Diego Simeone.

Securing Joao Felix from Benfica was the coup of the summer window without doubt.

At just 19 and with a handful of first team matches under his belt for the Portuguese side, Atleti were decisive when others dithered, and they’re already being paid back handsomely by the youngster.

Marcos Llorente and Mario Hermoso (from Real Madrid and Espanyol respectively), are two more of the brightest young talents that the Spanish top flight has to offer, and their hires have been supplemented by Felipe, Renan Lodi and Kieran Trippier.

Already the only team with a 100 percent record from their opening three matches, and sitting proudly atop the table, as well as being £61m in profit after all the comings and goings, Atleti’s hierarchy can be rightly proud of a job well done.

At the other end of the spectrum are bottom of the table Espanyol, and not purely because they’ve no wins in their three matches either.

Losing Mario Hermoso, their best defender, to Atleti was bad enough, but to follow it up by selling Borja Iglesias to Real Betis is short-sightedness in the extreme from the Periquitos.

Had they brought in some solid replacements the outcry might not have been so sustained, because neither Matias Vargas or Fernando Calero have got the locals excited. Loan signing, Jonathan Calleri, will be expected to weigh in with goals, but in his 71 La Liga games so far, split between Las Palmas, Alaves and Espanyol, he has just 18 goals.

That’s not going to be anywhere close to what’s required to keep them up and with coach, David Gallego, not too experienced at this level either, it looks like it could be a long, hard season for Espanyol.

Listen to the latest episode of the Eye On LaLiga podcast with Oliver Wilson and Jason Pettigrove: Transfer Window Winners and Losers