Every Premier League transfer window produces plenty of excitement whilst also testing every fan’s emotional state when they see a club linked with their star man.
Some signings arrive with huge price tags and disappear without leaving much of a mark. Others turn up with little fanfare and go on to become club legends.
Then there are the rare few that completely change the course of a club’s history.
Picking the greatest Premier League signings of all time is never going to please everyone.
There are plenty of worthy contenders who narrowly miss out, but these five either transformed their clubs, won mountains of silverware or left legacies that are still talked about today.
Thierry Henry – Arsenal
When Arsenal signed Thierry Henry from Juventus in 1999, very few people imagined they were looking at the greatest striker the Premier League would ever see.
In fact, he’d hardly set Italy alight.
Arsène Wenger saw something everyone else didn’t, moved Henry into a central role and the rest is football history.
The Frenchman wasn’t just a goalscorer. He embarrassed defenders week in, week out. Full-backs backed off, centre-halves panicked, and goalkeepers were beaten before he’d even pulled the trigger.
Henry scored 175 Premier League goals for Arsenal, won two league titles and became the face of the Invincibles. There have been great forwards before and after him, but very few have made the impossible look so routine.
If you were building the perfect Premier League striker in a lab, you’d probably end up with Thierry Henry.
Frank Lampard – Chelsea
£11 million.
Looking back now, that almost feels like daylight robbery.
Frank Lampard arrived from West Ham with plenty of doubters, but he quickly proved every one of them wrong.
Season after season he delivered goals that midfielders simply weren’t supposed to score. Twenty goals? No problem. Important goals? Even better.
Lampard wasn’t blessed with blistering pace or outrageous tricks, but his timing, intelligence and finishing were second to none.
He became Chelsea’s all-time leading scorer despite playing in midfield, helped deliver three Premier League titles, a Champions League and countless other trophies.
Some signings improve a team.
Lampard helped build a dynasty.
Sergio Agüero – Manchester City
There are iconic Premier League moments…
…and then there’s 93:20.
Even if Sergio Agüero had never scored another goal, he’d probably still be remembered forever for that title-winning strike against QPR.
Thankfully for Manchester City, he didn’t stop there.
Agüero arrived from Atlético Madrid and spent the next decade making scoring look ridiculously easy. Whether it was a tap-in, a volley, a curled finish or a thunderbolt into the top corner, he had every finish imaginable.
He scored 184 Premier League goals despite missing plenty of matches through injury and became the player every defender dreaded facing.
Without Agüero, City’s rise into English football’s dominant force almost certainly takes a different path.
Sometimes one signing changes everything.
Cristiano Ronaldo – Manchester United
It’s easy to forget that Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t arrive at Manchester United as a Ballon d’Or winner.
He arrived as a skinny teenager with questionable hair, endless stepovers and enough confidence to fill Old Trafford on his own.
At times he frustrated supporters almost as much as defenders.
Then something clicked.
Sir Alex Ferguson turned raw talent into arguably the best player on the planet. Ronaldo developed into a goalscoring machine, winning three Premier League titles, the Champions League and his first Ballon d’Or before departing for Real Madrid.
His numbers were phenomenal, but it was the fear factor that really stood out.
Every time he picked up the ball, you expected something to happen.
Very few Premier League signings have ever reached the heights Ronaldo eventually did.
Granit Xhaka – Sunderland
A few years ago, putting Granit Xhaka anywhere near a list like this would’ve earned plenty of funny looks.
Football has a habit of changing opinions.
After rebuilding his reputation in Germany, Xhaka has arrived at Sunderland and immediately transformed Régis Le Bris’ midfield. Experience, leadership and the ability to dictate a game were exactly what the Black Cats needed, and he’s brought all three.
For a club looking to establish itself back in the Premier League, signing a player who has won league titles, captained his country and played at the highest level across Europe is a statement.
His influence stretches far beyond what he does with the ball. Younger players naturally look towards him, and Sunderland suddenly have a midfielder who rarely looks flustered, no matter the occasion.
Will he win five Premier League titles like some of the names above? Probably not.
But if Sunderland become an established Premier League club again over the next few years, don’t be surprised if people look back at Xhaka’s arrival as the transfer that kick-started it all.
Yes, I might be a bit biased with this one. But look at it this way: when he joined, Sunderland were tipped to finish bottom. 20th. Relegated without a hope.
Where did they finish? 7th. Grabbing qualification for the Europa League for the first time since 1974. That makes him worthy of the list in my opinion.
Honorable Mentions
Leaving players out of a list like this never gets any easier.
Mohamed Salah became one of the Premier League’s greatest-ever goalscorers. N’Golo Kanté somehow made covering every blade of grass look effortless, while Patrick Vieira, Vincent Kompany and David Silva all have strong claims of their own.
But if you’re talking about transfers that completely changed clubs and defined Premier League eras, it’s difficult to look beyond these five.
