The ten transfers you might have missed

The window that produced a British record twice over also moved a lot of players nobody wrote a front page about. Some of them will decide seasons. Here are ten completed deals that went through with a fraction of the noise.

1. Andy Robertson — Liverpool to Tottenham · FREE

Nine years, two Champions League finals, a Premier League title and a place in the best full-back partnership the division has seen this century — and he left on a free. Robertson had already lost his shirt to Milos Kerkez and declined to open extension talks, so his contract simply ran out on 30 June. Juventus came late. He had given Tottenham his word.

2. Raúl Jiménez — Fulham to Wolves · FREE

Back to Molineux, where he was the best striker in the club's modern history before a fractured skull at the Emirates in 2020 nearly ended everything. Fulham let him go for nothing. Wolves get a 35-year-old who still knows exactly where the goal is, and a crowd that will sing his name from the first minute.

3. Illan Meslier — Leeds to Arsenal · FREE

Arsenal signed a goalkeeper who has started more Premier League and Championship matches than most players his age have played, and paid nothing for him. Meslier's Leeds contract expired. Whether he is a No. 1 or an insurance policy is the question Mikel Arteta has not answered.

4. Piero Hincapié — Leverkusen to Arsenal · £34.5M

The loan became permanent, which is the least dramatic way an established international centre-half ever changes hands. Hincapié can play left-back and left centre-back in a back three, which is precisely the shape Arsenal keep reaching for when Gabriel is unavailable.

5. Valentin Barco — Strasbourg to Chelsea · €40M

Chelsea's transfer policy in one line: a 22-year-old Argentine left-back with a Boca Juniors upbringing and a season of Ligue 1 behind him, bought before anybody outside Strasbourg had made their mind up about him. He is either the next one or he is a loan waiting to happen.

6. Marcos Senesi — Bournemouth to Tottenham · FREE

Bournemouth lost an established Premier League centre-half for nothing. Senesi started more than a hundred games on the south coast and leaves with an Argentina cap to his name. Tottenham did not have to bid against anyone.

7. Thomas Meunier — Lille to Sunderland · FREE

Sunderland's window has been about experience, and this is the clearest example of it — a Belgium international with a Champions League pedigree and more than sixty caps, arriving free at 34. He will not play every week. He is not meant to.

8. Harry Wilson — Fulham to Leeds · FREE

Fulham's most reliable source of a goal from midfield left on a free, and Leeds took him. Wilson is 29, has a set-piece delivery that flatters everyone around him, and has spent a decade being slightly undervalued at every club he has played for.

9. Maxence Lacroix — Crystal Palace to Chelsea · £51M

Eighteen months after Crystal Palace paid Wolfsburg £18m for him, Chelsea signed him to a contract running to 2032. Lacroix is quick enough to defend a high line and aggressive enough to be booked for it, which is a fair summary of what Chelsea have needed at the back.

10. James Trafford — Man City to Leeds · £40M

A goalkeeper who has now been bought by Manchester City, sold by Manchester City, promoted with Burnley, relegated with Burnley and capped by England, all before turning 24. Leeds paid a club-record £40m to make him the most expensive British goalkeeper in history. There is a very good chance this is the one where he settles.

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