Part two: the transfers Europe made while England spent

While England spent £117m on one player and £116m on another, the rest of Europe rebuilt. Inter signed three England internationals. Juventus fixed a defence with the man who kept breaking it. Bayern went to Eindhoven, PSG went to Amsterdam, and Riyadh bought a 24-year-old rather than a 34-year-old for once. Ten completed deals, none of them to a Premier League club.

1. Gonçalo Ramos — PSG to AC Milan · £64M

A record signing for Milan, and a striker who spent two years at PSG being the answer whenever the plan needed one. Ramos scored a World Cup hat-trick off the bench and still could not settle a starting shirt in Paris. San Siro is a stage that will either finish him or make him.

2. Mika Godts — Ajax to PSG · €55M

Twenty-one, left-footed, and off the Ajax production line for a fee that could reach €55m with add-ons. Godts is the kind of signing PSG have got right more often than not lately: young, direct, and bought before the rest of Europe had finished arguing about him.

3. Crysencio Summerville — West Ham to Al Hilal · £55M

Twenty-four years old, Championship Player of the Season two years ago, and now in Riyadh. The Saudi Pro League has spent three windows buying the back nine of famous careers; £55m for a winger still short of his peak is a different kind of statement, and a harder one for European clubs to shrug off.

4. Ismael Saibari — PSV to Bayern · €50M

Bayern missed on Anthony Gordon and moved for the Eindhoven midfielder instead — €50m, a contract to 2031, and a Morocco international who arrives in the Bundesliga with a reputation for arriving late in the box. PSV have now sold three of that midfield in eighteen months.

5. Cristian Romero — Tottenham to Atlético · €40M

Simeone has spent years being linked with a centre-half who defends like this, and finally has one. Romero is a World Cup winner who plays every duel as though the result depends on it. Tottenham kept a 15% sell-on, which reads like a club that expects to regret the sale.

6. Djed Spence — Tottenham to Inter · €35M

Three years ago he was a Tottenham signing nobody could find a use for, loaned out twice and written off. Now he is a €35m Inter full-back and an England international. The second act is more common than the game admits; it is just rarely this fast.

7. Curtis Jones — Liverpool to Inter · £30M

Twenty-five, a boyhood Liverpool midfielder with a title medal, and gone for £30m because the queue in front of him never shortened. Inter get a player who has done it in the Champions League without ever being anybody's first name on a teamsheet.

8. John Stones — Man City to Inter · FREE

Ten years at City, six league titles, the inverted full-back role invented around him — and out of contract, on a free, at 32. Inter's third England international of the window. Whatever is left of his body, the football brain is the best in the division he has joined.

9. Jhon Lucumí — Bologna to Juventus · €19.5M

€19.5m for the centre-half at the heart of the Bologna side that has been Serie A's most awkward opponent for three seasons. Juventus have bought the specific problem they kept failing to solve, which is a more sensible way to spend than most of this list.

10. Nestory Irankunda — Watford to Sporting · €15M

Adelaide to Bayern to Watford to Lisbon, all before 21. Sporting put an €80m buyout in the contract, which tells you what they think they have bought rather than what they paid. Australia have not had a forward arrive in Europe with this much noise around him in a decade.

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