Ennen kautta 2026-27: the summer transfer market, and what recent seasons teach
Season 2026-27 has not started yet, but there is already plenty of movement. The summer window is open and clubs are building towards the opener. We look first at what summer 2026 has brought so far, then at what recent seasons teach about what renewal usually leads to.
Summer 2026: transfer window open
The summer transfer window is under way. 20 clubs are already moving, and money spent so far is €1 350 milj. The biggest spender is Tottenham Hotspur (€267m), followed by Manchester City (€175) and Brighton & Hove Albion (€126). The window is open into the early season, so the order can still move.
Summer transfer spend, top spenders. Source: Transfermarkt.
Money brings names, not a finished team. Even the biggest budget is only measured in August, when the new parts are fitted together, and that is the question of the season's first weeks. We track who commits now and weigh it against the season ahead.
Context from recent seasons
What does renewal do to a team? The best answer is what was just seen. In 2025-26 the league renewed itself hard, and on the pitch it looked like this.
The same 17 clubs, promoted sides excluded, took into their squads in 2025-26 a total of 285 new players. That is on average 16.8 new names per team. Chelsea renewed hardest, with 22 of a 40-player pool new. You do not glance past a number like that: in August nearly every other player stood in a new shirt next to someone whose name he did not yet know by heart.
At the same time the dugout moved just as much. The manager changed mid-season 22 times. When the squad and the coaching renew hand in hand, it is no longer just the line-up that renews but the whole shared language the team plays in. That language is learned in matches, not in training.
New players per club, the top. ● season 2025-26, source line-ups.
Scoring rate: the league settled
The goal rate levelled off. It peaked at 1.62 goals per match the season before, and in 2025-26 it returned to 1.34; the three-season arc ran from a starting point of 1.45 to a peak of 1.62 and back near the start. The attacking was there, Man City scored 86 and Crystal Palace conceded only 44, but the league's collective pace fell.
Goal rate by season. ● computed from match results.
The same applies to the season ahead. When the squad and the coaching renew at once, the opening rounds are noise. Combination play is slow to learn, and it is not learned until it has been played wrong many times. That is why the season's first results should be read as tuning, not testimony.
Season 2026-27 starts soon: money moves and squads change, but what it produces only the season will record. Measured so far: €1.350 M moving in the window, 20 clubs involved.
What we do not measure yet
These league-level picks are ready, but they have no reliable source yet, so we publish no number for them until the data is in place. Honesty before coverage.