"A player is worth what another club is willing to pay for him, the rest is subjective speculation" has been one of my mantras since I started covering transfers. There are certainly many factors- ability, age, scarcity at position, number of suitors- that contribute to the value we attach to a player- but at the end of the day, a concrete tangible offer that is accepted is what a player is worth at that specific point in my time.

 

Of course that can change rather quickly- take Paulo Dybala and Juan Manuael Iturbe, the two most expensive players in Serie A the past two years. Iturbe's value plummeted so much that the best offer he got this summer was a loan with option to buy from Lyon- and this is after playing on loan at Bournemouth.

 

On the other hand, this time last year many were saying Juventus grossly overpaid for Dybala because he "had just one good season like Iturbe, and they overpaid for a prospect". Now Dybala is easily worth at least double the €40 million Juventus paid Palermo, a testament to his talent, young age and future marketability.

So which of the players that changed teams this summer will become great values like Dybala? There are certainly many candidates in all of the top leagues, so let’s start with Dybala’s current team Juventus who end up having a stronger team despite Pogba and Morata’s departures.  

Had Miralem Pjanic arrived after Pogba’s return to Old Trafford, many would be saying the bianconeri had found the ideal replacement for a fraction of what they received from Manchester United. Juventus was able to take advantage of Pjanic’s reasonable exit clause of around 35 million euro (the midfielder waived the part of the fee that was due to him lowering the figure even more), and now find themselves with a midfielder in his prime with the creativity and ability on set pieces they lacked since Pirlo left for MLS. Juventus also was able to sign Dani Alves for free after he rescinded his contract with Barcelona, and got great values in Benatia (loan with option to buy for a total of 20 million) and Cuadrado by taking advantage of the players’ desire to return to Serie A. While Juventus certainly didn’t get good value on Higuain, they also weren’t going to be able to get a comparable striker to come play in Italy, especially for wages below 8 million euro net a season.

 

Napoli certainly reinvested the money they received for Hiiguain very well. As usual, the partenopei targeted younger players who will play for them for lower wages and who will have higher resale value down the road. Milik scored two goals in his debut at the San Paolo stadium, while Zielinski, Rog and the excellent Diawara will bring tremendous depth to Sarri’s midfield. Napoli is banking that these four players will follow in Koulibaly’s footsteps. The Senegalese defender’s value sky rocketed after being pursued by many top clubs, but he will stay at least one more season on Sarri’s squad. Napoli struck early to sign Lorenzo Tonelli for a very reasonable 13 million euro bonuses included, he arrived from Sarri’s former squad Empoli. Tonelli was supposed to become Koulibaly’s partner but a recent injury forced the partneopei to return on the market to sign Maksimovic.

 

While Torino got an excellent return for Makismovic (around 25 million euro) the same cannot be said for their former captain Kamil Glik who joined As Monaco for 12 million euro. The Polish defender had established himself as one of the best centre backs in Italy, and his departure will ensure that Joe Hart will have plenty of chances to shine in Italy. Glik could start for many Premier League clubs and almost every top team in Italy in my opinion. While Glik was the centre piece of their efforts, Monaco deserves a lot of credit for rebuilding their defence for less than City spent on Stones. In addition to Glik, Monaco also signed two young fullbacks with experience in Ligue 1 in Sibide’ and Mendy. Another team in France who got great value on defence was Lyon, who replaced Umtiti with the highly rated Argentine centre back Emanuel Mammana who was previously pursued by Milan, Napoli and Fiorentina. Mammana arrived for under 9 million euro and his value will likely increase considerably since he’s only 20 years old.

 

Two former Serie A players left Italy to join la Liga for deals that could be easily seen as below their market value. Franco Vazquez had worked wonders at Palermo playing with Dybala, and was one of the last true “trequartisti” left in Serie A. He joined Sevilla for around 15 million where he has already had the chances to show his great dribbling ability. Atletico Madrid used Diego Simeone’s connections to Italy to complete the deal for Sime Vrsaljko, one of the best right backs in Serie A especially at pushing forward. On the other hand, the Colchoneros could have probably received more for Oliver Torres who joined Porto on a permanent basis for 15 million euro.

 

Let’s move to England where Manchester City is known for being big spenders. The Citizens certainly spent significantly on Stones, Sane’ and Gabriel Jesus but they were also able to sign Nolito and Gundogan for great values. While Arsenal did spend big on Xhaka and Mustafi, we have to at least acknowledge that Wenger seems to have finally accepted that the financial parameters on the transfer have changed- and to address team needs well you usually have to spend accordingly. Kante’ is also proving at Chelsea that his sensational season at Leicester wasn’t a fluke.

 

Let’s close in Germany, where Borussia Dortmund has reclaimed the title as the football hipsters’ favourite team. Tuchel’s club got a great return on Mkhitaryan who had an expiring contract, they also cashed on Hummels and Gundogan- while these are very tough losses they have reinvested the funds very well. Gotze’s return got most of the headlines, but the signing of Ousmane Dembele’ may end up being the best deal of the summer considering his electric skills and young age. If that weren’t enough, Dortmund also got good value on Bartra and Raphael Guerreiro.  

Of course only time will tell if any of these deals will be good values or not- we saw with Iturbe and Dybala how quickly a sporting director can go from looking like a genius to a fool. As they say in Italy, in the end “decide il campo” (the pitch decides).


David Amoyal


David Amoyal is the manager of the English page on Gianluca Di Marzio's website where he also writes weekly articles. David covers transfer news for ESPN, and has appeared on numerous radio shows on Sirius XM in the US as well as TalkSport in the UK. David is the former editor in chief of Vavel USA and his articles have been featured in many sites around the world. You can follow him on Twitter @DavidAmoyal