Who won and lost the transfer window? Assessing Liverpool, Arsenal, Man United, more

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Which is probably a good thing given the overall spending record in the Premier League has been broken again.

Having had two transfer windows this summer -- as FIFA allowed an additional registration period, which ran from June 1 to 10, due to the Club World Cup -- the second period closed at 7 p.m.

Only time will tell if this truly is the greatest transfer window of all time (as some excited individuals have claimed), but it's certainly an eye-popping haul of players.

The Reds broke the British transfer record twice this summer, first to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen for £100m plus a potential £16m in add-ons, then again on deadline day to sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle United for £130m.

Signing striker Benjamin Sesko and goalkeeper Senne Lammens represented a return to their previous strategy of acquiring young talent to develop -- considering they are deep into a painful rebuild, it's the right idea.

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They also cleared out the majority of their unwanted players, most of them permanently.

Every transfer window is an exercise in balance, and it's pretty obvious die Werkself have tipped the scales way too far here in the wrong direction.

Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, Jonathan Tah, Amine Adli, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky, Odilon Kossounou and Piero Hincapié -- all of whom made 20 or more Bundesliga appearances in 2023-24's title win -- left the club this summer!

-- openly complained about the talent drain out of the club this summer, so it's not as if this all happened in secret.

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Leverkusen have been active with incomings, too -- Malik Tillman, Jarell Quansah, Loïc Badé and Eliesse Ben Seghir are all good additions -- but they've launched themselves backward, into a rebuild and as of Sept.

It left them astonishingly short of attacking bodies, forcing them into action.

Paying €75m for Liverpool's 28-year-old winger Luis Díaz has been universally scoffed at as an overpay, but after also failing to sign Stuttgart's Nick Woltemade (who went to Newcastle), it was obvious Bayern were running out of ideas.

On deadline day, they signed Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson for a loan fee of €16.5m plus an obligation of a further €65m -- another huge commitment to a player who is good, but perhaps not great.

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A flurry of deadline day activity brought three signings -- Victor Lindelöf on a free, Jadon Sancho on loan from Manchester United and Harvey Elliott for an eventual £35m package from Liverpool -- but it's not enough to paper over what was a frustrating and genuinely uncomfortable summer window for Aston Villa.

Operating under extreme cost-cutting measures following a settlement agreement and fine from UEFA, Villa were faced with the task of at least treading water (and of course trying to get better) while reducing their wage bill by 20-25%, or else be banned from European competition in the future.