Manchester United, Coventry City and Leeds United have the best record with senior summer signings since 2022 among this season's Premier League clubs. Across four summers, 46%, 44% and 39% of their signings played regularly and performed at league level or better in their first season, against 24% across all 11,865 senior signings in our 20 leagues. Newcastle (11%) and Nottingham Forest (16%) have the lowest rates. Before anyone reads too much into it, luck explains a lot of the spread, and we show how much below.
The Table: 2026/27 Premier League Clubs
| Club | Signings | Worked | Worked % | Adjusted % | Avg Impact | Regulars % | Avg Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Manchester UnitedTop flight all four summers | 26 | 12 | 46% | 39% | 5.2 | 54% | 6.1 |
| 2. CoventryAll four summers outside the top flight | 25 | 11 | 44% | 37% | 5.6 | 56% | 6.5 |
| 3. Leeds2 of 4 summers in the top flight | 33 | 13 | 39% | 35% | 5.9 | 55% | 6.5 |
| 4. ArsenalTop flight all four summers | 22 | 8 | 36% | 32% | 4.9 | 45% | 6.6 |
| 5. BrentfordTop flight all four summers | 16 | 6 | 38% | 32% | 5.2 | 50% | 5.7 |
| 6. TottenhamTop flight all four summers | 23 | 8 | 35% | 31% | 5.0 | 57% | 5.4 |
| 7. Manchester CityTop flight all four summers | 17 | 6 | 35% | 31% | 5.6 | 41% | 7.3 |
| 8. Hull CityAll four summers outside the top flight | 41 | 12 | 29% | 28% | 4.9 | 34% | 5.9 |
| 9. LiverpoolTop flight all four summers | 20 | 6 | 30% | 28% | 3.9 | 35% | 6.2 |
| 10. ChelseaTop flight all four summers | 31 | 9 | 29% | 28% | 4.2 | 39% | 6.1 |
| 11. Ipswich1 of 4 summers in the top flight | 32 | 9 | 28% | 27% | 4.8 | 34% | 5.8 |
| 12. Aston VillaTop flight all four summers | 19 | 5 | 26% | 25% | 3.7 | 26% | 5.3 |
| 13. EvertonTop flight all four summers | 29 | 7 | 24% | 24% | 4.5 | 41% | 5.4 |
| 14. BrightonTop flight all four summers | 22 | 5 | 23% | 23% | 4.7 | 23% | 6.8 |
| 15. Sunderland1 of 4 summers in the top flight | 33 | 7 | 21% | 22% | 4.3 | 42% | 5.3 |
| 16. FulhamTop flight all four summers | 26 | 5 | 19% | 21% | 4.5 | 38% | 5.4 |
| 17. Crystal PalaceTop flight all four summers | 22 | 4 | 18% | 20% | 3.7 | 27% | 5.5 |
| 18. BournemouthTop flight all four summers | 23 | 4 | 17% | 20% | 5.3 | 48% | 5.4 |
| 19. Nottingham ForestTop flight all four summers | 51 | 8 | 16% | 17% | 4.1 | 27% | 4.9 |
| 20. NewcastleTop flight all four summers | 18 | 2 | 11% | 16% | 4.3 | 28% | 5.3 |
Senior summer signings 2022 to 2025, first season at the club. Regulars = half the league minutes he was fit for or more. Avg Score = Scout52 Score for signings with 600+ league minutes. Darker blue = higher.
Three Clubs Clear the Luck Line
A perfectly average club that makes 25 senior signings will see somewhere between 12% and 40% of them work, just from the run of the ball. Only three of the 20 clubs sit above that range.
Manchester United: 12 of 26
United's signings have played. Lisandro Martínez, Casemiro and André Onana in 2022 and 2023, Noussair Mazraoui and Matthijs de Ligt in 2024, and Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo in 2025 all took most of the minutes they were fit for, and Cunha's first season produced a Signing Impact of 9.3, the best of any United signing in the span. This measure doesn't judge fees or league position. A club can sign players who play and perform at league level and still have a poor season, and United have had those.
Coventry City: 11 of 25
Coventry made all four summers' signings as a Championship club, so their players are judged against Championship players. Jack Rudoni (from Huddersfield, 2024), Milan van Ewijk (Heerenveen, 2023) and Bobby Thomas (Burnley, 2023) each played 80% or more of the minutes they were fit for with a Score of 7.5 or better, and Haji Wright (Antalyaspor, 2023) added goals at 7.0. Their test now is whether that eye for Championship-level value carries into the Premier League.
Leeds United: 13 of 33
Leeds split the four summers between the Premier League (2022 and 2025) and the Championship (2023 and 2024). Ao Tanaka and Jayden Bogle in 2024 and Anton Stach in 2025 were among the best signings any of these clubs made, each playing 80% or more of the minutes he was fit for with a Score above 7.5. Stach is the player we picked as the closest statistical match to Elliot Anderson.
The Bottom of the Table
Newcastle: 2 of 18
Newcastle's low number has clear causes. Three goalkeepers signed as cover (Loris Karius, Odysseas Vlachodimos and John Ruddy) played no league minutes, and every senior signing counts here, whatever the role. Sandro Tonali's 2023/24 ban also counts against them, because the minutes test excuses injuries but not suspensions. Nick Pope and Sven Botman played almost every minute they were fit for in 2022/23 but scored just under the line (4.4 and 5.4), and Harvey Barnes scored 7.4 in 2023/24 but played only 40% of the minutes he was fit for. The two that worked were Alexander Isak in 2022 and Malick Thiaw, from AC Milan in 2025, who played 89% of the minutes he was fit for with a Score of 7.5. Some of Newcastle's best recruitment, Anthony Gordon and Kieran Trippier, came in January windows, which this table doesn't include. This summer's right-back signing, Amar Dedić, isn't in this table yet.
Nottingham Forest: 8 of 51
Forest made 51 senior signings in four summers, more than any other club here, including 19 in 2022 alone after promotion. With that many arrivals, many can't play: only 28% became regulars. The players who did settle include Morgan Gibbs-White in 2022 and Elliot Anderson in 2024, who moved on to Manchester City this summer.
How Much of This Is Luck?
| Club signs | Average club, low end | Average club, high end |
|---|---|---|
| 12 signings | 8% | 42% |
| 20 signings | 10% | 40% |
| 30 signings | 10% | 37% |
| 50 signings | 14% | 34% |
90% of outcomes for a club whose true rate is the 24% average, simulated 100,000 times.
Two things make club rankings like this shaky. The first is sample size: most clubs here made between 16 and 33 senior signings in four summers, and an average club with 20 signings can show anything from 10% to 40%. The second is that a club's record doesn't carry over well. Across the 342 clubs in our 20 leagues with six or more senior signings in both halves of the span, the correlation between their 2022–23 rate and their 2024–25 rate is just 0.23. Recruitment departments change, coaches change, owners change, and the rate changes with them.
So read the table as a record of what has happened, not a rating of who is good at signing players. The things that do hold up across every club are about how and when clubs sign.
What Clubs Can Control
Get deals done before the final ten days
Signings made from 21 August to the deadline became regulars 32% of the time, against 39% for June and July deals and 39% for early August. They score just as well when they play (average Score 5.7 against 5.7), so the problem is time on the pitch: no pre-season, a team already picked, and often a move made because another one fell through. In the Premier League the gap is wider still: 52% of early-August signings became regulars, against 34% of deadline deals.
Don't rebuild the whole squad at once
Clubs that brought in four or fewer senior signings in a summer saw 26% of them work. At 15 or more it fell to 21%, with average Signing Impact dropping from 4.91 to 4.56. It's a modest effect, but it runs in a straight line, and it fits Forest's story above.
Go back to sellers who have delivered
| Signing from | Signings | Worked % | Regulars % | Avg Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First signing from that club | 10,197 | 24% | 37% | 4.7 |
| Repeat: an earlier one worked | 530 | 30% | 42% | 5.2 |
| Repeat: earlier ones didn't work | 1,138 | 23% | 37% | 4.8 |
Senior summer signings 2022 to 2025, all 20 leagues.
When a club goes back to a selling club that has already sold it a signing that worked, 30% of the new signings work, against 24% for a first signing from that club. A trusted relationship, and a style of player the scouts already know, seems to count for something.
Where This Summer's Moves Fit
Several of the 2026 deals we analysed are with clubs from this table. Morgan Rogers and Danny Welbeck joined a Chelsea side at 29%. Arsenal (36%) added Ezri Konsa, Christos Tzolis and Bruno Guimarães. Manchester City (35%) signed Elliot Anderson and Enzo Fernández. Liverpool (30%) made Bradley Barcola their big move, Brentford (38%) bought Mamadou Sangaré, and Brighton (23%) replaced Carlos Baleba with Chema Andrés. Barcola and Baleba were late-window deals, the group that history says plays less in season one. Our second verdict on the 19 summer transfers tracks how each one is going.
Two clubs stand out for a different reason. Manchester City's signings averaged a Score of 7.3 when they played and Brighton's 6.8, the two highest here, yet only 41% and 23% became regulars in season one. Strong squads, and in Brighton's case a habit of signing players to develop and sell on, make first-season minutes hard to come by, even for good signings.
Timing and focus beat reputation
A club's signing record moves around a lot from one window to the next, and most of the gap between clubs in the middle of this table is noise. What holds up everywhere is how a club recruits: deals done before the last ten days, a handful of targeted signings rather than a rebuild, and repeat business with clubs that have delivered before.
Those are decisions a recruitment department can actually make. They need a clear list of targets early in the window, and a record of who has watched which players and where they came from, so the work done in spring is still there when the window opens.
The Bottom Line
Manchester United, Coventry and Leeds have had the most senior signings play and perform since 2022, and Newcastle and Forest the fewest, with Newcastle's figure dragged down by back-up keepers and a ban, and Forest's by sheer volume. But a club's rate barely carries from one two-year spell to the next, so treat the table as history, not a forecast. The clearer lessons are about timing and volume: late deals and big rebuilds pay off less often, wherever the club sits in the table.
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