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Four deadline day signings to watch out for in the Premier League

By on September 2, 2016

Premier League football is on international break, giving new deadline day arrivals a week to settle into their new environment before their debuts next weekend. These are five of the most intriguing signings to watch out when the Premier League returns:

David Luiz to Chelsea

Chelsea re-signed Brazilian centerback David Luiz from Paris Saint-Germain for a fee reported to be in the region of £34 million in a surprise deadline day move. The twenty-nine-year-old defender left London for Paris in a move worth roughly £40m in 2014 but now follows former teammate Zlatan Ibrahimovic on his way to the now-richer Premier League.

He first joined Chelsea from Benfica in 2011 and made his name as a skillful, yet somewhat error-prone centerback in over 146 appearances in his first tenure at the club. He was a part of the team that won the Champions League and FA Cup in 2012 and also established himself at the heart of defense for the Brazil national team. He has been capped fifty-seven times in total.

Luiz won the French Ligue 1 in both of his years with PSG, although he fell short on the ultimate goal of bringing Champions League silverware to France.

Having completed a medical with at Stamford Bridge, he has now tied his future to the Blues for the next three years. He might not be a typical Antonio Conte defender in his flamboyance on the ball and charismatic persona, but his presence will be a breath of fresh air for the Blues.

Jack Wilshere to Bournemouth

Arsenal’s transfer business is typically discussed online more thoroughly than that of any other team in the Premier League, so it’s interesting to note that there was very little speculation regarding the future of Jack Wilshere before the club took the intriguing step of sending the English midfielder on a season-long loan to Bournemouth.

Wilshere has been with Arsenal since the age of ten, joining from Luton Town’s Academy, bar a brief loan spell to Bolton Wanderers in 2010. He first broke out onto the scene as a sixteen-year-old in 2008, but his career has stagnated in recent years, hindered by a series of well-documented injuries. Finally, Wenger has taken the decision to send him on a year-long loan to Bournemouth (the player having rejected overtures from AC Milan and Roma) after many failed attempts at reintroducing the midfielder to Premier League football.

There might be some culture shock involved in the transition to the southwest coast, then, but it’s nothing compared to the mental and physical barriers he’ll need to overcome in order to succeed at Bournemouth. The Cherries will be crossing their fingers that Wilshere can maintain his injury-free start to the season, having enjoyed a rare uninterrupted preseason with Arsenal.

Moussa Sissoko to Tottenham Hotspur

Moussa Sissoko’s £30 million transfer to Tottenham Hotspur was undoubtedly the most dramatic move of deadline day, dominating televisions headlines. The twenty-seven-year-old winger had drawn numerous suitors after an impressive Euro 2016 tournament with France, including the likes of Real Madrid, but Spurs pipped Everton to his signature in the final hours of the window.

Sissoko penned a five-year deal at White Hart Lane, leaving Newcastle United after three years. The winger joined the Magpies from Toulouse in 2013 but was always likely to leave following the club’s relegation last season.

Islam Slimani to Leicester City

With a 1-1-1 start season, Leicester City evidently haven’t able to maintain all of the momentum from their title-winning romp last season. However, Claudio Ranieri is hoping to inject a renewed sense of belief into the team with the club-record £29 million signing twenty-eight-year-old striker Islam Slimani from Portuguese side Sporting CP.

Slimani is Riyad Mahrez’s Algerian international teammate, having scored twenty-three goals in forty-three appearances for Algeria, and will look to establish their connection with the national team at the club level. He scored forty-eight goals in eighty-two games in three years at Sporting since moving to Europe from Algeria and if he can maintain but half of that record in the Premier League, that adds ten goals to Leicester’s roster. For such a price, though, Ranieri’s aspirations for Slimani will undoubtedly be far higher.

Honorable mentions:

Wilfried Bony (Manchester City) and Bruno Martins Indi (FC Porto) on loan to Stoke City

Georges-Kevin Nkoudou (Olympique de Marseille) to Tottenham Hotspur for £9.4m

Didier Ndong to Sunderland for £13.6m

Homepage photo credit: Clément Bucco-Lechat [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.