The 5 Best Premier League Transfers of 2013/14 Season

Now that the season is drawing to an end its clear which of the Premier League transfers have been a success and which have not. This top 5 list isn’t necessarily the top five best players, it is the best purchases and factors such as their transfer fee, impact for their new club, do they stand out in their new team and were they a needed purchase for their club are, all factored into this list.
Before we go into the list of the top five signings, let me mention some of the good signings of last summer and this January.

Marko Arnautović: Werder Bremen – Stoke City £2m
Dejan Lovren: Lyon – Southampton £8.5m
Mesut Özil: Real Madrid – Arsenal £42.5
Juan Mata: Chelsea – Man Utd £37.1m
Jesús Navas: Sevilla – Man City £14.9m
Álvaro Negredo: Sevilla – Man City £16.4
Gerard Deulofeu: Barcelona – Everton Season Long Loan
Steven Caulker: Tottenham – Cardiff £8m
Tom Huddlestone: Tottenham – Hull £5.25m
James McCarthy: Wigan – Everton £13m
Nathan Redmond: Birmingham City – Norwich £3m
André Schürrle: Bayer Leverkusen – Chelsea £18m
Mohamed Salah: FC Basel – Chelsea £11m
Fernandinho: Shakhtar Donetsk – Man City £34m
Nemanja Matić: Benfica – Chelsea £21m
Willian: Anzhi Makhachkala – Chelsea £32m
Simon Mignolet: Sunderland – Liverpool £9m
Curtis Davies: Birmingham City – Hull City £2.25
Wilfried Bony: Vitesse Arnhem – Swansea £12m

• Jason Puncheon: Southampton – Crystal Palace Season Long Loan but brought for £1.75m in January

Perhaps the bargain of the season and one of the factors why Crystal Palace have secured their Premier League status for next season. Puncheon has been very important to Pulis’ side and kept Palace’s January signing, Thomas Ince out of the squad. Ever since that penalty miss against Tottenham, Puncheon has given his all into every performance, with an extremely high work rate and scoring 7 goals this season.

• Loïc Rémy: QPR – Newcastle United Season Long Loan

The French international striker didn’t have enough time to make an impact last season in the English game, but this season Remy has proved his worth. Remy’s campaign this season has been plagued with injuries both at the start of the season and after Christmas but was one of the majoring factors in Newcastle’s 33 point total on January 1st this season. Since then Remy has only made four full 90 minute appearances in the league and Newcastle have been struggling for goals, only managing 13 points since the start of 2014.

• Christian Eriksen: Ajax – Tottenham £11m

Eriksen has been the only transfer worthy of recognition in the Tottenham squad that saw big money players head into the club last summer to make up for Gareth Bale’s big money move to Real Madrid. The likes of Eric Lamela, Roberto Soldado, Paulinho and Chadli have all failed to impress during the course of the season and had it not been for Christian Eriksen, then the entire Bale fortune would have vanished into thin air. He has scored 7 times this season from 22 appearances, getting 8 assists along the way and has been the only bright spark in a very dull Tottenham side this season.
 

• Gareth Barry: Man City – Everton Season Long Loan

Barry is a vital edition to Roberto Martinez’s squad after his summer loan move to Everton and has been the rock in the centre of midfield that is needed in any side looking to play European football next season. He is a fantastic passer of the ball, a great tackler and very versatile when it comes to positions in midfield, though this year he has played the holding midfielder role the majority of the time that has allowed the likes of Ross Barkley to break through into the side in an attacking midfield role.
   

• Romelu Lukaku: Chelsea – Everton Season Long Loan

Lukaku is a lethal finisher with enough strength to trouble any defence in Europe. The 20-year-old Belgium striker is another Belgium talent that has emerged over the past few years and will be a key player at the World Cup this year for his national side. Lukaku looked certain to break though into the Chelsea side after the 17 goals he scored for West Brom last year, but Chelsea again offloaded the striker on loan but this time it was Everton who secured his services for the year. Lukaku has scored 13 times this season and another factor into the impressive season that Everton have had.