Ranking the £138.4m January Recruits: Which Debuts Will Actually Be Worth the Hype?

The January transfer window has served its verdict, and everyone's agreed on one thing: Tottenham got the rough end of the stick.

Now the dust has settled, focus shifts to those January acquisitions still waiting to pull on their new colours in anger. The question is: which debuts should we actually be marking in our calendars? There's only one sensible approach to settling this—a completely subjective ranking.

19) Fraser Forster (Bournemouth)

Bournemouth's appeal to the 37-year-old was all about "trajectory and ambition," though what really got him through the door was his availability as a free agent and the fact that Will Dennis's back injury had left them short. A six-month stint where nothing goes dramatically wrong would count as a win.

18) Christos Mandas (Bournemouth)

Forster warmed the bench for five matches, nervously hoping his number wouldn't get called. Then Mandas pitched up on loan from Lazio and the pecking order suddenly became crystal clear—Forster didn't even make the squad list.

17) Keiber Lamadrid (West Ham)

Nuno Espirito Santo practically admitted this was a club decision rather than his own recruitment crusade. He was vocal about wanting players for "now," not "the future," and Lamadrid—a 22-year-old on loan, fresh from Venezuela—frankly "is not really ready to play."

16) Jocelin Ta Bi (Sunderland)

Sporting director Kristjaan Speakman promised they'd "integrate him patiently," which is just as well given the ankle injury he arrived with. At 20 with just one full professional season under his belt—and that came in Israel's second tier—patience seems the sensible route.

15) Luca Netz (Nottingham Forest)

Forest look to have pulled off a bargain with the 22-year-old German youth international and his 124 Bundesliga appearances for a mere £2m. Borussia Monchengladbach's contract situation explains the fee, and Neco Williams might just hand him an unexpected early chance to prove himself.

14) Adam Armstrong (Wolves)

Wolves might genuinely be the most fundamentally relegated team in Premier League history. Fair play to them, really.

13) Brian Madjo (Aston Villa)

No disrespect to the son of journeyman Stafford Rangers stalwart Guy, but the 17-year-old hardly looks poised to smash through Villa's first-team glass ceiling imminently.

12) Evann Guessand (Crystal Palace)

Unai Emery's already spelled out exactly how he'd have handled Guessand at Villa had they only agreed to a permanent deal with appearance clauses. Instead, they dropped a full £26m on him last summer. Crystal Palace are hoping his next Premier League contribution comes soon—it's been 13 blanks so far.

11) Souza (Tottenham)

Probably already injured without even knowing it.

10) Alysson (Aston Villa)

Villa and Emery will likely turn this into an absurdly shrewd £10m investment before eventually having to flog him to appease the PSR police. With Alysson not leaving his teens until May, there's no rush.

9) Stefan Ortega (Nottingham Forest)

The 11th goalkeeper Forest have recruited since their 2022 promotion might actually be their first proper number one. It'll be intriguing to see Ortega reclaim that role, though 56 appearances across three-and-a-half years at Manchester City hardly suggests he's been left to gather dust. First, he'll need to prise the gloves from Angus Gunn's hands.

8) Angel Gomes (Wolves)

This isn't quite the triumphant Premier League homecoming Gomes was being mooted for when he was England's golden boy. Those whispers of interest from Manchester United, Newcastle and Liverpool feel like ancient history now. Wolves have a buy option on their loan of yet another Gomes, and he should significantly sharpen their midfield. He doesn't look like a Championship-adjacent prospect.

7) Nilson Angulo (Sunderland)

Regis Le Bris acknowledged that the £15m forward "will probably need time to connect with his team-mates and the league, but you never know, sometimes it is really quick, sometimes it takes time." He's taken the spot vacated by Simon Adingra. Sunderland have apparently overlooked the rather obvious red flag: Brighton didn't think an Ecuadorean player was worth signing.

6) Axel Disasi (West Ham)

Could he be West Ham's answer to finally keeping a clean sheet? Almost certainly not, but it's worth checking. Unless they pair him with Max Kilman.

5) Tyrique George (Everton)

Jack Grealish's season-ending injury opened up a premium loan slot at a Big Six club—the kind that could either launch a career or break Everton hearts. The 20-year-old has exactly one Premier League goal and one Premier League start to his name, and he should comfortably jump ahead of Tyler Dibling in David Moyes's pecking order.

4) Kaye Furo (Brentford)

An £8.7m outlay on a teenager with eight first-team appearances is speculation pure and simple. But Brentford thrive in this territory, spinning modest initial investments into eye-watering profits down the road. They plucked him from Club Brugge—the same outfit that developed Igor Thiago—and few places offer better odds of unlocking his attacking talent.

3) Lorenzo Lucca (Nottingham Forest)

He's four inches taller than Chris Wood. Sean Dyche must be stopped.

2) Jorgen Strand Larsen (Crystal Palace)

If the £5m in add-ons get triggered, the initial £43m would balloon into a fee that makes Strand Larsen the third priciest transfer ever between two non-Big Six Premier League clubs. Amadou Onana's Villa move after leaving Everton worked out nicely. Anthony Elanga's Newcastle switch for £55m? Not so much. This could genuinely go either way. Palace are banking on getting the Strand Larsen who rattled in 14 goals in his debut Wolves season, not the one who can't even command a starting spot for one of the worst Premier League sides in living memory.

1) Oscar Bobb (Fulham)

There's legitimate concern Manchester City might be facing another Cole Palmer scenario, though a 20 per cent sell-on clause and matching rights if Fulham ever move him on provide rather more insurance this time. Bobb's departure wasn't the script when he emerged as City's latest academy wonderkid, but the summer 2024 leg fracture essentially halted his trajectory.

Fulham have secured a potential superstar, someone Pep Guardiola holds "a lot of incredible, good opinions about." Though Guardiola also basically suggested Bobb wasn't properly injured during this campaign. That's the recipe for some delightfully unnecessary post-match compliments slung across the touchline.