The best and worst transfers between Big Six clubs since 2010

The current transfer window has seen extreme movement between Big Six clubs.

With Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Mudryk and Tosin Adarabioyo all leaving Chelsea on deadline day, we have now reached the mark of seven players moving from one Big Six side to another this summer. Mostly thanks to Spurs, who signed five footballers in those deals.

That equals the most of any single window in Premier League history, alongside the summers of 2011 and 2008.

But while there have been certified hits among those deals, there has been a fair share of misses as well. Here, Squawka lists – in no particular order – the five best and five worst since 2010 – which is around when the concept of ‘Big Six’ actually became a thing.

We did not take into consideration players who are still active from their transfers – such as Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz, Mason Mount and so on.

Best

Kyle Walker (Tottenham → Manchester City, 2017)

Very few people thought Kyle Walker was worth the £50 million the Citizens paid Tottenham for him. Gary Lineker famously joked at the time about ‘how much he would cost if he could cross the ball’.

While he didn’t exactly address the crossing issues, he very much compensated in other areas. Pep Guardiola transformed his game and his speed and tenacity became crucial parts of the Spaniard’s system. By the end of Walker’s eight-year spell at Etihad Stadium, he had won 17 trophies – as a starter for most of the time.

Raheem Sterling (Liverpool → Manchester City, 2015)

This isn’t the first time Raheem Sterling will be on this list. But as much as Liverpool fans hated him for moving to Man City back in 2015, he certainly has no regrets over that transfer.

And for a moment it did look like he was going to be a ‘flop’. His first two seasons at the Etihad were quite underwhelming considering how the hefty price tag of £50 million.

But, once again, Guardiola worked his magic and turned Sterling from a pacy winger with lack of end product to a goalscoring and assisting machine.

Sterling went on to score 55 goals and assist a further 22 between the 2017/18 and 2019/20 Premier League campaigns. Across seven years in Manchester, he won 11 trophies.

James Milner (Manchester City → Liverpool, 2015)

We mentioned previously how Liverpool fans may have hated Sterling for going to Manchester City. But they probably hated the board just as much for bringing back James Milner – who also used to play out wide at the time – from them in that same window. Little did they know how wrong they were, though.

Milner arrived as a veteran, experienced and versatile squad rotation player. But he quickly became one of Jurgen Klopp’s most trusted men and a locker room leader – a symbol of the German’s remarkable and victorious tenure from 2015 until 2024.

Right-back, left-back, central midfielder, right winger, you name it. Milner played – and delivered – in any position Klopp asked him to. He arrived with doubts from fans and left a club legend with seven trophies during his time at Anfield.

Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea → Liverpool, 2013)

Daniel Sturridge played mostly as a winger at Chelsea, despite showing great golascoring prowess on loan at Bolton Wanderers in 2011. Liverpool made sure to make the most of his skillset when signing him in 2013.

He scored 10 goals in 14 games in the second half of the 2012/13 season. And then went on to enjoy a historic partnership with Luis Suarez in 2013/14, having the likes of Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho supporting them.

From 2014 onwards, the striker started collecting injury issues. And he didn’t fit Jurgen Klopp’s system as well as he did under Brendan Rodgers. Still, he managed to rack up 67 goals and 19 assists in 145 appearances for the Reds – at a great rate of one goal involvement every 108 minutes.

He was also a part of the squad that won the 2018/19 Champions League, playing seven matches, scoring once and assisting once.

Robin van Persie (Arsenal → Manchester United, 2012)

Robin van Persie’s time at Manchester United was quite short, but the instant impact was too great to dismiss here.

Coming off the best season of his career, in which he bagged 30 goals and 11 assists while playing all 38 of Arsenal’s games in the 2011/12 Premier League, he joined fierce rivals Manchester United after announcing he would not extend his contract at the Emirates.

Once again, Van Persie played all 38 league matches and scored 26 PL goals while helping the Red Devils win their 20th league trophy – the same number he chose for his shirt.

After that, the Dutchman showed signs of regression and went back to dealing with constant injuries. He left Old Trafford in 2015.

Worst

Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City → Arsenal, 2022)

A deadline day move to Barcelona means there was just enough time for Gabriel Jesus to feature in this list.

He arrived at Arsenal in July 2022 following a £45 million move from Manchester City looking for more minutes. But it didn’t take long for injuries to hamper his stint at the Emirates.

A knee issue in December that year kept him out of action for four months. He still managed to reach 11 Premier League goals in his first season, but lost the starting spot the following campaigns and scored just 10 between 2023/24 and 2025/26.

The ACL tear in January 2025 basically put an end to his Arsenal career. There were moments in which Mikel Arteta experimented with him in the starting lineup – but it seemed more a strategy to get a reaction out of a struggling Viktor Gyokeres than the Brazilian actually making the position his own.

Raheem Sterling (Manchester City → Chelsea, 2022)

Sterling’s first big-money move proved a huge success in the end. But we can’t say the same about the second one.

In 2022, Chelsea payed nearly the same £50 million City did in 2015 for the winger. His goals and assist tallies weren’t the worst during his time at Stamford Bridge, contributing with 31 goals in 86 matches. But he looked nowhere near the player he was at Man City.

Even Arsenal took a gamble on him in the 2024/25 campaign, but soon regretted doing so. To this day, his most memorable moment in a Chelsea shirt was nearly sending a dangerous free-kick out of the stadium.

Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal → Manchester United, 2018)

In January 2018, Arsenal and Manchester United decided to swap Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

While it looked like the Red Devils were all but certain to be on the better end of the deal, they quickly realised the opposite.

Sanchez turned himself into one of the best players in the world during his time at the Emirates. 166 appearances over three and a half years for Arsenal, bagging 80 goals and 38 assists. What could go wrong?

The Chilean forward played just 45 times for United across 18 months, scoring just five goals and assisting a further nine. He looked like a complete shadow of himself and joined Inter Milan on loan after his first – and last – full season at Old Trafford.

His fall from grace is still unbelieavable for anyone who watched him on his peak at Arsenal.

Fernando Torres (Liverpool → Chelsea, 2011)

Fernando Torres is no stranger to a big falloff after joining a Big Six rival. Once a top-3 Ballon D’or nominee, finishing behind only historic duo Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in 2008, the Spanish striker could never replicate his Liverpool form at Chelsea.

In fact, the most famous moment of his Blues career was the open goal miss at Old Trafford against Manchester United.

That’s not to say he didn’t have his moments at Stamford Bridge. Torres played a huge part in their title run during the 2012 Champions League, famously sending them to the final with a goal against Barcelona.

But ultimately, after averaging 0.57 goals per game for the Reds between 2007 and 2011, he averaged just 0.26 for Chelsea between 2011 and 2014.

It would go on to get even worse for him, though. During the second semester of 2014, it really looked like his career was over when he had the poorest of spells on loan at AC Milan. But he rejoined boyhood club Atletico Madrid in 2015 and managed to carve a role for himself under Diego Simeone until 2018.

Joe Cole (Chelsea → Liverpool, 2010)

Joe Cole was supposed to be the ‘missing piece’ in Liverpool’s squad in 2010. England teammates Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher endorsed the transfer at the time.

28 years old at the time, Cole was supposed to have more left in the tank and deliver a couple of high-level seasons with the Reds. What followed was a short-lived and underwhelming stint that ended with a loan to Lille just one year later.

He did go on to represent Liverpool again in the second semester of 2012, but rejoined boyhood club West Ham in January 2013 on a free.

Ironically, he scored the same five goals for the Reds (in 45 games) as he did in his second stint at West Ham (in 37 matches).

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