Every Prem club’s worst mistake in 2025: Gyokeres to Arsenal, Guehi transfer, Glasner exit, Frank to Spurs | OneFootball

There have been some truly honking decisions made by Premier League clubs this year.

That covers botched transfer pursuits, botched completed transfers, botched transfer windows…and even botched wardrobes.

Here are what we deem the worst mistakes by each club in 2025. You can check out our best decisions right here – after reading this, obviously.

Arsenal: Picking Viktor Gyokeres

In hindsight, Arsenal probably should have gone for Hugo Ekitike.

It was between Gyokeres and Benjamin Sesko for Andrea Berta, who was hell-bent on signing the former. But Ekitike was right there.

The Frenchman went to Liverpool after Newcastle United failed to sign him and has registered eight goals in 16 Premier League matches, scoring in six separate matches.

Gyokeres, meanwhile, scored twice (one penalty) against Leeds United, one against Burnley, one against Nottingham Forest, and one (penalty) against Everton. He’s struggling to avoid the flat-track bully allegations and has looked a shadow of the player who banged them in for fun at Sporting.

There is an argument that Mikel Arteta and Gyokeres’ teammates are not utilising their new centre-forward very well. He is making all sorts of runs that are being ignored, and the service to him hasn’t been great as Bukayo Saka, Ebere Eze, and Martin Odegaard all struggle to create.

He is hardly missing sitters every game, and his mere presence up top has been enough to make a positive difference. But most big-money strikers would have done the same.

Aston Villa: Taking Harvey Elliott on loan

Just a s**t move for everyone involved, really. It actually looked like the perfect move at the time. Elliott was ready to assume an important role at a decent club, and Villa gave him the platform to do so, only to swiftly decide they have no intention of triggering his buy option.

A return to Liverpool following the termination of Elliott’s loan in January looks on the cards. The Reds could have done with having him around during a testing first half of 2025/26.

Bournemouth: Not extending Andoni Iraola’s contract

In case you weren’t aware, Iraola is out of contract next summer. That is flying under the radar, isn’t it?

He has been linked with every big club in Europe during his time at little ol’ Bournemouth, but his stock is quite low at the moment. The Cherries are winless in eight Premier League games as they continue to be the streakiest of all streaky teams, and that means Iraola isn’t being linked with anyone. But the streaky Cherries will soon be on an 11-match unbeaten run, making the Spaniard the most sought-after manager in Europe again.

Perhaps their poor form offers the perfect time for the club’s hierarchy to sit down with Iraola and offer him a new deal. It could come across as a huge display of faith, and then Bournemouth will benefit financially when Manchester City or someone else pays a hefty compensation fee.

Finances are obviously not the biggest positive of renewing Iraola’s contract. They should be desperate to keep the man who’s led them to 12th and 9th in the Premier League.

Brentford: Waiting to unleash their secret weapon

Gambling on Keith Andrews felt like a guaranteed inclusion when he was chosen as Thomas Frank’s replacement, but Brentford’s in-house style has not come back to bite them in the backside. We all tipped them to go down, and while that’s still realistic, the Bees are doing much better than most expected following the departures of head coach Frank, star players Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo, and club captain Christian Norgaard.

Brentford might’ve enjoyed even more success last season if Kayode was allowed to properly channel his inner Rory Delap, and not unleashing it sooner – or at least more often last season – is their biggest mistake of 2025. Yes, we are struggling a bit.

Brentford are 10th for throw-ins taken this season with 325, but Kayode is top in the player ranking with 191 – that is 58.77% of his side’s throws and the highest in the Premier League for an individual by 33.

Kayode’s long throws were in Brentford’s arsenal last season, but it’s certainly cranked up a notch this term.

Brighton: Letting Fabian Hurzeler choose his matchday attire

Brighton’s record when Hurzeler is wearing a tracksuit: six wins, four draws, two defeats, 29 goals scored, 12 conceded. Brighton’s record when Hurzeler is wearing his boohooMAN nonsense: one win, two draws, three defeats, six goals scored, ten conceded.

Someone has to have a word with him. Or just deactivate his boohooMAN account.

Burnley: No Granit Xhaka signing

It’s obviously not a simple task for Burnley to sign a player on the level of Granit Xhaka following promotion to the Premier League, but people would’ve said the same thing about Sunderland, who did sign Xhaka and instantly handed him the captaincy.

If there is a blueprint for avoiding immediate relegation, Sunderland have found it. Clubs have spent big following promotions but nowhere near as savvily as the Black Cats. Their signing of Xhaka has been the biggest factor in their success, and Burnley’s recruitment didn’t include anyone close to Xhaka’s experience and ability. Amazingly, it could’ve made such a significant difference.

Chelsea: Being stingy with AC Milan

We are again questioning why Chelsea still don’t have an elite striker or goalkeeper after spending so much money.

Joao Pedro showed us at the Club World Cup that he is capable of being a world-class No.9, but he’s not really played there this season. Meanwhile, Robert Sanchez has never been so comfortably No.1 at Stamford Bridge. Still, it’s weird that Chelsea were properly stingy with Milan in negotiations for France goalkeeper Mike Maignan.

Maignan is one of the best goalkeepers in the world and was available for around £20million, yet Chelsea didn’t want to pay over £12m. Yes, he is out of contract next summer, but we’re completely baffled that a club so scattergun and trigger-happy in the transfer market were unwilling to pay an extra ~£8m to fix a problem position with a world-class signing.

Crystal Palace: Making Glasner’s exit all the more inevitable

Palace are going to lose Oliver Glasner. That is obvious. When? Probably at the end of 2025/26. Where will he go? That’s anyone’s guess.

After guiding the Eagles to their first-ever trophy and subsequently their first-ever European campaign, Glasner wanted more backing in the summer transfer window. He felt massively let down by chairman Steve Parish and let the media know as much, while Parish couldn’t fight his corner as losing the Austrian before 2025/26 started would’ve been an absolute disaster.

It’s felt inevitable that Glasner would take the step up to a bigger club, and a disappointing summer is one of the biggest reasons he won’t renew his contract and walk away in June, if not sooner.

Everton: Pursuing the wrong striker

Everton have lacked a prolific goalscorer for a while. It’s something they desperately needed to address last summer, and they did so by signing a top, young player with bags of potential in Thierno Barry. It’s safe to say it hasn’t worked out for him so far.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin, at his absolute best, scored 16 Premier League goals in 2020/21, the most for the Toffees since Romelu Lukaku backed up an 18-goal campaign with a 25-goal 2016/17.

Everton should probably stick to recruiting strikers from English clubs. Their list of top scorers in each Premier League season goes as follows (centre-forwards only): Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison, Wayne Rooney, Lukaku x4, Nikica Jelavic, Tim Cahill, Louis Saha, Cahill, Yakubu, Andy Johnson, James Beattie, Cahill, Rooney, Tomasz Radzinski, Radzinski and Duncan Ferguson, Kevin Campbell x3, Ferguson x2, Paul Rideout, Tony Cottee x2.

Jelavic and Ferguson hadn’t played in England before joining but were signed straight from Scotland. Radzinski is the only non-Brit there playing for his first English club.

The moral of the story is: keep your striker recruitment a little more local, Everton.

Fulham: An unadventurous summer

After watching Crystal Palace win their first major trophy, Fulham must’ve felt desperate to experience the same. Their summer transfer business suggests they’re happy where they are – winning sod all but comfortably avoiding relegation every season.

Kevin was an exciting signing, and Samuel Chukwueze has shown promise, but it was a very underwhelming summer window for the Cottagers.

Leeds: Not signing Harry Wilson

As the alphabet would have it, Leeds follow Fulham, and the latter’s best decision of 2025 has created the former’s worst.

Leeds were reportedly interested in signing Wilson in the summer transfer window but couldn’t get a deal over the line. Who knew that he would become a bloody revelation at Craven Cottage a couple of months later? We certainly didn’t.

Daniel Farke was actually let down badly in the end after a strong start to the club’s summer business. He needed more in attack. At least Calvert-Lewin is doing well now.

Liverpool: The Marc Guehi debacle

Choosing Jeremie Frimpong as Trent Alexander-Arnold’s replacement, picking Florian Wirtz over Rayan Cherki, and signing a player who might be the biggest flop of all flops in Premier League floppyville were big gaffes, but it’s hard to argue that they were worse decisions than waiting until deadline day to have a bid accepted for Marc Guehi.

Guehi leaving could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for Glasner at Palace, and it could have made a huge difference in an awful first half to the season for the Reds.

He would’ve been able to take a struggling Ibrahima Konate out of the firing line and surely played well enough to stay in the team. Had Guehi been playing well next to Virgil van Dijk, the Liverpool captain and the two full-backs would also look a lot more comfortable.

Yes, Liverpool can get Guehi for nothing next summer, but they have desperately needed him this term.

Manchester City: Re-signing James Trafford

This isn’t a huge error on City’s side, but a case of hindsight being a wonderful (or gut-wrenchingly frustrating) thing for young Trafford.

An honourable mention is rejecting big money from Tottenham for Savinho. We’re really not sure what either side was thinking there.

Manchester United: Europa League final preparation

How long have you got with this lot? It’s pretty difficult to pinpoint the worst decision United made in 2025. Sir Jim Ratcliffe has done and said some very odd things. Ruben Amorim might’ve been sacked four or five times. Spending all of their summer budget on attackers might not have been the best move. Not signing a goalkeeper in January was also a bit silly, if not completely forced by a shoestring budget.

We have landed on a specific part of their Europa League final preparation.

Basically, Amorim opted for continuity and confidence by playing his strongest team in the weeks building up to the final. Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou, meanwhile, rested everyone to ensure his players were fit and well-rested for an absolutely monumental game of football.

Ultimately, one decision aged well, earned the club £100m, and qualified them for the Champions League. And the other decision might’ve cost United the £100m windfall and Champions League football, which Amorim swears he didn’t really want anyway.

Newcastle: Spending £55m on Anthony Elanga

In terms of 2025 transfers, the richest club in the Premier League have had a torrid time. The £55m they spent on Elanga surely goes down as their biggest gaffe, though.

He has really struggled. Like really, really struggled. We don’t want to absolutely hammer the poor lad, so we’ll leave it at that.

Nottingham Forest: Appointing Ange Postecoglou

Eight games, zero wins, two draws, six defeats, zero clean sheets, seven goals scored, 17 goals conceded, 39 days in charge, sacked 18 minutes after losing his final match.

Need we say any more?

Sunderland: Buying too many AFCON players

Sunderland can’t complain that their January transfer business left them short as they ended up getting promoted. They also seem to have absolutely nailed their summer recruitment as they sit handsomely in the Premier League table after 17 games.

If we’re poking holes in their summer recruitment, it would be that they signed quite a few African players in an Africa Cup of Nations season.

AFCON will affect the Black Cats more than any other Premier League club with regular starters Bertrand Traore, Noah Sadiki, and Reinildo all representing their countries, while another important player, Habib Diarra, has returned from injury just in time to link up with his Senegal teammates. Morocco’s Chemsdine Talbi and DR Congo’s Arthur Masuaku are also away and have featured plenty this term.

Tottenham: Hiring Thomas Frank

On paper, Spurs have a pretty good squad. But football isn’t played on paper, and clearly something is missing. Xavi Simons and Mohammed Kudus should’ve brought an X-factor to Thomas Frank’s squad, but they’ve blown very hot and cold in their early months at the club.

‘Hiring Thomas Frank’ is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s maybe harsh on him because he is a good manager who is willing to adapt, but it’s more that he isn’t the right profile for Spurs.

They needed someone with a proper coaching identity, which Frank unfortunately lacks. He is chopping and changing his tactics too often. We honestly don’t know if he’s an attack-minded coach or a defense-minded coach. He does lean more towards the latter, which is fine for Brentford, but not for a ball-dominant team.

Hopefully Frank is given enough time to prove us wrong and does exactly that, but his first six months at Spurs have been concerning.

West Ham: Appointing Graham Potter

Feels like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? Well, it happened in January 2025. Potter replaced Julen Lopetegui, and despite defeat in his first game, we thought there was already marked improvement and that the Englishman’s long-awaited return to the dugout was going to go just fine.

Alas, he was sacked in September with West Ham 19th in the Premier League. His win rate was an abysmal 24% during his time at the club. West Ham were the worst ever-present Premier League club during his tenure, accumulating 23 points, four fewer than Wolves, who were above Spurs and Man United by two points and one respectively.

Nuno Espirito Santo has slightly steadied the ship, but we’re not fully convinced West Ham won’t sink into the Championship for the first time since 2011/12.

Wolves: Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri replacements

Replacing star players like Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri were the trickiest of tasks for any Premier League club last summer, and Wolves did so…very poorly.

Ait-Nouri’s replacement, David Moller Wolfe, cost £10m but didn’t really come into the team until Rob Edwards joined. Less can be said about that because Ait-Nouri was important to Wolves, but his importance didn’t come close to Cunha’s.

He basically was Vitor Pereira’s system. That does make replacing him almost impossible, but his importance underlined how vital it is for a relegation candidate to have a proper game-changer in attack. Leeds survived because they had Raphinha. Wolves survived because they had Cunha…and Ipswich, Southampton, and Leicester were atrocious.

Tasked with filling the Cunha void were Jhon Arias and Fer Lopez, who joined for a combined £34m. Neither has impressed, and Wolves only have two points this season, which hints at more complex problems than ‘they couldn’t replace their best players very well’.