Premier League clubs able to hold onto their best players – Newcastle United very different to rivals | OneFootball

Premier League clubs and their keeping hold of their best players.

Who does it best?

Who proves most vulnerable?

I have had a look at the ten Premier League clubs who finished top half of the table in 2024/25 season.

Checking out this summer 2025 transfer window so far, 67 days since it opened, another 25 days time before it finally closes on 1 September 2025.

Which players who were 2024/25 first choice regulars and/or seen as amongst their best individuals, have been lost so far this summer by last season’s top 10 Premier League clubs:

Trent Alexander-Arnold

Arsenal

Thomas Partey (ED: Any mention that appears in The Mag comments section regarding his ongoing legal situation will see the person making the comment get a permanent ban)

Man City

Kevin de Bruyne

Chelsea

Noni Madueke

Newcastle United

No one

Aston Villa

Marco Asensio, Marcus Rashford

Forest

Anthony Elanga

Brighton

Joao Pedro, Pervis Estupinan

Bournemouth

Dean Huijsen, Kepa, Milos Kerkez

Brentford

Bryan Mbeumo, Mark Flekken, Christian Norgaard

Conclusions

There may well be others that I have missed, but as you can see above, all of last season’s top half Premier League clubs have lost players who were amongst their first eleven choices.

That is, apart from one.

Yes, Newcastle United are the only one of the ten top half Premier League clubs, not to lose one of their first choice eleven this summer. Callum Wilson and Sean Longstaff have left, however, they respectively only made two and eight Premier League starts last season.

If you doubt some of the players above, whether they were first choice. For example, Madueke made 32 Premier League appearances for Chelsea last season, including 27 starts. Whilst for Partey it was 35 Premier League appearances in 2024/25 including 31 PL starts.

Before anybody starts going on about which signings Premier League clubs have made this summer, that isn’t what this article is about. It is about Premier League clubs having lost first choice players this summer.

The article was sparked by all of these references I am now seeing about how Newcastle United can’t keep hold of their best players, that NUFC is simply a stepping stone etc etc.

It is a totally false narrative.

The reality couldn’t be further from the truth, indeed, in the four years and eight transfer windows since Eddie Howe and the new owners came in, not a single first choice player has left Newcastle United. ASM only made 12 PL starts for Newcastle in his final season, Wilson two, Longstaff eight, Minteh none, Anderson nine and so on.

More than any of the other Premier League clubs, Newcastle United have retained their best players, their first choice eleven.