Ranking £454.32m worth of summer signings by how excited we are for their debuts | OneFootball

Twenty-seven summer signings have yet to debut for their Premier League clubs so far this season; some have us more excited than others.

With apologies to Geronimo Rulli, Illan Meslier and Jack Butland, we are counting outfielders only here.

27) Oscar Zambrano (Hull, undisclosed) Back with the Tigers 12 months after a prior loan spell in the Championship, Zambrano watched from the bench as Robinio Vaz and Christos Mouzakitis made their bows in the League Cup defeat to Sunderland.

Zambrano only played eight times for Hull in the Championship before being handed a 12-month doping ban. It feels unlikely that he will command a starting place soon.

26) Stephen Mfuni (Coventry, loan) “High talent level, versatile in different areas at the back-end,” is how Frank Lampard described Manchester City academy graduate Mfuni.

“Really, really good profile, very impressive in demeanour and how he’s come in,” he added. No-one knows what it means but it’s provocative.

25) Modou Keba Cisse (Aston Villa, £4.75m) A signing announced as far back as July 2025, Cisse was allowed to stay in Austria – and win a league title as a regular starter – before joining Villa in earnest.

The 21-year-old was an unused substitute in the pulsating Super Cup defeat to PSG, but injury has sidelined him since.

24) Michael Svoboda (Brighton, £4.3m) The centre-half “adds competition to an area we are looking to strengthen,” according to Fabian Hurzeler. Once the Thursday-Sunday grind properly kicks in, a Serie B-winning captain will be a handy rotation option; Luka Vuskovic might need a rest at some point.

23) Jaouen Hadjam (Brighton, £9.5m) The 23-year-old Algeria international left-back has already played thrice this season after returning from the World Cup, but for former club Young Boys.

“He played in a different league with different demands so now it’s very important how fast he can adapt to the Premier League, to the intensity of our game, how we want to play football,” said Fabian Hurzeler last month, before adding: “Hopefully he can help us immediately.”

22) Florentino Luis (Ipswich, £16m) Massive fan of the new brand of Herman Hreidarsson-coded footballer, who consign themselves to a career of successive Premier League relegations by pigeonholing themselves as a tradeable commodity between entirely doomed teams. Think of your Mateus Fernandes’, your Mads Hermansens, the Lesley Ugochukwus of this world.

Two players have even charted the same path as Luis before: Arijanet Muric and Dara O’Shea went down with Burnley and then Ipswich in 2023/24 and 2024/25 respectively. Is Gary O’Neil powerful enough to avert the inevitable? Perhaps not even playing Luis is key.

21) Melvin Bard (Leeds, loan) Daniel Farke desperately sought cover at left-back and it arrived on deadline day in the form of a loanee from Nice. If all goes well, Bard will join for around £4m; he might expect a Carabao chance against Chelsea.

20) Marco Palestra (Chelsea, £47m) Proof that transfer fees in football no longer mean anything whatsoever, Chelsea overpaid for the most expensive Italian defender ever and have probably completely forgotten.

In fairness, the bloke is injured and Xabi Alonso finds it all rather “frustrating”.

19) Tim Iroegbunam (Hull, £13m) The final fee could end up at something closer to £22m, likely contingent on Hull winning the Premier League this season and Champions League next, obviously not conceding a single goal along the way.

Iroegbunam arrived with an injury which delayed his signing until deadline day, and is one of just four new Tigers awaiting their debut after joining in the summer.

18) Yann Gboho (Coventry, £10.3m) Coventry wouldn’t mind Gboho going on to emulate his cousin Desire Doue! No, but seriously, it would be useful if he goes on to become a multi-time European champion and one of the most exciting forwards in the world.

17) Christian Norgaard (Everton, £7m) Would put very good money indeed on David Moyes using Norgaard as an auxiliary striker at some point this season. The Danish Fellaini is loading.

16) Emmanuel Emegha (Chelsea, £21.4m) Probably won’t ever play, then be sold at an absurd profit anyway. Those tough, high-level, protracted negotiations with Strasbourg to agree a deal to sign their captain at the start of last season were all worth it.

15) Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Aston Villa, £25m) Given the Donyell Malen treatment of an immediate Champions League squad snub, Harwood-Bellis probably won’t react by going on a goalscoring tear in the Serie A.

He might expect the consolation of some Premier League minutes not getting routinely battered with Southampton, mind.

14) Femi Azeez (Brighton, £12.5m) “Femi is obviously carrying a slight injury at the moment,” said Hurzeler. “With Femi, we have to wait this weekend, and hopefully he will be available for the next game.”

13) Ilyas Ansah (Hull, £12.8m) Ansah rejected a World Cup call-up with Ghana in the summer, the Germany youth international wishing not to rush such a decision over his future. But when Acun Ilicali calls, you listen.

The debut, however, will have to wait.

“Six weeks out, this is the minimum,” said Sergej Jakirovic. “It’s interesting because if we didn’t send him for a medical and he signed without one, he would play. They found some problems with his spine, I think.”

12) Leon Goretzka (Aston Villa, free) It is curious, just how many new signings have promptly suffered debut-delaying setbacks.

Then again, as Goretzka said in explaining a “frustrating” likely month-long absence with a knee injury which will also preclude him from making Jurgen Klopp’s first Germany squad: “Unfortunately, my body has reacted to the increased workload after my time away from the pitch.”

11) David Affengruber (Fulham, £10.3m) Fulham and Alvaro Arbeloa certainly could do with a semi-competent centre-half. It is a veritable shame, then, that Affengruber has already conceded nine goals in three games with Elche this season.

10) Manuel Angel (Fulham, £3m) Knowing Arbeloa, he will be eminently more invested in the prospects of a third Real Madrid academy graduate anyway.

9) Allan (Manchester City, £32m) Manchester City have thrown about £100m to Palmeiras down the years; they will hope winger Allan has the vibes of Gabriel Jesus rather than Vitor Reis.

Allan, the direct replacement for Savio, was unfit for the Coventry game, but watched an equally unconvincing win over Porto from the bench.

8) Tosin Adarabioyo (Spurs, £7m) There were a great many Tottenham supporters as “gutted” as Tosin apparently was at Chelsea’s decision to offload the centre-half. Spurs being Spurs, they took on the Blues cast-off – and chucked Mykhailo Mudryk in for good measure.

Tosin slots into the Kevin Danso spot in the defensive pecking order, although Ben Davies would probably nudge ahead of him if push ever comes to shove.

7) Chema Andres (Brighton, £15.5m) How thoroughly unbecoming of Brighton to indulge in such nonsense as rushing through a panicked deadline-day signing of a Football Manager favourite.

Why they took so long to acknowledge the scarcity of their midfield options is unknown, but wrapping up a move for former Real Madrid player Andres in double-quick time made up for it.

6) El Hadji Malick Diouf (Brentford, £35m) It does feel like players largely deserve to be judged on their performances in less ‘dysfunctional’ environments. Malick Diouf had his detractors at West Ham, but counting this version of Brentford among your admirers goes an awfully long way.

Yet the Senegalese must wait for his debut; Malick Diouf has watched Keane Lewis-Potter from a Premier League bench for the past two weeks.

5) Jordan Henderson (Chelsea, free) The chances are that if Henderson is actually required to play by Chelsea, something has gone hilariously and horribly wrong. The bloke is still recovering from the arm-snapping realisation of his Dan Burn-based limitations this summer.

Alonso says Henderson “has been very close to the team” – almost certainly at the front of the bus, shaking his head at Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer’s choice of playlist.

4) Juan Riquelme Angulo (Sunderland, £5m) One does not simply possess that name without being bloody brilliant.

3) Ibrahim Mbaye (Aston Villa, £47m) In a wonderfully sudden move with refreshingly little forewarning, Villa did what Liverpool could not in agreeing a mutually satisfying fee with PSG for Mbaye.

Having watched both PSG’s Champions League final wins as an unused substitute, Mbaye will be hoping to rise from the Villa bench soon and continue the sort of goalscoring form which concerned France at the World Cup.

2) Carlos Baleba (Manchester United, £65m) There are more than a few eggs placed in the Baleba basket when it comes to addressing the myriad problems at Manchester United. It probably won’t be at left-back where his impact is felt most, but a decent midfielder with functioning legs ought to help somewhat.

Michael Carrick “will wait and see” if Baleba is available before the international break, or if his debut is worth waiting a little longer for.

1) Johan Manzambi (Aston Villa, £50.97m) It feels like an age since Villa stole a march on Newcastle to sign World Cup breakout star Manzambi, whose knee knack not only ended his tournament early but delayed his start to this season.

Unai Emery has confirmed that Villa’s record signing is at least training with the group again; the race is on between them scoring a Premier League goal and Manzambi taking to the field.