The Premier League starts next week and there will be a lot of new signings looking to make an early impression.
BBC Sport looks at six new imports to English football who could hit the ground running and have a real impact.
Moussa Diaby (Aston Villa)
Aston Villa pulled off a coup by signing Bayer Leverkusen and France winger Moussa Diaby, 24, for a reported club record £51.9m. Diaby, one of the quickest players in Germany, can play anywhere across the front line; he scored 49 goals and made 48 assists in his 173 games for Leverkusen.
Last season, he was involved in more Bundesliga goals than any of his team-mates, scoring nine times himself and providing eight assists.
Nobody created better chances from open play in the German top flight than Diaby in 2022-23. He assisted shots with an expected goals value of 7.92, more than one point clear of anybody else.
Diaby – who has 10 caps for France – has two goals for Villa in pre-season. But boss Unai Emery admits he and his staff still have to work out Diaby’s best position.
Mahmoud Dahoud (Brighton)
Deep-lying playmaker Mahmoud Dahoud, 27, joined Brighton on a free transfer this summer after leaving Borussia Dortmund. He will play in a potentially new-look Albion midfield, with James Milner joining from Liverpool, Alexis Mac Allister going to the Reds and Chelsea trying to sign Moises Caicedo.
Dahoud won two caps for Germany, both in 2020, and played 141 times for Dortmund, although just 10 of them came last season following shoulder surgery.
In 2021-22, the last season during which he played regularly, he had more attacking sequence involvements per 90 minutes than any other Dortmund player in the league – 4.9. That includes shots, chances created and build-up.
Dahoud was much sought after when he left Borussia Monchengladbach for Dortmund in 2017 and has put in some impressive performances for Albion in their pre-season fixtures in the USA.
Christopher Nkunku (Chelsea)
France forward Christopher Nkunku could be one of the Premier League’s standout players this season after signing from RB Leipzig for £52m. The versatile 25-year-old scored 58 goals for the Bundesliga club in the past two seasons and the Blues will hope he is the answer to their striking problems. Despite missing nine games with an injury that kept him out of the World Cup, he still finished joint top scorer in last season’s German top flight with 16 goals.
The previous campaign he was named the Bundesliga’s player of the year despite being outscored by Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland. He was a winger or number 10 when he joined Leipzig from Paris St-Germain in 2019 but has been used as a striker in recent times, and Mauricio Pochettino may well see that as his position at Stamford Bridge.
The former PSG forward has scored three goals in pre-season for Chelsea, finding the net once against each of Wrexham, Brighton and Fulham.
Dominik Szoboszlai (Liverpool)
Hungary captain Dominik Szoboszlai, 22, will be a key part of the Reds’ new-look midfield this season along with Argentina World Cup winner Mac Allister. With captain Jordan Henderson and defensive midfielder Fabinho moving to Saudi Arabia and Naby Keita, James Milner and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain leaving on free transfers, the centre of the park has undergone a full overhaul.
Szoboszlai, a £60m signing from Leipzig, played as a winger for most of his time in the German Bundesliga, but is more likely to play as one of the attacking midfielders at Anfield.
Only two players created more chances in open play than Szoboszlai’s 47 in the Bundesliga last season.
Hopefully his new club learn to spell his name soon – as his shirt had the name ‘Szosbozlai’, putting the middle ‘s’ in the wrong place, during a friendly against Bayern Munich played in Singapore.
Andre Onana (Manchester United)
Manchester United’s £47m signing of Amadou Onana, 27, marks a huge change at the club – the Cameroonian becomes only their third first-choice goalkeeper since 2005.
David de Gea, who has left the club on a free transfer, had been the number one for the past 12 years. Edwin van der Sar had been their first choice for the previous six years.
Onana, who played under Erik ten Hag at Ajax, is the Dutchman’s preferred style of goalkeeper; good with his feet and willing to come off his line.
He completed 10 more passes per 90 minutes than De Gea last season.
Onana has already made a mark at United, creating headlines with a furious rant at Harry Maguire in a pre-season game against Dortmund.
Sandro Tonali (Newcastle United)
Newcastle United made midfielder Sandro Tonali, 23, Italy’s most expensive footballer when they signed him from AC Milan.
Tonali helped Milan win Serie A in 2021-22 and was part of the side that reached last season’s Champions League semi-finals.
A battling but technically gifted player, he is capable of playing as an attacking or a defensive midfielder. He created more chances in Serie A than any of his Milan team-mates last season (62). Tonali has already caught the eye in some of the Magpies’ pre-season games.
Credit: bbc.com
