Transfer Window Slams Shut in Chaos: Enzo to City for £125m as Deals Collapse After the Deadline
After90
Deadline Day 2026 ends in chaos as Enzo Fernandez joins Man City for £125m, Ndiaye signs, Mudryk moves to Spurs and several late deals collapse.
Last updated: 2 September 2026
The summer transfer window has closed in England, but the final hours were far more than a race to submit paperwork before the deadline.
They became a chain reaction of interconnected decisions.
Manchester City ended Deadline Day with two enormous signings.
Chelsea sold one of their most important players for a near-record fee, only to watch the deal for his intended replacement collapse after the window had closed.
Tottenham continued reshaping their squad until the final moments.
Everton brought Jack Grealish back but missed out on a striker who had already travelled to England to complete his move.
And Liverpool, after completing the blockbuster signing of Bradley Barcola, allowed Harvey Elliott to leave for Spain.
But the biggest headline remains:
Enzo Fernandez to Manchester City for £125 million.
And after a summer in which Premier League clubs spent approximately £3.198 billion, the question is no longer simply:
Who signed whom?
It is:
Who emerged from the transfer window with a stronger squad — and who was left with a new problem because they waited until the final hours?
Official: Enzo Fernandez Joins Manchester City
The biggest transfer of Deadline Day is complete.
Manchester City officially signed Enzo Fernandez from Chelsea on a five-year contract running until summer 2031.
City did not officially disclose the fee, but Reuters reported it at:
£125 million
That figure matches the British transfer record.
According to Reuters, Fernandez also becomes the first player in history to be transferred twice for fees exceeding £100 million, after Chelsea previously paid around £107 million to sign him from Benfica.
What Did Manchester City Buy for £125 Million?
City have not bought a conventional defensive midfielder.
Nor have they simply bought another playmaker.
Enzo can provide several qualities within the same role:
- Progressing the ball under pressure.
- Vertical passing and breaking opposition lines.
- Switching the direction of play.
- Controlling the tempo.
- Operating as either a No.6 or No.8.
- Making late runs into the penalty area.
- Contributing directly with goals and assists.
That final area has developed significantly.
According to Manchester City's official figures, Fernandez finished the 2025/26 season at Chelsea with:
| Metric | Total |
|---|---|
| Appearances | 54 |
| Goals | 15 |
| Assists | 7 |
That is 22 direct goal contributions from midfield in one season.
And that helps explain part of the price.
Enzo is no longer simply a midfielder who starts attacks.
He has become one who can finish them too.
Enzo Reunites With Enzo
There is another factor that makes the deal particularly interesting.
Enzo Maresca already knows Enzo Fernandez extremely well from their previous time together at Chelsea.
Now they reunite as part of Manchester City's new project following the end of the Pep Guardiola era.
City have not simply refreshed their squad this summer.
Reuters estimates the scale of the rebuild at approximately:
£450 million
with major additions including Fernandez, Elliot Anderson, Ayyoub Bouaddi, Iliman Ndiaye and others.
That is why the Fernandez deal should not be viewed in isolation.
He is a central piece of a new Manchester City.
And Not Just Enzo: City Complete Iliman Ndiaye Deal Too
Before the window closed, Manchester City also officially completed the signing of Iliman Ndiaye from Everton on a five-year contract.
Reuters reported the value of the deal at approximately:
£65 million
making the Senegal international City's seventh signing of the summer.
Ndiaye gives Maresca something very different from Fernandez.
He can operate:
- On the wing.
- Behind the striker.
- In central attacking areas.
- Using either foot.
He also brings direct dribbling ability and the capacity to attack defenders one-on-one.
£190 Million on Two Players
If we combine the reported fees:
Enzo Fernandez — £125m
Iliman Ndiaye — £65m
Manchester City completed two deals worth approximately:
£190 million
around the end of the transfer window.
That is not only a financial statement.
It is a sporting one.
City want to reclaim the Premier League title immediately after finishing behind Arsenal last season.
But the Biggest Transfer Created Chaos at Chelsea
This is where Deadline Day became truly remarkable.
Chelsea agreed to sell Enzo Fernandez.
But the club had no intention of losing one of its most important midfielders without bringing in another player for the position.
That led them to Lamine Camara of Monaco.
Negotiations progressed extremely far.
According to Sky Sports, Chelsea and Monaco had reached a full agreement worth:
£47 million
Camara was expected to sign a six-year contract after completing his medical.
Then everything changed.
After the Deadline: Monaco Pull Out
After 11pm, with the English transfer window already closed, Monaco informed Chelsea that they would no longer complete the sale of Lamine Camara.
Sky Sports reported that the agreement between the clubs had been completed in writing and that Chelsea were extremely unhappy with the way the transfer collapsed.
But why did Monaco change their position?
The answer leads to Everton.
And Folarin Balogun.
Balogun Triggers the Deadline-Day Domino Effect
Everton had agreed a deal with Monaco to sign United States striker Folarin Balogun for around £40 million.
Balogun had already travelled to Merseyside on Deadline Day to complete his medical and finalise the transfer.
But complications emerged during the medical process.
As doubts increased over whether the Balogun deal would be completed, Monaco became more willing to sell Lamine Camara to Chelsea.
Chelsea moved quickly and reached an agreement.
Then the situation changed again.
Everton and Monaco reopened negotiations over Balogun.
Monaco became increasingly confident that the striker would still be sold.
That meant they no longer felt the same financial need to sell Camara.
So Monaco withdrew from their agreement with Chelsea.
But the story still wasn't over.
Then, After Midnight, Balogun Himself Pulls Out
Monaco had withdrawn from the Camara deal because the Balogun transfer appeared to be back on.
Then came one final twist.
According to Sky Sports, Balogun changed his position after midnight and decided not to join Everton.
The result?
Monaco
Kept Balogun.
And kept Camara.
Everton
Did not get their striker.
Chelsea
Lost Enzo Fernandez without signing the midfielder they had prepared to replace him with.
Manchester City
Got Enzo.
There may not be a better story to explain the madness of Deadline Day.
How One Transfer Became an Entire Chain Reaction
The sequence was approximately:
- Everton agree to sign Balogun.
- A problem develops during the process.
- Monaco become willing to sell Camara.
- Chelsea agree to sell Enzo to Manchester City.
- Chelsea reach an agreement with Monaco for Camara.
- Everton renegotiate the Balogun transfer.
- Monaco decide to keep Camara.
- Chelsea's Camara deal collapses.
- The transfer window closes.
- Balogun ultimately decides not to join Everton.
One transfer that never happened helped collapse another deal — after that second deal had already helped make a third possible.
That is Deadline Day at its most chaotic.
Why Did Chelsea Still Sell Enzo?
In theory, Chelsea could have attempted to pull out of the Fernandez sale once the Camara deal collapsed.
But the club chose to honour its agreement with Manchester City.
Sky Sports reported that Chelsea had the possibility of reconsidering but decided to complete Enzo's transfer because they wanted to respect the agreement already reached with City.
The result is that Chelsea now enter the next part of the season with a different midfield balance than they expected only hours earlier.
And this is where the real sporting story begins.
The question is not:
Why did Chelsea sell Enzo for £125 million?
Financially, the figure is understandable.
The better question is:
How do Chelsea replace 22 goal contributions from midfield without signing the replacement they had selected?
Tottenham Continue Their Revolution: Mudryk and Tosin Arrive
Manchester City were not the only club operating until the very end.
Tottenham continued their enormous summer rebuild with two additions from Chelsea.
The first:
Mykhailo Mudryk
Tottenham officially signed him on a season-long loan.
The move reunites Mudryk with Roberto De Zerbi, who previously worked with him at Shakhtar Donetsk.
The Ukrainian said after completing the move that he wants to bring:
Speed and creativity.
Those are precisely two of his defining characteristics.
Mudryk + Marmoush + Savinho: How Many Wingers Do Tottenham Need?
This is where the transfer becomes tactically fascinating.
Tottenham already added several attacking options during the summer.
Among them:
- Omar Marmoush.
- Savinho.
- And now Mudryk.
De Zerbi therefore has an extraordinary amount of pace in attacking areas.
But the issue is no longer whether Tottenham have enough options.
It is:
How does he use all of them?
Marmoush and Mudryk, for example, naturally attack some of the same areas from the left.
That could push De Zerbi to use one of them in a more central role.
Tosin Crosses London Too
Tottenham also officially completed the signing of centre-back Tosin Adarabioyo from Chelsea.
The clubs did not publicly disclose the fee, while Sky Sports listed it at approximately £10 million.
The 28-year-old adds:
- Premier League experience.
- Physical strength.
- Ability to build from the back.
- Another option at centre-back.
De Zerbi described him as a strong, athletic defender who plays with confidence.
That profile is particularly useful for a team that wants to defend with a higher line and build under pressure.
Going the Other Way: Tottenham Begin Clearing the Squad
With more players arriving, others departed.
The final Deadline Day list included:
- Pape Matar Sarr → Juventus — Loan
- Kevin Danso → Sunderland — Loan
- Kota Takai → Sint-Truiden — Loan
This is important in the context of Tottenham's wider rebuild.
The club's problem was not simply that it had signed a huge number of players.
It also needed to reduce the size of the squad and establish who genuinely belongs in De Zerbi's project.
That picture is now becoming clearer.
Jack Grealish Returns to Everton
Away from the record-breaking fees, one of the most intriguing deals was:
Jack Grealish returning to Everton on a season-long loan from Manchester City.
Grealish also spent last season on loan at Everton.
His spell started strongly enough for him to win the Premier League Player of the Month award in August before a foot injury later disrupted his campaign.
His numbers during that spell:
| Metric | Total |
|---|---|
| Appearances | 22 |
| Goals | 2 |
| Assists | 6 |
Instead of looking for an entirely new environment, Grealish has chosen to return to the club where he had begun rediscovering his form.
Everton Got Grealish — But Lost Balogun
That creates one of Everton's biggest Deadline Day contradictions.
The club brought back a player who already knows the team and environment.
But they failed to land the striker they wanted.
Balogun was not merely another name on a list.
He had already travelled to complete the transfer.
The post-window question is therefore:
Do Everton have enough goals in their current squad?
A player such as Grealish can create chances.
But if there is no forward consistently converting them, part of the attacking problem remains unsolved.
Harvey Elliott Leaves Liverpool for Valencia
After completing the blockbuster signing of Bradley Barcola, Liverpool continued reorganising their attacking and creative options.
Harvey Elliott joined Valencia on loan until the end of the 2026/27 season.
The 23-year-old has made:
149 appearances for Liverpool, scoring 15 goals.
He spent last season on loan at Aston Villa before returning to Liverpool this summer.
The move makes sense for both sides.
Valencia gain a player with Premier League and European experience.
Elliott gets an opportunity to play more regularly at a time when competition for places at Liverpool has become significantly tougher following the club's major summer additions.
Other Major Deadline Day Deals
Deadline Day also produced several other significant moves:
| Player | From | To | Reported deal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malick Fofana | Lyon | Sunderland | £31m |
| Matias Fernandez-Pardo | Lille | Newcastle | £51m |
| Ibrahim Mbaye | Paris Saint-Germain | Aston Villa | £47m |
| Taylor Harwood-Bellis | Southampton | Aston Villa | £30m |
| Hugo Larsson | Eintracht Frankfurt | Fulham | £21m |
| Ethan Nwaneri | Arsenal | Borussia Dortmund | Loan |
| Nick Woltemade | Newcastle | Juventus | Loan |
| Marc Guiu | Chelsea | RB Leipzig | £14.6m |
| Fabio Vieira | Arsenal | Hamburg | £7.7m |
| Robert Sanchez | Chelsea | Como | Loan |
| Wilfried Gnonto | Leeds | Fiorentina | Loan |
| Beto | Everton | Fiorentina | £15.4m |
This list alone illustrates just how much Deadline Day changed the distribution of talent between England and the rest of Europe.
£3.198 Billion: Premier League Breaks Another Spending Record
All of that activity ended with a historic number.
According to Reuters, Premier League clubs spent approximately:
£3.198 billion
during the summer 2026 transfer window.
That represents a new summer spending record for the second consecutive year.
For comparison, only five years earlier the total was around:
£1.13 billion.
Premier League summer spending has therefore almost tripled over that period.
Chelsea Were the Biggest Spenders
Despite selling Enzo Fernandez on Deadline Day, Chelsea finished the summer as the Premier League's highest-spending club, at approximately:
£347 million
according to Reuters.
Manchester City and Tottenham were also among the most aggressive spenders.
But there is an obvious irony.
Chelsea spent more than any other Premier League club...
then finished Deadline Day by selling one of their most important players without completing the transfer they wanted to make as his replacement.
It is another reminder that:
Spending the most does not necessarily mean building the most complete squad.
Manchester City: The Biggest Deadline Day Winners?
It is difficult to assess the final hours without putting City near the top of that conversation.
Within a matter of hours, they added:
Enzo Fernandez
A midfielder capable of creating, scoring and controlling the rhythm of matches.
Iliman Ndiaye
A flexible, quick attacker who can beat defenders directly.
At the same time, Grealish returned to Everton after his place in the new City project had become less clear.
City are not simply collecting names.
There is a visible direction to the rebuild:
Younger.
More mobile.
More tactically flexible.
Who Lost the Final Hours?
Chelsea
They received £125 million for Fernandez.
Financially, that is an outstanding deal.
Sportingly, however, the collapse of the Camara transfer created a gap that was not part of the original plan.
Everton
They brought Grealish back.
But they lost Balogun after one of the strangest transfer sagas of the summer.
Monaco?
From a sporting perspective, their situation is rather different.
Monaco woke up after Deadline Day still owning:
Lamine Camara + Folarin Balogun.
That may not have been the plan when the day began.
But it became the final outcome.
And Tottenham?
Tottenham are a different case.
The problem is not that they failed to do enough.
It may be that they did too much.
More than £300 million in summer spending, major attacking and defensive changes, followed by the late arrivals of Mudryk and Tosin.
De Zerbi now has a huge range of options.
But the challenge has shifted entirely from the transfer market to the pitch:
How does he turn all these players into one team?
Europe's Window Is Closed — But Saudi Arabia Is Still Open
This is particularly important for After90Sports coverage.
The transfer market has not closed everywhere.
The Saudi Pro League's summer registration period remains open until:
6 September 2026
Saudi clubs therefore still have several additional days in which to complete transfers.
That could produce further major moves.
And not only players arriving in the Saudi Pro League.
European clubs could still lose players despite no longer being able to sign replacements from abroad until January.
That makes the next few days especially important.
The After90Sports Angle: Who Actually Won the Transfer Window?
The time for tracking flights, medicals and deal sheets is over.
Now comes the data.
The next question for After90Sports should not be:
Who spent the most?
It should be:
Who built the best team for the money they spent?
To answer that, every major club can be evaluated across five areas:
| Category | What should we measure? |
|---|---|
| Starting XI quality | Did the best XI actually improve? |
| Squad depth | What happens during injuries and suspensions? |
| Positional balance | Is one area overloaded while another remains weak? |
| Value for money | Did the club overpay for its additions? |
| Tactical fit | Do the signings genuinely suit the manager's system? |
From there, we can build the:
After90 Transfer Window Rating
for:
- Manchester City.
- Liverpool.
- Arsenal.
- Chelsea.
- Manchester United.
- Tottenham.
- Barcelona.
- Real Madrid.
- Atletico Madrid.
And after the Saudi window closes:
- Al Hilal.
- Al Nassr.
- Al-Ittihad.
- Al Ahli.
The Bottom Line: One Transfer Created an Entire Night of Chaos
Deadline Day 2026 can be summarised by one name:
Enzo Fernandez.
Manchester City paid £125 million to sign him.
Chelsea agreed to sell and began searching for a replacement.
They agreed a deal for Lamine Camara.
Monaco pulled out because of the Balogun situation.
Then Balogun himself decided against joining Everton.
At the same time, City added Ndiaye, Tottenham signed Mudryk and Tosin, Grealish returned to Everton and Elliott left Liverpool for Valencia.
And at the end of it all:
£3.198 billion spent by Premier League clubs.
But the biggest lesson from Deadline Day is not the amount of money involved.
It is how connected the transfer market has become.
One player's decision can alter the plans of four different clubs.
A collapsed deal in Monaco can create a problem in London.
And a deal completed in London can reshape the Premier League title race in Manchester.
The transfer window is closed.
Now comes the real test for all those millions: what happens on the pitch.
Sources
- Manchester City — Official announcement of Enzo Fernandez's signing through 2031.
- Manchester City — Official announcement of Iliman Ndiaye's five-year contract.
- Reuters — Enzo Fernandez transfer fee and Manchester City's summer rebuild.
- Reuters — Iliman Ndiaye's move to Manchester City.
- Sky Sports — Collapse of the Lamine Camara and Folarin Balogun deals and the Deadline Day chain reaction.
- Tottenham Hotspur — Official announcements of Mykhailo Mudryk and Tosin Adarabioyo.
- Reuters — Jack Grealish's return to Everton.
- Liverpool FC — Harvey Elliott's loan move to Valencia.
- Reuters — Premier League's record summer transfer spending.
- Saudi Arabian Football Federation — Saudi Pro League summer registration-window dates.