The top 10 underrated transfers of the 2022/23 Premier League season - including Man City and Fulham stars

The Premier League spent somewhere in the region of £2.8bn on transfers this year – about the same amount of money as the entire GDP of Suriname or Andorra - neither of whom managed to spend over £80m on Antony - and roughly the cost of five battalions of tanks. Just think, English football could have funded Ukraine’s defence forces directly, not via the medium of completely upending the Donetsk economy with all the cash thrown at Mykhaylo Mudryk.

Anyway, let’s not get too bogged down in the crossover between football and military strategy, because for every terrible fiscal decision made by a Premier League club this season – and there have been plenty of those – there has been a smart and sneaky transfer which has slid very slightly under the radar.

We’ve corralled ten of the signings which have impressed us most this season without getting the same fanfare as the Erling Haalands of the Premier League. These are the best of the sly under-the-counter style deals which set a team in very good stead if they can keep pulling them off – the most under-appreciated deals of the Premier League season.

10. Lucas Paqueta – West Ham United

It’s tricky to be the most expensive player in your club’s history and be underappreciated, but the Brazilian midfielder really hasn’t generated much buzz or many column inches despite a move believed to be worth over £50m. Paqueta was voted the best overseas player in Ligue 1 when he was at Lyon last season and while he has some way to go to fully justify his meaty price tag, he’s made a pretty solid start to life in the East End of London – two goals and two assists in 20 league games might not be setting the world on fire, but he has combined a huge defensive workrate with the capacity to progress the ball forward with both his passing and dribbling. West Ham aren’t having the season they expected, but Paqueta has at least provided a little light relief.

9. Dango Ouattara – Bournemouth

A January arrival from Lorient, the 21 year-old Burkinabe winger has has picked up three assists in 11 appearances for the Cherries, and most of all demonstrated an absolutely tireless work ethic to go with a superb defensive game. Statistically he’s been up there with the best widemen in the world for defensive actions, making more tackles, blocks and interceptions than most full-backs do these days – and he presents a threat at the other end as well, getting more shots away per game than, say, Bukayo Saka does – albeit clearly not so successfully. Ouattara might not be the flashiest or most technically wonderful player in the division, but for a team in a tough relegation battle he’s everything you could possibly ask for.

8. Serge Aurier – Nottingham Forest

Buried under the mountain of new signings made by Steve Cooper’s side this year was former Tottenham Hotspur full-back Aurier, whose signing gently raised eyebrows as people recalled the error prone and inconsistent player that spent four frustrating seasons at Spurs – but the player whose showed up at the City Ground this year has been a different player entirely, drastically reducing his risk-taking, playing a much more defensive role, and doing it very well, with defensive statistics that even outshine Ouattara. Forest may well go down but if they do, it won’t be through any fault of the Ivorian’s.

7. Benoit Badiashile – Chelsea

Another January pick-up, Badiashile arrived from Monaco with substantially less fanfare than any member of the cavalcade of big-money forwards brought to Stamford Bridge, but has quietly made himself a staple of an admittedly iffy Chelsea side. A physical marvel with impressive pace and the ability to beat anyone in the air, he’s also confident with the ball at his feet and makes more progressive plays from centre-half than almost any equivalent player in Europe. At 22 he’s still somewhat raw but his bizarre exclusion from the Champions League squad has only looked stranger as he earned his place as one of the first names on Graham Potter’s team-sheet while the ex-Brighton manager was still in charge. An impressive start to life in the Premier League, and he could end up being the best buy of an extremely expensive season.

6. Manuel Akanji – Manchester City

It’s tricky to decide how ‘underrated’ a player like Akanji is – any player arriving at the Etihad has a spotlight shone on them, but at a relatively lowly £15m or so, he didn’t show up with immense expectation on his shoulders. So perhaps I’m picking out a player whose largely impressive first Premier League campaign was pretty well expected, but I doubt too many people had him down as such a key man for Pep Guardiola, or thought he would have played more games than any City defender other than Nathan Ake. But then, he’s a rather Peppish sort of defender, down in the basement when it comes to defensive stats but shining as a passer and player of the ball. As tiki taka as they come, and a relative bargain.

5. Willian – Fulham

Another player in the “oh, that guy’s back, is he?” category with Serge Aurier, and not many people expected the 34 year-old former Arsenal and Chelsea man to pull up a whole bunch of his trees on his return to the Premier League, but he’s become an important player for Fulham, working hard at the heart of an industrial midfield and providing the Cottagers with one of their better attacking outlets in an impressive campaign for the West London team. His returns in terms of goal contributions or raw statistics haven’t been outrageous – although his winning goal against Chelsea will live long in the local memory - but his experience and energy have made him a vital part of a side who are outperforming any realistic expectations. Not bad at all for a free transfer.

4. Pervis Estupinan – Brighton & Hove Albion

Signed from Villarreal after a couple of respectable but hardly stellar seasons with the Yellow Submarine, Estupinan went largely under the British footballing radar until he started to pick up some steam in the second half of the season as an undervalued Fantasy Premier League asset. Brighton fans would have been impressed before that happened, though – the 25 year-old Ecuadorian is a well-rounded full-back with the tackling skills to match his passing range, and unlike many modern wing-backs he doesn’t have glaring defensive holes in his game either. A genuine jack of all trades, disaster at none, and a very strong addition to the Sussex side’s squad.

3. James Tarkowski – Everton

Exactly where do we reckon Everton would be if they hadn’t picked up James Tarkowski in the summer? His dominant aerial presence, expert positioning and physical threat from set pieces has made him one of the key players in a team that has struggled to string anything together almost anywhere else on the pitch. He had a solid enough start to life after Burnley before he was reunited unexpectedly with Sean Dyche, and since then he’s once again been the lynchpin in Dyche’s carefully-honed defensive system. Everton will most likely survive their brush with relegation, and Tarkowski’s free signing will be a big reason why.

2. Armel Bella-Kotchap – Southampton

Another centre-back who has drawn a decent amount of justified praise from those paying enough attention, the 21 year-old Bella-Kotchap is blessed with all the attributes to be a world-class, if rather old-fashioned, centre-half, and has settled in superbly at St. Mary’s while all else around him largely goes to wrack and ruin. He’s huge in the air, smart with his tackling and possesses seemingly preternatural abilities to anticipate opposing runs and passes and cut them out. He isn’t much of a ball-player – indeed he’s just about the least Peppish player imaginable – but this anti-Akanji has been worth every penny of £8m fee and then some more. He has a huge future ahead of him, albeit probably not with Southampton if the South coast club do end up going down.

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1. Bernd Leno – Fulham

The German goalie who cost Fulham £8m from Arsenal in the summer has quietly, with barely a ripple, set about showing anyone paying attention just how undervalued he has been not just this season, but for some time. Only David Raya has made more saves in the Premier League this season, and he’s preventing nearly one goal for every four that xG reckon he “should” concede, better than all but a small handful of top-flight ‘keepers around the continent. Fulham haven’t had the most impressive defensive record this season but that’s based on what’s in front of Leno, and precious little to do with anything that’s been happening between the sticks. Fulham owe a huge amount to Leno – and almost nobody outside of Craven Cottage has really noticed, with the relative mediocrity of Fulham’s backline masking how solid their shot-stopper has been. A brilliant piece of business deserving of much more praise than he’s getting.