The new players that will make the biggest impact.
Although Manchester City have perhaps been the only top Premier League side to make big moves in the transfer market, there have certainly been some influential summer signings so far.
The competitiveness in the English top tier becomes more fierce each year and sides usually in mid-table positions have spent big this summer.
Here’s who fanatix thinks will be the five most influential new signings.
Wilfried Bony – Swansea City
It was a big moment for the Swans when they landed club record signing Bony from Vitesse Arnhem for £12m, with Europa League football clearly making the Liberty Stadium a more attractive destination.
The Ivorian striker is still only 24-years-old but with 31 goals in just 30 Eredivisie matches last season, the forward clearly has an eye for the net and has an overall record of 58 strikes in 77 games for Vitesse.
Bony should take the pressure off Michu as well for goal-scoring duties at Swansea and the attacker’s compact, physical style should be ideally suited for the Premier League.
Arouna Kone – Everton
Another striker from the Ivory Coast who is likely to get plenty of playing time at their new club, with Kone making the £6m switch to the Toffees.
The 29-year-old already knows top flight football in England having scored 11 Premier League goals at Wigan Athletic last season.
Everton lacked potency in front of goal in 2012/13, netting significantly less than the teams around them with just Nikica Jelavic and Victor Anichebe providing the presence in front of goal.
Jesus Navas – Manchester City
The Spaniard is in fact the cheapest of all City’s purchases this summer arriving from Sevilla for a little under £15m – less than half of what the club had to fork out for Fernandinho.
Yet Navas is a true winger with a great eye for providing goals for team mates and should prove to be the perfect foil for David Silva and Stevan Jovetic in a three-man attack behind the lone striker.
Although the Spain international only provided six assists last season, the 27-year-old is generally prolific from out wide with Navas putting on 60 goals in the past six seasons.
Paulinho – Tottenham Hotspur
Little was known about this Brazilian midfielder outside of the 24-year-old’s home country until 2013, but some brilliant performances in both international friendlies and the Confederations Cup has caught the eye of the football elite.
Paulinho is a box-to-box midfield ace of the modern generation that will boss the middle of the park and is likely to justify Andre Villas-Boas’ gamble to pay a club record £17m fee for the South American.
Although Spurs are inundated with top-class midfielders, expect to see the tireless Paulinho featuring in the majority of matches this term.
Ricky Van Wolfswinkel – Norwich City
The Dutchman is quite the capture for Norwich as several top sides around Europe have been interested in the former FC Utrecht and Sporting Lisbon hit-man.
Van Wolfswinkel is another club record transfer at £8.5m and is also another 24-year-old that arrives with great promise, having scored 43 league goals in the past three seasons in Portugal and the Netherlands.
It shows the Canaries’ intent for the upcoming Premier League campaign by ditching old school striker Grant Holt for the continental style of Van Wolfswinkel.
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