January transfer window: Premier League winners and losers

The January transfer window slammed shut Tuesday. Here are the teams that did the best and worst business during the window.

The January transfer window is often more exciting than the summer transfer period because of how short it is and how desperate sides can sometimes get in the middle of a season. Premier League sides only have a month to make hard decisions about what they need and how much they’re willing to pay for it.

Now  the window is closed, we’ve picked out three clubs who have done the best business (the winners) and three teams that have done the worst business (the losers) during the 2017 January window.

Winner: West Ham

Most of the transfer talk surrounding West Ham this winter has centered on Dimitri Payet. The France international was exceptional for the Hammers last season, but things weren’t so simple when he returned to West Ham after the summer break. Payet has looked half the player he was in 2015-16, and it seemed to disrupt the London side’s morale. After a disappointing first half of the season, Payet made it clear he wanted to leave the club.

Just before the window closed, the Hammers managed to sell Payet back to Marseille — the club they signed him from — for a $16 million profit. While they lost one of their best players, the fee they got for him and the additions they made with that money, Robert Snodgrass and Jose Fonte, make West Ham definite winners.

Fonte’s arrival from Southampton will sure up a Hammers defense that’s been shaky so far this season, while Snodgrass will help ease the loss of Payet in attack, particularly on set pieces, where Snodgrass excels. The Scotland international had been in fine form for Hull this season and West Ham fended off Burnley and Middlesbrough to secure his signature.