Another transfer deadline day is in the books. Below, we provide quick-hit analysis of the biggest deals – and rumors – from the summer window’s frantic final day.

DONE DEAL: Saul solves Chelsea’s midfield shortage ?

• Details: Season-long loan with option to buy (Read more)

This 11th-hour move works well for both parties.

Saul Niguez’s influence has waned over the past year or so despite his relatively clean bill of health, and that’s resulted in stints on Atletico Madrid’s bench and his omission from Spain’s Euro 2020 squad. It seemed the academy graduate’s time with Los Colchoneros had run its course, and a change would help the midfielder reignite his career.

And now Saul has landed on his feet with a switch to the European champions.

Thomas Tuchel was on the lookout for more bodies in midfield after relying heavily on Jorginho and dealing with N’Golo Kante’s increasingly frequent spells in the treatment room. Aside from that pair, the German tactician’s third-choice midfielder is Mateo Kovacic.

Saul is a tactically gifted player who can pick out a killer pass from the base of midfield, and he’s a surprisingly tough opponent in all kinds of duels. Tuchel could be the perfect coach to help Saul rediscover his best form.

DONE DEAL: Griezmann back at Atletico Madrid ?

• Details: Loan with obligation to buy (Read more)

Antoine Griezmann was an awkward fit at Barcelona. The forward was regularly scapegoated for the club’s financial problems after his €120-million move and singled out for its on-field underachievement.

But now, at long last, Griezmann has pulled the escape hatch and returned to Atletico Madrid.

The 30-year-old will be back grafting under Diego Simeone, the manager who turned him into a complete forward, and lining up alongside players like Luis Suarez and Joao Felix. That’s some upgrade on Martin Braithwaite.

Atleti is in good shape for its La Liga title defense.

It’s clear that Barcelona’s frontline is one of the weakest in its history after this summer window, but offloading Griezmann, Lionel Messi, and Trincao is out of necessity. The club holds debts of €1.35 billion, so it needs to rebuild gradually while aiming to return to its former glory.

DONE DEAL: Real Madrid get Camavinga ?

• Details: Midfielder joins in reported €31-million deal (Read more)

This is arguably the signing of the summer.

Eduardo Camavinga made his Rennes debut at 16, and it was soon clear he played with the maturity of a midfielder twice his age. He’s got incredible composure and always seems to pick the right pass, while his positional sense helps him break up plays, create space for his teammates, and lead counter-presses. He dictated Ligue 1 matches with his all-around game, helping Rennes reach last season’s Champions League group stage.

And he’s still just 18.

Real Madrid are officially moving into their next era with this signing. Camavinga will be expected to become one of Los Blancos’ chief protagonists for the next 15 years, taking Luka Modric’s midfield mantle and establishing himself among the sport’s elite.

Camavinga was available for an affordable €31 million because his Rennes contract was due to expire in June.

PSG risk losing Mbappe for nothing next summer ?

• Details: PSG reportedly fail to respond to Real Madrid bid (Read more)

Kylian Mbappe can join another team on a free transfer next summer after Paris Saint-Germain apparently stalled with their response to a bid worth at least €200 million from Real Madrid.

The Qatari-owned French club has therefore potentially surrendered almost a quarter of a billion euros. But rather than this being a case of PSG struggling to decide whether to accept Real Madrid’s offer, it’s likely a reflection of club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi’s belief that Mbappe will still sign a new contract.

“There’s no one more competitive than us. He has no reason to do anything (other than stay at the club),” Al-Khelaifi said about Mbappe’s future during Messi’s unveiling earlier in August.

Even if Mbappe leaves for nothing, it’s a risk that could lead to a rich reward. Fielding Mbappe, Messi, and Neymar together greatly boosts PSG’s bid for Champions League silverware. That’s the club’s No. 1 priority.

And although Mbappe may be initially downbeat about the collapse of his Real Madrid move, it’s a long-term win-win scenario for him. PSG are better equipped for Champions League glory than Real Madrid this season, and he’ll be due a mammoth signing-on fee upon arriving at his next destination due to the absence of a transfer fee.

However, there’s one possible piece of bad news for some of Europe’s biggest clubs: PSG will aggressively pursue Erling Haaland next summer if Mbappe takes off.

German transfer window shuts quietly ???

The Bundesliga rarely gets involved in the mad scrambles that define deadline days, so relegation-threatened Greuther Furth briefly garnered the spotlight when they struck deals for Cedric Itten and Sebastian Griesbeck.

But three of the country’s bigger clubs also brokered late transfers before the 12 p.m. ET deadline.

Eintracht Frankfurt loaned Sam Lammers from Atalanta and have handed the Dutchman the No. 9 shirt that Andre Silva previously wore. Lammers, 24, enjoyed his most prolific season on loan at Heerenveen, where he scored 16 goals over the 2018-19 Eredivisie campaign.

Borussia Dortmund also brokered a season-long loan agreement with Wolfsburg for defender Marin Pongracic. RB Leipzig, meanwhile, signed teenage midfielder Ilaix Moriba from Barcelona for a €16-million fee, according to The Guardian’s Fabrizio Romano.

A summary of the German transfer window can be found here.

DONE DEALS: Ronaldo in, James out at United ?

• Details: CR7 joins from Juventus for potential €23M fee (Read more)
• Details: James moves to Leeds United for reported £25M

Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United used deadline day’s early hours to put the final touches on the transfer that still has the football world in a frenzy.

The 36-year-old was seemingly on the verge of joining local rivals Manchester City after their pursuit of Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane collapsed. However, a chaotic few hours culminated with United announcing the return of Ronaldo from Juventus on Friday, pending an agreement of personal terms, the receipt of a visa, and the Portuguese forward completing a medical.

Some reports suggest City pulled the plug on a deal, allowing United to swoop in. Other accounts claimed the allure of United – and persuasive phone calls from former teammates such as Rio Ferdinand – encouraged Ronaldo to turn his back on City. There was even speculation that Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, used City as a pawn to tempt United into an approach, though that would seem unlikely as some of Mendes’ top clients play for the reigning Premier League champions.

Perhaps the biggest debate around Ronaldo’s return is United’s motivation. Was this primarily an emotional decision, one designed to stop a club icon from moving to City and instead bring him back to Old Trafford? Or does Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believe the Madeiran maverick is the crucial final piece in a title-winning team?

There’s no doubting the supreme quality and influence of Ronaldo, but the riches United already had in attack and their vulnerabilities in defensive midfield may suggest their money was best spent elsewhere.

Ronaldo’s return dealt a significant blow to Daniel James’ first-team chances, so the Welsh winger moved across the Pennines to join Leeds United on Tuesday in a reported £25-million deal.

Manchester City fail in No. 9 search

It went very quiet at City headquarters after Ronaldo moved to their cross-town foes. It was almost as if they conceded defeat in their search for an out-and-out striker.

Winger Ferran Torres has impressed at center-forward, while Gabriel Jesus, who’s flourished in his recent outings on the right flank, remains City’s most natural striking option. But that clearly isn’t enough while Pep Guardiola competes for four separate pieces of silverware. City needed a Sergio Aguero replacement.

But the club strangely wasn’t rumored to be exploring late moves for Borussia Dortmund’s Haaland and Fiorentina’s Dusan Vlahovic on transfer deadline day.

Interestingly, 18-year-old Liam Delap is yet to move out on loan despite links with Stoke City and other Championship clubs. Perhaps the boisterous striker will get an opportunity in Guardiola’s lineup after the failures to land Kane and Ronaldo.

DONE DEAL: Moise Kean re-joins Juventus ?

• Details: Bianconeri could pay up to €38M after initial loan (Read more)

Kean signed off from Everton duty with a red card in a League Cup match at Huddersfield Town. It was a fitting way for him to end a disappointing spell on Merseyside.

With Dominic Calvert-Lewin establishing himself as the main striker at Everton and roving forward duties left to Richarlison, Kean struggled for minutes with the Toffees. The 21-year-old only once started in back-to-back Premier League matches and completed 90 minutes just twice: a 2-0 home defeat to Sheffield United and a cup win over League Two’s Salford City.

So, Everton potentially receiving even more than what they paid two years ago isn’t a bad return at all.

At Juventus, Kean is widely recognized as Ronaldo’s replacement. It’s a burdensome tag. But Juve should take confidence from his haul of 13 goals from 26 Ligue 1 appearances on loan at Paris Saint-Germain last season and his exploits as a teenager during his previous spell in Turin.

Kean has often thrived as a support striker or when being one of a few forwards, and Juventus can certainly play to those strengths when Massimiliano Allegri has the likes of Alvaro Morata, Federico Chiesa, and Paulo Dybala to call upon.

Best under-the-radar signing

Brighton & Hove Albion could be one of the most exciting Premier League teams to watch following the addition of Marc Cucurella.

Cucurella, a £15.4-million arrival from Getafe, will wreak havoc on the left flank while a fit-again Tariq Lamptey will raze everything in his path down the right. It promises to be a thrilling watch.

The 23-year-old addresses an area of need for the Seagulls after midfielders Pascal Gross, Solly March, and Jakub Moder have played at left-back or left wing-back during the opening three matches of the Premier League season. Cucurella could also feature to the left of the striker, with Leandro Trossard playing on the right.

And … breathe. After a flurry of deadline-day moves, theScore picks out the winners and losers from the most unpredictable summer transfer window of our time.

Winners: Paris Saint-Germain

PSG bullied the opposition in the summer transfer window, showing no mercy as they poached teams’ best players on free transfers. The barely believable signing of Lionel Messi served as a changing of the guard, the handing of the baton from the football establishment to the new kids on the block.

PSG’s signings read like end credits on a Hollywood epic: Messi, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Achraf Hakimi, Georginio Wijnaldum, and Sergio Ramos join an already stellar cast featuring Marquinhos, Marco Verratti, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappe. That PSG could assemble such a roster without falling afoul of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules is either genius or suspicious, depending on your perspective.

Perhaps emboldened by their headline-grabbing moves, Les Parisiens reportedly had the cojones to turn down Real Madrid’s €200 million for Mbappe. PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi seems to be convinced he can re-sign the 22-year-old hotshot before his contract expires next summer.

Now come the expectations: PSG have to win the Champions League, the competition their Qatari owners have sought since they took over the club in 2011. Anything less will be a failure.

Losers: Barcelona

If you think your favorite team had a rough transfer window, take solace in the fact it wasn’t as disastrous as what transpired at Barcelona.

Mired in a financial quagmire of its own making, the Catalans lost Messi even though he wanted to stay. That alone makes Barca the biggest loser of the summer – perhaps any summer. Maybe the Blaugrana could’ve kept Messi if they managed to offload Antoine Griezmann before the final day of the window.

As if losing Messi wasn’t bad enough, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba had to take last-minute pay cuts just to allow the club register Sergio Aguero’s contract. If they hadn’t, Barcelona would’ve exceeded their salary cap and forfeited Aguero’s signing.

Barcelona were so strapped for cash they couldn’t even keep promising teenager Ilaix Moriba, who was relegated to the club’s B team in the preseason because of his contract demands and later sold to RB Leipzig. All told, these guys put on a masterclass in how not to run a football club.

Winners: Manchester United

For a long time, Manchester United seemed to spend money for the sake of spending money. They’re still dropping huge wads of cash, but at least they’re breaking the bank on the right players.

Take away Cristiano Ronaldo for a second. The addition of Jadon Sancho solves a problem on the right wing and solidifies an electrifying front four that could compete with any team in Europe. The arrival of Raphael Varane also brings much-needed relief to a back line that has cost United points in the past. Together, they’ve brought a balance to United unseen since the days of Sir Alex Ferguson. Fans would have liked a defensive midfielder to round out the team, but for once, the Red Devils have the vast majority of pieces in place.

Now, Ronaldo himself doesn’t exactly address a need. He’ll simply score the goals Edinson Cavani would have otherwise netted. Ronaldo may even take time away from budding talent Mason Greenwood. But the 36-year-old wouldn’t have returned if he didn’t believe the club could win trophies. And that’s ultimately validation of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad and the club’s prospects.

Loser: Harry Kane

Harry Kane clearly wanted to leave Tottenham Hotspur for Manchester City this summer, but there was no convincing chairman Daniel Levy. City’s reported £125-million bid fell well short of Levy’s asking price, and Kane couldn’t possibly force his way out with three years remaining on his contract. Had he negotiated a release clause in the six-year deal he signed with Tottenham back in 2018 – as Jack Grealish did with Aston Villa last year – Kane would’ve had the authority to engineer a move to the reigning Premier League champions.

Despite the power struggle, the 28-year-old said his “conscience is clear,” and true as that may be, he has a lot of work to do to regain the faith of the fans. He did himself no favors by showing up late to preseason training. Whether he had an agreement with the club to arrive at a later date is irrelevant. Perception is reality, and unfortunately for Kane, he’s lost the benefit of the doubt.

There’s only one thing he can do to restore his name: score goals.

Winner: The almighty Premier League pound

It was business as usual in the Premier League. Even against the backdrop of a pandemic that has pilfered the coffers of the richest clubs, spending among English teams topped £1 billion for the seventh consecutive summer, according to transfermarkt.com.

Most expensive signings

(Source: Sky Sports)

Even with a hefty £97.5-million outlay for Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea only really spent as much as it had raised in sales. That’s thanks to club director Marina Granovskaia, who once again displayed her negotiating acumen to secure close to £90 million for Tammy Abraham, Kurt Zouma, and Fikayo Tomori.

However, some teams may rue the amount of money they’ve coughed up. Arsenal sit at the bottom of the Premier League despite handing over a reported £156.8 million in transfer fees – more than any other club in the English top flight. The Premier League pound giveth and taketh away.

Loser: Serie A

Ronaldo and Lukaku, the top two scorers from the past Serie A season, led an exodus of talent from the peninsula this summer. Most of it was, for better or worse, financially driven. Inter Milan, facing a financial reckoning just a few short months after winning the Scudetto, had to sacrifice Lukaku and Hakimi, and across town, rivals AC Milan decided to surrender Donnarumma on a free transfer, having refused to raise their offer of €7 million per season. Udinese sold midfield juggernaut Rodrigo De Paul for a hefty profit, and Atalanta peddled up-and-coming defender Cristian Romero to Tottenham for the same reason.

Serie A itself isn’t in bad shape – it recorded more goals than any of the other top five leagues last weekend – but it’s lost a ton of visibility. Unlike Premier League clubs – which rely on lucrative domestic and international TV deals – every team in Italy has had to make sacrifices to recover lost revenue during the pandemic.

Winners: Roma

For two years, Roma have announced each of their signings alongside pictures of missing children, using their global reach on Twitter not just to tease an announcement or score social media points, but to affect positive change in their community and abroad.

So far, 12 of the more than 100 children who have featured in Roma’s campaign have been found safe.

“It is difficult to explain the happiness of having in some way contributed to the finding of one of these children and consequently to the relief of her family,” said Uzbek striker Eldor Shomurodov, who joined the club from fellow Serie A side Genoa in August. “I’m proud to be part of a club that uses the popularity of football in this way.”

Last year, Roma brought more than 200 professional clubs together to raise awareness on International Missing Children’s Day, sharing videos to a combined 400 million followers.

Loser: UEFA

UEFA is finally admitting defeat. Financial Fair Play is reportedly heading into the bin after a decade of politics and grandstanding. Ultimately, FFP did nothing to bridge the gap between the elite and the chasing pack. If anything, it protected the wealthiest teams, whose vast revenue streams enabled them to spend more money then their thriftier peers.

UEFA relaxed FFP regulations during the pandemic, which could explain why PSG managed to commit tens of millions of euros in salaries and transfer fees despite suffering losses of €204 million and €124 million in the past two seasons.

But with or without FFP, UEFA doesn’t have the confidence of some of its biggest stakeholders. The threat of a breakaway Super League remains high, with a court in Madrid ordering UEFA to rescind the sanctions it imposed on the 12 breakaway clubs. Barcelona, Juventus, and Real Madrid, in particular, believe UEFA has failed to develop a sustainable model. Fans of both big and small clubs believe the same.

The last few months proved UEFA can’t do much to create parity.