Bruno Fernandes, Luis Suarez & the top 10 January transfer window signings in Premier League history - ranked

January is often described as the grimmest month of the year, but it can also be a time of renewal, a moment to make a fresh start. And for football clubs, the opening of the January transfer window provides an opportunity for clubs to breathe new life into their disappointing campaigns and invest for the future.Manchester City are set to make another huge statement in 2026 after splashing our on £180-million worth of talent last January as they lead the race to sign Antoine Semenyo. Manchester United, meanwhile, were also linked with the Bournemouth forward and cannot afford to not look for opportunities to strengthen their squad and put up a serious challenge for Champions League football.It will be equally fascinating to see whether the Red Devils cave in to Kobbie Mainoo's demands to go out on loan or if a club tests their resolve with an outright bid for the out-of-favour England midfielder, while Joshua Zirkzee continues to be linked with a move back to Serie A.Liverpool will also be one to watch when the window opens. They could do with strengthening their squad even after shelling out £440m in the summer as doubts still linger over Mohamed Salah's future while Alexander Isak, their British-record signing, has just broken his leg. Boosting the defence is a bigger priority for Arne Slot, though, with Ibrahima Konate's contract about to expire while Marc Guehi, whom they almost signed in the summer, is potentially available as Crystal Palace face their final opportunity to cash in on their captain before his deal ends.Managers often complain that the winter window offers little value compared to the summer, when the bulk of business is done, and yet some of the most shrewd transfer moves have been made in the first month of the year.Here, GOAL breaks down the top 10 January transfer window signings in Premier League history...In terms of value for money, you could make the case that Seamus Coleman is the best signing in Premier League history. David Moyes plucked the full-back from League of Ireland side Sligo Rovers in January 2009 for £60,000 ($76,000) - and no, we haven't missed out a zero or two.Coleman could not have an instant impact as he had to undergo surgery on an infected blister on his toe almost immediately after joining Everton, and he later joined Blackpool on loan for half a season. But he has remained a Toffee since August 2010, playing under 11 managers.He has made 433 appearances for Everton while contributing to 57 goals, breaking down to £138 per appearance and little more than £1,000 per goal or assist. He has also been one of their most consistent performers as well as their most loyal and passionate, resisting no small amount of big moves to stay with the club which he has captained since 2019.Injuries have limited the 37-year-old to just three short-lived Premier League appearances this season, but he remains one of the Toffees' best-loved players.It was always expected that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would end up at Real Madrid when he left Borussia Dortmund, but Arsenal were the willing beneficiaries when he left the German side in January 2018. He was the Gunners' record signing at the time, but quickly set about repaying his £56m fee with a stunning 10 goals in 13 Premier League games.He kept it up in the next two seasons, scoring 60 times in all competitions while almost single-handedly firing Arsenal to win the FA Cup in 2020, netting twice both against Manchester City in the semi-finals and Chelsea in the final.Things started to go wrong, however, after he signed a lucrative new contract, and just 16 months later he saw that deal torn up after falling foul of Mikel Arteta's disciplinary regime. Aubameyang subsequently joined Barcelona for free then had a miserable spell at Chelsea, but has revitalised a stalling career with two spells at Marseille that sandwiched a season in Saudi Arabia.Despite the ugly end to his time at the Emirates Stadium, Aubameyang still goes down as one of the most impactful January signings of recent times.Gary Cahill left relegation-fighting Bolton Wanderers for Chelsea in January 2012, but he initially must have thought he had swapped one crisis club for another when Andre Villas-Boas was sacked less than two months after he had arrived. Cahill, however, began to thrive under interim boss Roberto Di Matteo and came into his own in the Champions League, where he helped Chelsea pull off a dramatic comeback win over Napoli, knock out Barcelona at Camp Nou - after John Terry had been sent off - and then see off Bayern Munich in their own stadium to win the trophy for the first time.Cahill was no one-season wonder, though, and he was crucial to Chelsea's subsequent league title successes under Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte. He won a total of eight trophies with the Blues and was named in the PFA Team of the Year on three occasions. Not bad at all for £7m.Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reportingMany people questioned Kieran Trippier's motives when he left La Liga champions Atletico Madrid in January 2022 to join struggling Newcastle just weeks after the club's Saudi takeover. He endured a nightmare debut, too, as lower-league Cambridge United knocked the Magpies out of the FA Cup in the third round.Trippier, however, proved to be a transformative figure for Newcastle, an inspirational leader who continued to travel with the team to matches in his first season even after sustaining a serious ankle injury as they survived under Eddie Howe.Once recovered, he spearheaded Newcastle's charge to the Carabao Cup final in 2023 and to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in 20 years. His form has fluctuated since then, but he still played his part in 2024-25 as Newcastle returned to Europe's premier club competition and won a first major English trophy in 70 years.Trippier has contributed to 30 goals for the Magpies, outstanding numbers for a defender, while his experience and defensive qualities have helped sustain Howe's side's rise to become one of the top teams in the league again after decades in the wilderness.Philippe Coutinho saw Liverpool as an escape route from a frustrating period with Inter, and it took just a few weeks for the Reds to realise they had hit the jackpot. The Brazilian added real quality to Brendan Rodgers' side, and in his first half-season scored three times and assisted seven more goals. He proved to be even better the following campaign, helping Liverpool go agonisingly close to winning the title after forming a fine understanding with fellow South American Luis Suarez.He eventually outlasted Suarez and Rodgers at Anfield and became a crucial part of Jurgen Klopp's side, contributing to 62 goals under the German while briefly forming a mouth-watering attack known as the 'Fab Four' alongside Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.Coutinho got too big for his boots, however, and ultimately could not resist the urge to join Barcelona in January 2018. Liverpool did have the last laugh, banking £142m ($178m) from his sale which they used to sign Virgil van Dijk and Alisson, laying the foundations for their future Premier League and Champions League successes. Coutinho, meanwhile, had a miserable time at Barca and is now seeing out his career back in Brazil with Vasco da Gama after a spell at Aston Villa.Manchester United had been courting Bruno Fernandes for some time, but walked away from a deal in the summer of 2019 after baulking at Sporting's valuation. But with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side struggling and way off the pace of the top four, they eventually caved into the Portuguese club's demands late in they following January, and boy were they glad they did.Fernandes breathed fresh life into the Red Devils' season as Solskjaer's side remained unbeaten from the day he signed until the final day of the campaign. The Portuguese's eight goals and seven assists across 14 matches lifted United into third in the Premier League, and he helped them reach the semi-finals of both the FA Cup and the Europa League.Fernandes was even more dominant in his second season, scoring 28 times and setting up 17 goals in all competitions, and now into his sixth campaign at Old Trafford, he boasts an impressive record of 85 goals and 76 assists in 260 appearances.Fernandes might divide opinions among pundits, but he remains United's most influential player and is beloved by fans, who know just how bad things could have been had he not lifted their spirits. The captain will miss the first few weeks of 2026 after finally succumbing to injury, and Ruben Amorim's side are counting the days until he returns.Andrew Cole was the hottest young striker in the Premier League when Manchester United made Newcastle an offer they couldn't refuse in January 1995, sending winger Keith Gillespie the other way as part of the deal. The £7m fee made Cole the most expensive English player in history at the time, and it weighed heavily on him. He scored plenty of goals in his first season, but also missed big chances as United narrowly missed out on the title to Blackburn Rovers and lost the FA Cup final to Everton.He soon made up for those setbacks by firing United to five Premier League titles, two FA Cups and the Champions League, scoring 121 goals in the process, and Cole was never happier than when he was playing up front alongside close friend Dwight Yorke, by far the best strike partner he had. By the time Cole departed Old Trafford, that record transfer fee looked like an utter bargain - and how United could do with a striker of his calibre now.Luis Suarez was one of the stars of the 2010 World Cup after inspiring Uruguay to the semi-finals, but already had a devilish reputation after using his hands to infamously deny Ghana a goal in the quarter-finals. However, no serious bids came in for him in the immediate aftermath of that tournament, and he remained at Ajax, where he soon found himself in more trouble after biting PSV midfielder Otman Bakkal, which earned him a seven match ban.His track record of controversy did not put Liverpool off, and they eventually signed him for £23m just four days before the 2011 January transfer window closed. Suarez had a slow start, scoring only four league goals over the rest of the season, but he eventually found his feet and proved to an absolute bargain. He scored 82 goals in three-and-a-half seasons on Merseyside and took Liverpool to the brink of the title in 2013-14, only to sob uncontrollably when it slipped away at Selhurst Park.His time at Anfield was, though, also marked by huge controversy, as he received a 10-match ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic in 2013 and an eight-game suspension after being found guilty by the Football Association of using racist language towards Patrice Evra.Suarez was still a Liverpool player when he was engulfed in his third biting incident after chomping Giorgio Chiellini during the 2014 World Cup, and was soon bought by Barcelona for £75m, triple the amount Liverpool had paid for him three years earlier.Nemanja Vidic was an obscure figure when he arrived at Manchester United in January 2006, and no one could have imagined that he would inspire the Red Devils to five Premier League titles and three Champions League finals, lifting the European Cup in 2008, when he joined from Spartak Moscow.Vidic formed a rock solid centre-back partnership with Rio Ferdinand which provided the platform for Sir Alex Ferguson’s last great team. His ferocious and unforgiving style of play made him the ideal partner for the calm and smooth Ferdinand, who focused on building from the back while his partner dealt with snuffing out any danger.A fan favourite for his full-blooded style of defending, Vidic became United's captain when Gary Neville retired in 2011. Their defence has never been quite the same since he left three years later.Liverpool courted Virgil van Dijk for a long time, and had hoped to sign him in the summer of 2017, so much so that Jurgen Klopp arranged a private meeting with the Southampton defender in a hotel in Blackpool to tempt him to swap the south coast for Merseyside. That meeting infuriated the Saints and led to them increasing their asking price for Van Dijk, quashing his hopes of moving that summer.The Reds were instead made to wait until the end of the year, and in late December finally agreed to pay £75m ($94m) for the Dutchman, who moved to Anfield once the window opened in January. At the time it was a world-record fee for a defender and led to Klopp being accused of hypocrisy after decrying the amount Manchester United had paid for Paul Pogba 18 months previously. But, quite unlike Pogba, Van Dijk proved to be worth every penny.He was the missing piece of Klopp's jigsaw and stabilised their defence, helping Liverpool reach the Champions League final four months later before they then won Europe's biggest prize in 2019. He was also crucial to them winning a first league title in 30 years, and when he suffered a serious knee injury early in the following campaign, Liverpool effectively collapsed without him.Van Dijk returned to his best and led Liverpool's charge to another title in 2025, and while his levels may have dropped this season, he remains the best January signing in Premier League history.