Hello everyone, and welcome to Early Doors Football. This January window was utter insanity, there is no other way to describe it. Chelsea tried to buy everyone under the sun, Arsenal strengthened ahead of their title challenge, and relegation-threatened teams flexed their muscles and showed some impressive pull. The winter transfer window is the perfect time for teams to bolster their squad for the second half of the season, so today, I will take a look at the moves that I believe will be the most influential. There were a lot of cracking deals, but I will keep it simple and give my opinion on the signings that will have an instant impact. Let’s jump in!
Dango Ouattara to Bournemouth:
Bournemouth have been one of the more active teams this transfer window, showing a real desire to pull clear of the relegation zone. While they have been rather suspect defensively this season, they have made a clear effort to strengthen their attack. The stand-out attacking signing has been Dango Ouattara from Lorient in France, who is a really interesting player. Lorient, as a whole, have been very exciting, as they have been punching above their weight with some exciting young talent. The 20 year-old winger has hit double digit goal contributions in this season and played a key role in Lorient’s excellent season.
To bring some context as to why I think this is a great signing, it is worth taking a quick look at the environment from which the Burkina Faso native came from. To extremely oversimplify Lorient’s attacking style, they build up deep in their own half, before attacking in quick bursts.

A graph from The Analyst (using data from Opta) shows that they are “fast and direct”, meaning Ouattara is used to playing on the break. He receives about 6 progressive passes per game and is an efficient dribbler, being dispossessed only 1 time per game on average (data from FBref). In addition, he is in the 87th percentile for shot-creating dribbles, so he can provide a lot of danger in transitional moments. On the other side of the ball, he is extremely valuable as well. For a team like Bournemouth, who will likely be under pressure regularly, this is a key attribute. I need not run through all of his defensive statistics, but he is well over the 80th percentile for all key metrics.
To bring this back to a wider lens, we see that Bournemouth’s style of play is similar to Lorient’s, which can lead us to presume Ouattara will be comfortable when stepping into this Bournemouth side.

Keep in mind, this is definitely an oversimplification of Lorient’s and Bournemouth’s tactics, but the overarching play style can be useful in seeing if a player can transition to their new club. Ouattara already registered an assist in his first match for the Cherries, so it looks like he will hit the ground running.
Benoit Badiashile to Chelsea:
Having put the Frenchman in a previous Chelsea rebuild article, I was ecstatic to see him join the club. Badiashile has been a regular fixture in Monaco’s lineup since he was only 17, so despite his young age, he is very experienced. Having played twice for Chelsea already, he has picked up two clean sheets, and looked astonishingly comfortable in the back line, next to Thiago Silva.
He is a towering presence, something I think will prove useful for the Blues. He wins loads of aerial duels, something missing from the defense. More importantly, he is accustomed, and excels at it. He is a very accurate progressive passer. Looking towards the future, I think the left center-back slot is totally sorted for Chelsea. Colwill will be coming back from a loan from Brighton, where he has been class, and now Badiashile looks to be a great signing for a lovely price.
Leandro Trossard to Arsenal:
Although Arsenal may have missed out on their first choice in Mykhalio Mudryk, their second choice is by no means poor. Trossard has been on fire this season for Brighton, but after a fallout with manager Roberto De Zerbi, he became available for an extremely reasonable price. Arsenal wasted no time, signing him days after missing out on Mudryk. You can point to a number of reasons as to why this is a shrewd bit of business, but for me, his versatility is the best part. Trossard can play as a false nine, in a similar fashion to Jesus, or seamlessly slot in for anyone in the space behind the striker.
He regularly finds himself drifting into the left half space, much like Jesus, so I think he will gel into this complex attack very well. If Arsenal were serious about taking this title challenge all the way, they clearly needed another piece in the attack; if they got hit with another injury, they were going to be very thin. Trossard looks like a player made for Arteta, so adding him to the mix is a great piece of business for the Gunners.
Keylor Navas to Nottingham Forest:
Never thought I would be writing this! This move popped up pretty late in the transfer window, and to be perfectly honest, I never really believed it. Nottingham Forest really needed a lot of defensive reinforcement, and while they may not have signed all of their targets, Navas is a massive improvement to their backline.
Navas is one of the top goalkeepers of the generation, so to get him while in a relegation battle is a huge boost. I feel like he has been disrespected over the years, being ousted from his starting position at Real Madrid and PSG, so perhaps he can show everyone his worth again. With how Forest have been performing, they may still find it difficult to avoid the drop, but the Costa Rican is the sort of goalkeeper that can single-handedly win you points.
Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea:
Wow wow wow. What can I say? I hoped all window this move would happen, and it went down to the absolute wire. Definitely spent way too much time on deadline day watching various sources, but it was worth it once it was confirmed! I feel like there is so much to go into with this signing, and because of that, I am going to write a separate article on it.
That is all I am going to cover today! It was certainly one of the craziest January windows that I have seen, so it was a wild ride the entire way through. Thank you all for reading and have a lovely day.
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