Winners and losers of the summer transfer window so far

With one month remaining in the transfer window, we're running down the winners and losers from an already lavish summer across Europe's top leagues.

Big winners

AC Milan

Notable signings: Too many to count. Seriously, AC Milan has recruited roughly 100 new players in the last month.

One big question looms over the murky nature of Li Yonghong's takeover: Does the Chinese businessman - who took out a €300-million loan from an American private equity fund to help finance his purchase of the club - actually have the cash to bankroll the sleeping European giant back into the spotlight?

We'll find out eventually, but right now, it's very much a case of spend first, and ask questions later at the San Siro. With their newfound riches, executives Marco Fassone and Massimiliano Mirabelli have been ruthless in the transfer window, making no fewer than nine marquee signings to revamp a squad that was desperate for an injection of talent.

Roughly €180 million has been splashed around to bring in the likes of Andre Silva, Hakan Calhanoglu, Franck Kessie, and Ricardo Rodriguez to Italy's fashion capital. But the crown jewel of Milan's summer, the real statement of intent, was the extraordinary signing of Leonardo Bonucci, who, in ditching Juventus, instantly became the face of Milan's revival.

Manchester City

Notable signings: Benjamin Mendy (reported £52M fee); Kyle Walker (reported £50M fee); Bernardo Silva (reported £43M fee); Ederson (£34.7M fee); Danilo (reported £26.5M fee).

When you can literally light money on fire and still be one of the wealthiest clubs around, transfer fees are rendered quite meaningless. Take Manchester City for example, who dropped over £200 million (so far) this summer to bolster a squad that was in desperate need of rejuvenation in key areas.

If anything, City going wild at the shopping centre was one of the summer's foregone conclusions; Pep Guardiola clearly needed a new set of full-backs to properly implement his high-pressing system. While it took nearly £130 million to bring Mendy, Walker, and Danilo to Manchester, Guardiola was always going to get what he wanted.

The suddenly well-rounded Citizens, already loaded in attacking areas, should now launch a proper assault on the Premier League crown.

Impressive business

Real Madrid

Notable signings: Theo Hernandez (reported €24M fee); Dani Ceballos (reported €17M fee); Marcos Llorente (return from loan); Jesus Vallejo (return from loan).

It's been a refreshingly un-Madrid type of summer in the Spanish capital. At least, one that we haven't seen very often with Florentino Perez at the helm of the Champions League kingpin.

Real Madrid could still revert to type and empty the piggy bank for Kylian Mbappe this month, but to date, it's been a focus on youth that has highlighted the club's solid business. Hernandez is the long-term replacement for Marcelo, Ceballos is one of the finest, most exciting young dribblers in the game, and a pair of prodigious loanees return to provide in-house depth that doesn't need to be procured with a transfer fee.

Already the best team on the planet, Europe's other heavyweights should be very concerned about the way Madrid is setting itself up for sustained success.

Bayern Munich

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

Notable signings: James Rodriguez (loan with an option to buy); Corentin Tolisso (initial €41.5M fee); Niklas Sule (reported €20M fee).

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge runs a tight ship.

Bayern Munich beat a host of Europe's top sides to the desired signature of French midfielder Tolisso early in the summer, lurking in the shadows before swooping in and, without much warning, snapping up the 22-year-old box-to-box dynamo from right under the noses of some marquee competitors.

The swiftness with which Bayern works was on display again later in the window when, out of nowhere, the Bavarian behemoth took a flyer on seldom-used Rodriguez, rescuing the Colombian star from Real Madrid's bench and reuniting him with Carlo Ancelotti in what is a low-risk, high-reward deal that could pay massive dividends.

The best continue to get better.

Manchester United

Notable signings: Romelu Lukaku (reported £75M fee); Nemanja Matic (reported £40M fee); Victor Lindelof (€35M fee).

The arms race in Manchester is no joke. As Pep Guardiola and City splurged, Jose Mourinho and United have done their best to answer, dropping about £150 million to bolster three significant areas of need.

With last season's top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic out of contract - and currently walking around with only one fully functioning knee - the Red Devils needed a central striker. Check.

Michael Carrick is old and Marouane Fellaini is largely useless, so Mourinho needed someone that could fill the holding midfield role and, crucially, allow Paul Pogba to flourish. Check.

Eric Bailly looked excellent last season, but was hampered by a revolving door of partners beside him in central defence. A stable, long-term option was a clear priority in the market. Check.

And, as an added bonus, United offloaded Wayne Rooney. A club legend, no doubt, but someone who was increasingly becoming a liability.

Honourable mention: AS Monaco

Teetering toward disaster

Barcelona

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

Notable signing: Nelson Semedo (reported €35M fee).

There's a Neymar-shaped cloud hanging over the Camp Nou right now.

The protracted saga, which has ranged from amusing, to ridiculous - for a multitude of reasons - to straight up annoying as it continues to drag on, is the defining transfer story of the summer. One of the best players alive, the Brazilian megastar - who would instantly shoot Paris Saint-Germain into the upper echelon of European football - will become the most expensive player in history if he exchanges Catalonia for the French capital in a €222-million deal.

Should Barcelona lose him, it would be an enormous step backwards for a club that would then be reliant on just two players, great as they are, to generate virtually all of the club's attacking output.

That enormous cash injection would allow Barca to splurge and address some key areas of concern - particularly in midfield - but the fact remains that there's no replacing Neymar.

The other aspect of this, of course, is that €222 million is only great if you turn around and spend it correctly. Given reports that the Blaugrana are courting Paulinho - and wasted a heap of money last summer on the likes of the ineffectual Andre Gomes, pointless Lucas Digne, and seldom-used Paco Alcacer - does anybody trust them to reinvest that potential windfall properly?

Liverpool

Notable signings: Mohamed Salah (€42M fee); Andrew Robertson (reported £8M fee).

Salah could go down as one of the best signings of the summer - the Egyptian winger should help push an already lightning-fast counter-attack into hyper-speed territory - but Liverpool's window to date has been more about who hasn't arrived at Anfield.

RB Leipzig is hellbent on keeping hold of midfield superstar Naby Keita (even if it means losing him for a reduced fee next summer) while Southampton threatened to report Liverpool over its unsavory approach for Virgil van Dijk. Central midfield and centre-back are two glaring areas of need for the Reds, and those two signings could push them into title contending territory.

But missing out on their two desired targets, which seems the likely outcome at the moment, means Liverpool still has plenty of work to do.

Clear-cut losers

Tottenham

Notable signings: *Crickets*

On the back of last season's wildly impressive second-place finish, Tottenham went into the summer with optimism abound. Fast-forward to August, and it feels like someone let the air out of the balloon.

Daniel Levy did a great job of squeezing Manchester City for every last penny in the Kyle Walker deal, but while the move was a financial boon, the situation on the pitch is objectively more bleak than it was a month ago. Walker's departure leaves Kieran Trippier as the only notable right-back in the squad; the 26-year-old is an excellent crosser, but that's basically the extent of his skillset.

Meanwhile, Toby Alderweireld's contract situation is cause for concern, both because he's the bedrock of the side, and since his potential departure in search of a significant wage bump could set off a chain reaction for a host of the club's young stars; many of them are, by current standards throughout the European game, being vastly underpaid by Spurs.

How long until they figure that out and decide to act on it?

Common sense

Swansea is quoting Everton £50 million for Gylfi Sigurdsson. Gylfi Sigurdsson! Kyle Walker was (albeit briefly) the most expensive defender in the history of the sport. Nothing makes sense anymore. Football is dead. Long live football.

(Dis)honourable mention: Juventus

(Photos courtesy: Action Images unless otherwise noted)