Chelsea completed an extraordinary spending spree by landing World Cup star Enzo Fernandez from Benfica, the biggest deal of transfer deadline day.
It was Premier League clubs that featured front and centre as big-name players found new homes on Tuesday, with Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City kept busy.
Deals struck on this day can be born of desperation; however, if the right player becomes available, those that jump at the opportunity to reinforce might be thankful they took that choice come May.
Here Stats Perform assesses five deals that went through and could prove hugely significant come the season's end.
Enzo Fernandez: Benfica to Chelsea, £106.8million
A World Cup wonder for Argentina, Fernandez's stock soared over four weeks in Qatar, to the point he became linked to the wealthiest clubs in Europe.
It was Chelsea owner Todd Boehly who lasted the distance in the race for his signature, adding Fernandez to the previous window deals for Mykhaylo Mudryk, Benoit Badiashile, Andrey Santos, David Datro Fofana, Joao Felix, Noni Madueke and Malo Gusto.
Fernandez has only played half a season in Europe after moving to Benfica from River Plate, so there is an element of risk in Chelsea's investment, regardless of his national team performances alongside Lionel Messi and co.
He has played five Champions League group games, and the 22-year-old has looked the part, with his arrival handing Graham Potter another expensive plaything. This means there can be no excuses now for the head coach as he looks to turn the Blues into a winning machine.
Marcel Sabitzer: Bayern Munich to Manchester United (loan)
Bayern Munich decided they could afford to part company with Sabitzer, with the former RB Leipzig midfielder jetting out to secure a move to Manchester United, swapping one European giant for another.
It was reported Erik ten Hag fancied Ryan Gravenberch, his former Ajax player, but Bayern were said to have resisted that interest and instead allowed United to take Austria international Sabitzer.
He emerged as a surprising spare part for Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann, with Sabitzer having featured in 23 games for the Bundesliga leaders this season, albeit starting only 11 times.
Ten Hag will certainly like the fact Sabitzer has a duel success rate of 58.77 per cent – the highest of his career – this season.
He is not a like-for-like replacement for the injured Christian Eriksen, but Sabitzer brings his own qualities, will want to prove a point, and should not let United down over the coming four months.
Jorginho: Chelsea to Arsenal, £12million
Arsenal wanted Moises Caicedo and were prepared to pay a king's ransom for the Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder. They settled for Jorginho, a Euro 2020 champion with Italy and Champions League winner with Chelsea, paying a small fraction of the fee they would have had to spend on Caicedo.
A deal worth around £12million looks sensible business, and Jorginho makes the jump from 10th-placed Chelsea to the table-topping Gunners, seeking the first domestic league title of his career.
He played 25 games this season for the Blues, scoring three penalties but not managing any goals other than those spot-kicks, nor any assists.
Some Arsenal fans have grumbled over the signing, but Jorginho brings defensive qualities and experience of winning, which for Arsenal in recent years has been in short supply.
Joao Cancelo: Manchester City to Bayern Munich (loan with option to buy)
Bayern brought in goalkeeper Yann Sommer earlier in the window after Manuel Neuer suffered a season-ending broken leg. That was a deal that many saw coming, but the move for Cancelo came out of the sky blue, reportedly after a disagreement with Pep Guardiola saw City happy to offload the full-back.
It went through on Tuesday, opening up the possibility of Cancelo being a Premier League and Bundesliga winner in the same season.
He looks set to feature at right-back for Bayern, with Alphonso Davies featuring on the left. It means Bayern will have a pair of attacking full-backs that will put the fear up opponents.
With Bayern in a slump, drawing their past three Bundesliga games, it felt important for there to be a new face coming in. Cancelo, until very recently a favourite of Guardiola, is used to winning things with City so should fit in well at Sabener Strasse.
Pedro Porro: Sporting CP to Tottenham (loan with obligation to buy)
Three and a half years since he joined Manchester City, Porro should finally make his debut in English football after being recruited to fill the right-back role for Antonio Conte at Spurs.
This has the makings of a masterstroke signing, with Spain international Porro having caught Spurs' eye in the Champions League group stage earlier this season. He previously played for Real Valladolid while farmed out on loan from City, for whom he never played a competitive senior game.
He represents an upgrade on Matt Doherty, who was released to join Atletico Madrid, and may have the edge on Emerson Royal, with Conte bringing in a player with serious defensive and attacking qualities.
Among defenders with 10 or more appearances and at least 10 tackles, Porro's 78.95 per cent tackle success rate ranks as the sixth-best in the Portuguese Primeira Liga this season.
Meanwhile, only one defender, Benfica's Alejandro Grimaldo, has created more chances than Porro's 34 from 14 games, which have brought him six assists.
Porro ranks second among defenders in the Portuguese top flight for the most crosses played too, with 108 to Grimaldo's 116. Significantly, though, Porro has played 526 minutes fewer than Grimaldo, illustrating how effective the Spurs new boy has been when on the pitch.
Much like daCosta Cup final, Glenmuir and Clarendon College to decide Champions Cup showpiece
Glenmuir High will contest their first ever ISSA Champions Cup final against neighbours Clarendon College, following a 5-3 penalty shootout win over Kingston College, after they played out a 1-1 stalemate in regulation time in a keenly contested semi-finals encounter at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex on Tuesday.
Interestingly, both Glenmuir and Clarendon College will also contest the daCosta Cup final, as both remain on course to secure the coveted triple crown feat.
Brandon Wallace gave Glenmuir High a 14th-minute lead, but that was cancelled out by Darnel Edwards’s 16th-minute effort, which set up the dreaded penalty kicks.
The May Pen-based Glenmuir was perfect from the 12-yard spot converting all five kicks, while goalkeeper Antwone Gooden came up big to deny Jaheim McLean and ensure the Andrew Peart-coached side a spot in another final.
Pert was delighted by the accomplishment but is well aware that the job is not yet finished with the final to be contested on Saturday at the National Stadium.
“I am very pleased; it was progressing from a semi-final to a final so for us now the focus is strictly on the game for Saturday. Well done to the boys and everyone involved, this is five finals in three years…Under-14, Under-16, Ben Francis Cup, daCosta Cup and Champions Cup, so that is commendable for the school and the objective is now to go and win it,” Peart declared.
It was a lively start by both teams, particularly Glenmuir, who gradually gained the ascendancy in the early exchanges. Kyle Gordon went on one of those early breaks, but the quality of the finish lacked the build-up, as the chance went begging.
However, Wallace spared his blushes eight minutes later with an exquisite right-footed finish from well over 20 yards out, and from an angle, that left Kingston College’s goalkeeper Malique Williams beaten all ends up.
Kingston College replied shortly after with two efforts coming in quick succession, the second proving fruitful, as Edwards’s left-footed shot from top of 18-yard box took wicked deflection and slipped past Gooden at near post.
From there, both teams canceled out each other, as they gave as good as they got in the attacking third, but faulty shooting proved their undoing and so it was left for the dreaded penalties to decide a winner.
Though disappointed about losing a second semi-final via the shootout route, Vassell Reynolds of Kingston College found solace in his team’s improvement throughout the season.
“I thought we played well enough (to win). It was a good game on both ends, both teams created a number of chances, but we knew from the beginning that it was going to be a chess game because both teams would have employed a similar system, so it was just who executed more today,” Reynolds said.
“I thought it was a good run we saw a lot of improvements from where we started in July and the boys continued to grow, we are disappointed that we are not playing in one of the finals, but I thought it was a good run for us,” he added.
Alan Shearer blasts ‘disgusting’ penalty as Newcastle denied win in Paris
Former Newcastle skipper Alan Shearer has blasted the decision which handed Paris St German a Champions League get out of jail card against his home town club “disgusting” and “s***”.
Shearer, the Magpies’ record goalscorer, voiced his frustration on social media after Polish referee Szymon Marciniak was asked to review his decision not to award a penalty when Ousmane Dembele’s cross hit Tino Livramento in the ribs and then hit the underside of his arm. The referee belatedly pointed to the spot.
Kylian Mbappe, who had been denied repeatedly by goalkeeper Nick Pope and his defenders, made no mistake from 12 yards in the eighth minute of stoppage time at the Parc des Princes to secure a 1-1 draw.
An unimpressed Shearer wrote on his X – formerly Twitter – account: “Do me a f****** favour man. What a load of s***t.
“A superb battling away performance from every single player. Shouldn’t be spoilt by a disgusting decision. Well done @NUFC.”
Shearer’s former Newcastle team-mate Shay Given was equally unhappy with the decision, which brought back memories of the night in Paris that Thierry Henry’s handball which went unnoticed and cost the Republic of Ireland a place at the 2010 World Cup finals.
Given posted on X: “What a performance from the Toon. Terrible decision to give a penalty, not the first time I’ve left Paris with a controversial handball decision.”
Former Newcastle and England striker Michael Owen also criticised the penalty decision and the way the handball rule is being interpreted.
Owen wrote: “Heartbreaking for @NUFC. Such a good performance. Never in a million years is that a penalty.
“We are further away from applying consistency to the handball rule than we’ve ever been.”
TNT Sports pundit Ally McCoist branded Mr Marciniak’s decision “a disgrace”.
McCoist said: “It comes off his chest, then hits his left elbow. If that’s a penalty, we might as well forget about it.
“If we’re giving penalty kicks for that, it’s a disgrace. The whole night will be remembered by that decision.”
Colleague Jermaine Jenas, who spent more than three years of his playing career at St James’ Park, added: “It is a shocking decision – not in any walk of life is that a penalty. What is meant to do with his arms – wrap them around his back?
“I am fuming.”
Late penalty leaves Eddie Howe ‘hugely frustrated’
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe was left fuming after Paris St Germain denied Newcastle a priceless Champions League victory with a controversial stoppage-time penalty.
The Magpies looked to be heading for a famous 1-0 win at the Parc des Princes as they battled their way through a second-half onslaught from the hosts until Polish referee Szymon Marciniak awarded a spot-kick against Tino Livramento after a VAR review, allowing Kylian Mbappe to level in the eighth and final minute of added time.
Howe, who said in a television interview that the official had been placed under “extreme” pressure by the PSG players, labelled a decision which cost his side two precious points “poor” in his post-match press conference.
Asked if he felt a sense of injustice, he said: “Yes, I do. It wasn’t the right decision in my opinion.
“There are so many things to take into account at that moment, the speed first. It was a ricochet that when it is slowed down, looks completely different to the live event.
“The ball hits his chest first, comes up and hits his hand. But his hand is not in an unnatural position, they [his hands] are down by his side, but he is in a running motion.
“I feel it is a poor decision and it’s hugely frustrating for us as you know how little time there is left in the game. There is nothing we can do about it now.”
The pivotal moment arrived in the fifth minute of stoppage time when Ousmane Dembele attempted to deliver the ball across the Newcastle penalty area and saw it hit Livramento’s side and rear up on to the underside of his arm.
Mr Marciniak, who had earlier seen decisions not to award spot-kicks for an Anthony Gordon challenge on Achraf Hakimi and a shout for handball against teenager midfielder Lewis Miley upheld, was advised to review the incident and this time decided to award the penalty.
The Magpies, who had taken a 24th-minute lead through Alexander Isak, defended it for grim life until the last-gasp controversy, although they needed Pope to be at his brilliant best on several occasions.
They now need to beat AC Milan at home on December 13 and hope PSG do not win away to Borussia Dortmund to progress.
Asked if that was something to cling on to, Howe, who celebrates his 46th birthday on Wednesday, said: “Yes, I think that’s absolutely right. In the next couple of days, that will become more relevant in our thoughts, I think.
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“When the draw came out, it was the ‘group of death’ and I don’t think many people gave us a chance of qualifying from it and sitting here now, I’m a little bit frustrated that it’s not in our hands because when I look back at the two Dortmund games, I felt we could have done better in those matches.
“I don’t think it’s the time for that, I think it’s probably a time to be positive and to say that if we can beat Milan, then good things can happen from it.”
For PSG boss Luis Enrique, there was a mixture of relief and frustration on a night when his side created a host of chances but were unable to take any of them until Mbappe’s late intervention.
Enrique said: “Without a doubt, we played a very great game. We deserved to win. We played better than Newcastle. The result does not reflect what happened on the pitch.
“It’s not basketball. We are one of the teams in Europe that scores the most. Sometimes the ball doesn’t want to go in.
“Sometimes the game looked like table tennis. I couldn’t believe we couldn’t score, but we carried on despite the frustration.”
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