The finest new arrivals of the season.
Now that the 2013/14 season is over CaughtOffside thought it was the ideal opportunity to take a look back and decide who were the 10 best signings from across Europe over the past year.
10. Giovanni dos Santos – Mallorca to Villarreal
With impressive head coach Marcelino at the helm, Villarreal not only earned promotion back to La Liga this season, but also secured a top 10 finish.
Signing this Mexican was key to this, as despite not quite making it at FC Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur previously, dos Santos netted 11 league goals in 31 games from his No.10 position.
9. Luca Toni – Fiorentina to Hellas Verona
A veteran of the game, most would probably have thought the former Bayern Munich man was past his best, but newly promoted Verona believed otherwise.
Under the guidance of their maverick head coach Andrea Mandorlini the club finished 10th in Serie A and Toni netted 20 league goals.
8. Fernandinho – Shakhtar Donetsk to Manchester City
The £30m arrival of a 28-year-old defensive midfielder was hardly likely to excite the Etihad Stadium faithful, but the Brazilian has brought so much to the team.
One main way Fernandinho has improved things is by allowing Yaya Toure more freedom in attack to score 20 Premier League goals in a title winning season.
7. Sokratis – Werder Bremen to Borussia Dortmund
When players such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were arriving at the Signal Iduna Park last summer the signing of Sokratis was not making big headlines.
Yet with both Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic injured for large chunks of the campaign the Greece international had to step up and provide defensive solidity.
6. Kevin Strootman – PSV Eindhoven to AS Roma
If a cruciate ligament injury hadn’t ended the Dutchman’s first campaign in Italy prematurely then the midfielder could well be top of this list.
It’s also credit to Strootman that despite being injured Manchester United are still doing all they can to sign him.
5. Wilfried Bony – Vitesse Arnhem to Swansea City
Several sides from the English top tier had had their fingers burned in the past after spending large sums on strikers who had done well in the Eredivisie – think Alfonso Alves at Middlesbrough or Sunderland’s Jozy Altidore.
Yet despite a slow start Bony proved to be worth every penny of the club record £12m fee spent on him and finished with 26 goals in all competitions.
4. Carlos Bacca – Club Brugge to Sevilla
It was a period of transition at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium last summer as key players Jesus Navas and Alvaro Negredo were both sold to Manchester City and needed replacing.
So it’s credit to Bacca that he has come in to fill the void and netted 21 times to help Sevilla to Europa League glory.
3. Carlos Tevez – Manchester City to Juventus
Things were starting to go a little sour for Tevez in his career as fall-outs with both the club manager Roberto Mancini and national team boss Alejandro Sabella made the Argentine public enemy No.1 to many people.
The South American left for Juve rather quietly and instead of causing controversy scored 19 league goals to help La Bianconeri to a third successive Scudetto.
2. Mehdi Benatia – Udinese to AS Roma
Whatever happens to Benatia – there are rumours the Moroccan will be sold after just a year in the Italian capital – Roma have easily at least doubled their money on the centre-back.
His performances were largely to thank for the club finishing second in the Italian top tier and returning to the Champions League.
1. Gareth Bale – Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid
Admittedly at £85.3m you’d expect a lot from a new signing and when Bale struggled to first adapt to life in Spain it looked as if it could be heading to an expensive disaster.
Yet the 24-year-old simply needed time and scoring the winning goals in both the Copa del Rey and Champions League finals has gone a long way to Madrid recouping their outlay on the Welshman.
SEE ALSO: The 50 best players at the 2014 World Cup.