Europe's elite clubs raced to beat the January transfer deadline as Pedro Porro signed for Tottenham and Enzo Fernandez neared a record Premier League move when the window slammed shut.
Argentina's World Cup winner Fernandez appeared set to complete a long-awaited move to Chelsea in a record-breaking Premier League transfer.
While Chelsea aimed to bring in the youthful Fernandez, veteran Italy international Jorginho departed as he joined Arsenal after Mikel Arteta's side were unable to secure Brighton and Hove Albion's Moises Caicedo.
Manchester United also looked to strengthen their midfield with a loan deal for Bayern Munich's Sabitzer after an injury to key playmaker Christian Eriksen at Old Trafford.
Meanwhile, Tottenham solidified their defensive options by snaffling Spanish wing-back Porro from Sporting CP after lengthy negotiations.
Stats Perform provides a rundown of the notable deals as the mid-season transfer window finally closed.
BOEHLY BREAKS RECORD FOR FERNANDEZ
Fernandez emerged as a target for Chelsea following his influential displays for Argentina during their World Cup triumph in Qatar and the Blues' Todd Boehly-led consortium appear to have finally got their man.
After already snatching Mykhaylo Mudryk from under the noses of Arsenal, Chelsea are set to splash a reported £105.5million (€120m) on Fernandez from Benfica.
That would break the Premier League record of £100m Manchester City paid Aston Villa for Jack Grealish, as the Blues looked to secure the former River Plate midfielder on a reported seven-and-a-half-year contract.
ARSENAL'S CAICEDO BLUES CURED BY JORGINHO
Arteta and Arsenal's pursuit of Caicedo fell on deaf ears as Brighton refused to budge, despite the Gunners lodging a reported £70m bid for the 21-year-old.
After missing out on primary midfield target Caicedo, Jorginho switched the blue shirt of Chelsea for the red of Arsenal as he completed a reported £12m transfer to the Premier League leaders.
The 31-year-old will provide able competition for the impressive Thomas Partey after penning an 18-month contract at Emirates Stadium.
TEN HAG FINDS ERIKSEN COVER IN SABITZER
With Eriksen ruled out for three months, Erik ten Hag and United acted swiftly to attempt to bring in experienced midfielder Sabitzer on a short-term loan.
Opportunities had been hard to come by for the Austria international after joining Bayern from Bundesliga rivals RB Leipzig ahead of the 2021-22 season.
He started just 15 times in his 40 appearances for the Bundesliga champions, though he may now have the chance to impress in the Premier League with Ten Hag's resurgent Red Devils.
CONTE GETS PORRO AS DOHERTY AND SPENCE DEPART
It appeared Tottenham may not secure the services of attack-minded wing-back Porro, formerly of Girona and Manchester City, after it seemed negotiations had come to a halt with Sporting.
But Spurs confirmed the 23-year-old's arrival late on, with Porro signing a five-and-a-half-year deal after a reported £40m (€45m) move from Sporting, who signed Barcelona's Hector Bellerin as a replacement.
That transfer saw Djed Spence, who only signed from Middlesbrough in a deal worth up to £20m in July, sent out to Ligue 1's Rennes for the rest of the season on loan.
Fellow full-back Matt Doherty also made way as he joined Atletico Madrid on a six-month contract, with Spurs terminating the 31-year-old's contract to "enable him to join another club".
OTHER DEALS
Bournemouth paid their second-highest transfer fee in history for Illya Zabarnyi, parting with a reported £24m (€27.2m) for the Ukraine centre-back from Dynamo Kyiv.
Gary O'Neil's Bournemouth added a second signing soon after, confirming the arrival of Sassuolo midfielder Hamed Traore on a loan that will become permanent on a five-year deal in June.
Nottingham Forest continued their spending after signing Atletico centre-back Felipe on a deal that will run until 2024, while Jonjo Shelvey also arrived from Newcastle United on a deal until 2025, and a move for Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Keylor Navas on loan was reportedly nearing.
Patrick Vieira's Crystal Palace bolstered their midfield by bringing in Naouirou Ahamada for a reported £10.5m (€12m) fee from Stuttgart, while Arsenal's Albert Sambi Lokonga joined on a six-month loan.
Leeds United's Diego Llorente joined Jose Mourinho's Roma on loan until the end of the season, with an option for a permanent transfer reportedly worth €18m (£15.9m).
Ayoze Perez is another Premier League player who will spend the second half of the term on loan, with the Leicester City forward moving to LaLiga side Real Betis.
Aleksandar Mitrovic's Serbia team-mate Sasa Lukic traded Torino for Fulham in a transfer reportedly worth £8.8m (€10m) including add-ons, signing a contract until June 2027.
Lukic will likely be joined by Arsenal full-back Cedric Soares after Marco Silva's side reportedly agreed to bring the former Southampton defender on a six-month loan.
Outside of England, Borussia Dortmund and Belgium midfielder Thorgan Hazard completed a short-term loan move to Eredivisie title hopefuls PSV.
Toney in Southgate's thoughts, but beating Ukraine the priority for England
Gareth Southgate is considering starting Ivan Toney in Sunday's Euro 2024 qualifier against Ukraine, but picking the best possible team to win the game is the top priority.
Toney was called up by Southgate for this month's fixtures, despite the Brentford striker facing a potential ban for breaching the Football Association's betting rules.
The 27-year-old was an unused substitute in Friday's 2-1 win against Italy, as he was in September's Nations League draw against Germany on his only previous call-up.
Southgate is hoping to give Toney some minutes against Ukraine at Wembley, but not at the expense of selecting a player more suited to starting the match.
"Ivan Toney has been very good. We really like him, and he's very much in our thoughts," Southgate said at Saturday's pre-match news conference.
"The numbers we've got with us now, there's always the duel objective. There's the desire to see players, but we're in a qualifying group, so the priority is to always win the game."
Southgate also confirmed Jordan Henderson is available after recovering from illness, while Jude Bellingham is fit after limping off late on against Italy.
Full-back Reece James has returned to club side Chelsea after sustaining a knock, but Southgate decided against calling up a replacement.
"We've been training with this group all week, so to call someone from outside the group would potentially be quite complicated," Southgate said.
"We have no idea where they might be or what their training load has been over the past few days.
"So, if we were going to do that at this point, we would do it with the Under-21s, but they've got a game today, and we think we've just got enough to get through tomorrow's game."
Southgate is the third manager to win 50 games while in charge of England after Walter Winterbottom (78) and Alf Ramsey (69).
But rather than bask in that personal achievement, the England manager is focused on making it two wins from two in qualifying for Germany 2024.
"It means we have the chance to make it 51 tomorrow, it's as simple as that," he said. "The past and what we've done up until now is irrelevant.
"I'm just focused on tomorrow's game. We need to win and need to be on six points when we leave Wembley tomorrow.
"If we're going to be considered a top team, we need to back up the performance and result that we showed the other night."
Ukraine are playing their first qualifying fixture of the campaign amid a backdrop of ongoing conflict back in their homeland, which was invaded by Russia last February.
"They're a proud group of players," Southgate said. "They are totally committed to bringing enjoyment to their public.
"We of course have huge sympathy with what's going on, but tomorrow is a game of football and we're fully focused on trying to win the game."
Christensen expected to miss El Clasico after Barcelona confirm injury
Andreas Christensen is expected to miss the final Clasico of the season after Barcelona confirmed he sustained a calf injury on international duty.
The centre-back started Denmark's opening Euro 2024 qualifier against Finland on Thursday but lasted only 18 minutes before being forced off.
Barcelona revealed it to be a problem with his left calf on Saturday following widespread media reports of him facing a period on the sidelines.
While the club have not given a timeframe for Christensen's return, simply saying he is "unavailable for selection and his recovery will determine his return", they are reportedly expecting him to be out for up to a month.
As such, he could miss as many as six games – among those, crucially, is the Copa del Rey semi-final second leg against Real Madrid on April 5, when Barca host Los Blancos having beaten them 1-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu in the first leg.
The other five matches he could be a doubt for are in LaLiga, though Barca will likely feel their 12-point lead at the summit is sufficient to cope without him for the time being.
Christensen has become a prominent figure at Camp Nou in recent times, however.
After joining on a free transfer from Chelsea in pre-season, the 26-year-old was initially a bit-part figure, making only five LaLiga appearances before the World Cup partly due to injury.
But he missed just one of their 10 games across all competitions prior to this international window – that being the first leg against Madrid.
Ibrahimovic: Conte being made to pay by Spurs for being himself
Zlatan Ibrahimovic believes Antonio Conte is being made to pay by Tottenham for "being himself".
Conte is widely expected to be sacked in the coming days following his outburst after Spurs let a two-goal lead slip in last weekend's 3-3 Premier League draw at Southampton.
The Italian accused his players of being "selfish" and playing with "no heart", with that draw following swiftly on from Tottenham's FA Cup and Champions League exits.
But Ibrahimovic, who has never previously played under Conte, has defended the multi-title-winning coach for speaking his mind in public.
"Every single person works in his own way. Somebody tries to be an actor, pretend. Somebody is being himself, somebody is trying to be perfect," he told Sky Sports.
"I believe in being yourself, and sometimes you pay for it because that's not what the people want to hear.
"I prefer to be myself and express myself like I think and the way I want. We all work in our own way."
Conte has spent the past week in Italy, and his future is likely to be decided by the middle of next week at the latest when Tottenham's international players return to training.
Milan veteran Ibrahimovic is himself away on international duty with Sweden and was introduced as a second-half substitute in Friday's 3-0 Euro 2024 qualifying loss to Belgium.
Sweden's oldest player at the age of 41 years and five months, Ibrahimovic has no plans to call time on his career just yet.
"I want to continue playing football," said Ibrahimovic, who has played four times for Milan since returning from a long-term injury lay-off last month.
"If I feel good, this is my priority, and I feel very good at Milan. If they want me to keep me then I'm happy. I'm available."
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