New signing you thought would turn out better

Peanut Butter

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Thought I would include our resident Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton etc supporters here as well.

What signing did your club make who you thought would be a key player for years to come, or even maybe just a season - but didn't turn out well?

For me, in recent times, it has to be Schneiderlin. He was brilliant at Southampton and I really thought he would free up our more attacking midfielders. Turns out he is actually a bit of a clogger.
 
Definitely Schneiderlin. Di Maria, Falcao. Most of LVG's buys, really.
 
I thought we would have got a decent return out of Falcao, I didn't realise just how crocked he was at the time.

Was really excited about him coming but the only silver lining is he did even worse the following season.
 
Nick7 said:
Definitely Schneiderlin. Di Maria, Falcao. Most of LVG's buys, really.
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Yeah, Schneiderlin and Di Maria are top of my list too. Falcao not so much, I wasn't sure how good he could be here after the injury and although it was very exciting to have him here, it was only a loan. Di Maria had a very good start too which encouraged fans even more, Schneiderlin never kicked off even though he looked like exactly the sort of player we needed at the time.
 
Veron

Thought he was brilliant in Italy and for Argentina. Didn't work out at United.

Kagawa, Berbatov, Birtles, Davenport, Webb, even Wilkins to an extent.
 
Was against signing Schneiderlin and never thought he'd succeed at United, so there I was spot on methinks.

Thought Falcao and Schweinsteiger would be success tho and they ended up being both washed up.
 
I'd go with Falcao, Di Maria, Memphis and Darmian. I'd actually wanted the latter two before we showed any interest and that's why I shouldn't be a scout I guess :P
 
Veron was a pretty famously expensive flop, I was a big fan and his signing was like a dream, but aside from some good European performances he was disappointing. I'd still maintain he wasn't quite as bad for us as some people think though.

Di Maria has to be the worst though. A record signing yet he was absolutely useless. Wikipedia says he played 27 games for us, after the first three I can't even remember him turning out for us except when he pushed the ref that time.
 
I thought Falcao would have had an RVP esque season with us. :(
 
Falcao, Di Maria, Veron are an obvious trio. We saw glimpses but wasn't to be
 
Schneiderlin, Di Maria, Kagawa, Jones, Smalling, Tévez, Berbatov, Anderson, Hargreaves.

Jury's still out on Mkhitaryan but expected more than he showed last season.
 
Peanut Butter said:
Thought I would include our resident Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton etc supporters here as well.

What signing did your club make who you thought would be a key player for years to come, or even maybe just a season - but didn't turn out well?

For me, in recent times, it has to be Schneiderlin. He was brilliant at Southampton and I really thought he would free up our more attacking midfielders. Turns out he is actually a bit of a clogger.
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As a Spurs fan I could have a list as long as your arm but recently the one that sticks out for me is Soldado. Had such high hopes but sadly it just didn't happen for him. Still a bit gutted about it although with hindsight it gave Kane the chance he needed and we havent looked back so maybe it was for the best.
 
Jaybomb said:
I thought Falcao would have had an RVP esque season with us. :(
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Yeah ditto :( He wasn't the typical pacy and explosive striker, so you'd suggest he'd be ok even after the injury, but was completely incapable of handling the Premier League.

Seems that he's doing ok in France now since he moved - 30 goals last season and kicked off nicely in the current one with 4 goals in 2 games.
 
balaks said:
As a Spurs fan I could have a list as long as your arm but recently the one that sticks out for me is Soldado. Had such high hopes but sadly it just didn't happen for him. Still a bit gutted about it although with hindsight it gave Kane the chance he needed and we havent looked back so maybe it was for the best.
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:nono: According to Glaston you made a profit on him so he's not a flop.
 
Nani overall:

He had the skill, the speed, the build and the IT factor! Could of been a world beater!

People say it was because of Ronaldos presence, but I think thats BS. If you're world class you're world class, regardless of who your team mates are. He lacked confidence and other than a few moments of brilliance he never really got going.
 
Memphis - Was immense at PSV and had that swagger and ability(!?) to become one of the best in Europe.

Schneiderlin - Thought he would be what Matic's for us now.

Anderson - I've never been more excited over a signing than Anderson. I truly believed he was the new Ronaldinho at Porto and I never thought we would even be in for him. He would end up at Barcelona or Real Madrid and win the lot there, including Ballon d'Or. How wrong I was... Greatest waste of talent.
 
I remember when we signed Rebrov I thought that was it, we were finally going to kick on. He was arguably seen as better than Shevchenko at the time, only really lasted a season before being frozen out by Hoddle.
 
Kagawa excited me. Watched him for Dortmund in 2011/12 and thought he was their best player, then he tore Bayern one in the cup final and I found out SAF and David Gill were there. I thought he'd replace Rooney behind the striker since it was looking more like Rooney was going to be a pure centre forward at that point.

But instead we signed van Persie and he got shunted out onto the wing. We won the league so it worked out well but I was so excited when we signed him, yet it was such an anti-climax.
 
Barthez, Poborsky, Kagawa, Shaw (atm), Nevland, Bosnich, Anderson, Nani, Depay, Di Maria, Forlan (for us), Berbatov (just not what I thought he could have been), de Silva twins (especially Fabio)... I often have high hopes when we sign someone I guess lol!
 
AngliaRed said:
Nani overall:

He had the skill, the speed, the build and the IT factor! Could of been a world beater!

People say it was because of Ronaldos presence, but I think thats BS. If you're world class you're world class, regardless of who your team mates are. He lacked confidence and other than a few moments of brilliance he never really got going.
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@Cina
 
Schneiderlin for me, I thought he was exactly what we had been needing for years, just a shame he turned out to not have the balls for such a big club.

Di Maria, I was never convinced by, despite being a great player, never thought he would fit in and was being pushed out of Real with no desire to play for us.

BFS too, despite being a bit of a crock, I thought we might get an indian summer season out of him if he was well managed.
 
Berbatov; I thought he'd give us such a different option up front compared to what Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo did, in the end though he just upset the balance of the squad and apart from half a season while Rooney was out of the picture he rarely ever stepped up to be the main man
 
Siorac said:
Tévez.
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Really, Tévez..?
Loved him when he played for us, an utter cock when he left.

Schneiderlin - Shaw - Anderson - Di Maria - Depay - Etc

Infact, how many in the past 5 years have truly lived up to, and surpassed expectations..?
 
Ballotelli - Didn't think he was anything special when signed but certainly expected a little bit more than we saw.

Aquilani - Ditto.

Nuri Sahin - Massive hype around the lad at the time, he was dire.

Charlie Adam - Brilliant at Blackpool the season before and saw him as a McAllister type signing, out of his depth for us.

Firmino - He hasn't been.bad, and often shows signs of being a great player but he's abysmal in front of goal a lot of the time and hasn't lived up to the hype (he'd been a talking point for Liverpool fans for ages, much like Reus and Lacazzete at that time)

Origi - The French said he was shite, others said he was better than Lukaku, Benteke and Batshuayi for the Belgians. The French were closer.

Benteke - Wrong type of player for the system, still squandered dozens of very easy chances - most of them one VS one.

Harry Kewell - Highly coveted, turned into a disaster.
 
In more recent times, Schneiderlin and Memphis.

Schneiderlin had been excellent in the league since Southampton got promoted. He was rock solid for them and was a major part of the reason they were so difficult to play against. Not sure why he couldn't do that here, as he definitely had the ability, but he looked terrified out there. He started pretty well, but it all fell apart after a couple of months. His performances in a United shirt reminded me of Tom Cleverley, in the way that he just wasn't where he should be at any given time. Didn't seem to want the ball or to make the challenges, or do anything he did so well at Southampton. He looked solid again at Everton before he got injured. He's definitely a good player, but just didn't seem up for the challenge.

Memphis had a fantastic highlight reel at PSV and even the national team. Looked a lot like Nani and Valencia rolled in to one. Skill, speed, strength and directness. At United he looked lazy. He had pace, but didn't seem to know how to use it. Some days he'd show good decision making, and others it looked like he was playing football for the first time. I felt certain he was going to make it here, but something really went wrong for him. Mourinho seemed to give him a great deal of praise, but then also sold him. Even his free kicks went to shit. Scored some beauties for PSV, yet the ones he took here were akin to rugby conversions.


Oh and Shaw. Thought he'd be the best LB in the country by now. Nasty injury didn't help, but he wasn't all that good the season before that. He was decent in a few games in the run up to the injury. He's barely been seen again since then. I have no idea how good he is anymore.
 
Of all of Van Gaal's signings, Memphis was the most bitterly disappointing for me. I was sure he was the next big thing and was going to explode here.

Anderson probably is another one, particularly given the Golden Boy award and all we hoped would come of it.
 
Schweinsteiger, Di Maria, Falcao

I'd say Memphis, but I never thought he'd be good enough. Almost thought he'd prove me wrong after his first game though.
 
In recent times Falcao, Di Maria, Memphis, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger and Shaw are obvious ones although Shaw still has the chance to come good.
 
That transfer window of Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin, Depay, Darmian and Martial looked increadible.. Fast forward 2 years only 2 of those are still here and noone is nailed started. Big let down.
 
Ah, being pessimistic over every transfer has its one use. :D

I did think Shaw would turn out better though.
 
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