It was a normal price for a goalscorer, he's not a fancy player but he gets you goals and at Sunderland's level that's enough. It's not like they tried to play nice passing football under O'Neill, they were supposed to be effective (which they weren't) and boring (which they were).
Which transfer fees have shocked you the most?
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) are here to discuss Amad saving our blushes in a win against Southampton as well as our now annual loss at home to Brighton. They discuss Amorim's post-match comments, revisit how mid-table we may or may not be, and discuss some transfer news.
It was a normal price for a goalscorer, he's not a fancy player but he gets you goals and at Sunderland's level that's enough. It's not like they tried to play nice passing football under O'Neill, they were supposed to be effective (which they weren't) and boring (which they were).
Lescott and Milner cost obscene amounts of money for fairly limited players. Wasn't it around £25m each?
Bebe and Carroll spring to mind
Nigel Reo-Coker: West Ham to Aston Villa for £8.5m
Left on a free transfer to Bolton four years later.
It was signings like that which left Lerner and Villa in such a mess after O'Neill resigned, Birmingham's QPR in a way.
Left on a free transfer to Bolton four years later.
It was signings like that which left Lerner and Villa in such a mess after O'Neill resigned, Birmingham's QPR in a way.
Gourcuff from Bordeaux to Lyon for €22 million whereas he was clearly on a downhill. That sum was huge for the Ligue 1 back then (not so much now with PSG and Monaco throwing their money out of windows)
In terms of being shocked one deal that sticks out is the Tevez / Mascherano to West Ham one. I remember waking up and seeing this on Sky Sports News and just being dumbfounded at the time. Two of footballs biggest prospects both joining an average english club. I recall seeing a pair of slightly confused Argentines standing with an overjoyed Alan Pardew.
That was one of those moments where you never forget what you were doing when you heard it. I remember thinking Tevez looked a bit dopey and putting down to tiredness/jet lag etc............turns out he is just a thick twat.
Mascherano and Tevez to Westham came out out nowhere and bewildered me.
Us signing Cole and RVP shocked me. Ok maybe not so much the fee, but they were actually sold to us. Im still amazed we managed to get any money from Arsenal for Silvestre.
30m for Beckham was far too low imo especially since they made more than that on t-shirt sales in the first year.
Arsenal selling Henry and Vieira for half the amount they would have got a year before (both stayed a year too long imo as well (if they werent going to retire at the club))
30m for Beckham was far too low imo especially since they made more than that on t-shirt sales in the first year.
Arsenal selling Henry and Vieira for half the amount they would have got a year before (both stayed a year too long imo as well (if they werent going to retire at the club))
This to me shows how much financially ahead of every one else we were, that we were able to spend such a ridiculous sum on a relatively unproven defender. If we try to extrapolate that fee to today's standards, it will probably be more than double that. 11 years on, it's still almost our record transfer, and we'll hesitate to pay £30m in transfer fees for unproven players.
He left West Ham for £18 million so the fee to join us was always going to be at least £25 million. Rio had come off the back of a solid World Cup with England too so we were always going to have to cough up big bucks to sign him. In hindsight, what a signing he has turned out to be. Worth every penny in my view.
But it was crazy money at the time, the kind of money that not many clubs could have spent at that time. But we did because we could and it has turned out to be a bloody brilliant investment. Surely we could have bought some pretty good defenders for around the third of that sum, but we identified Rio as the guy we wanted and did whatever it took to get him. We don't do that now, instead we prefer to mock other teams for doing what we were successfully doing a long time back i.e. overpaying for players we felt would improve us.
Another transfer fee that shocked me : Jordan Rhodes to Blackburn for £8 million. I could never have imagined a championship club spending that much of money. Most La Liga clubs won't be able to cough up that kind of sum.
I liked the one this year where we bought....oh wait...no nevermind....
When we bought Fellaini for £24m.
This. It's unreal money for someone who didn't do anything nor had any talent at all. I'm also sure there's something else involved in this. You can't tell me SAF pays 8m for a player that he's not even willing to use. It's not like it's peanuts to us either.
Too early, it hurts!
To be fair Everton paying £15m to land Fellaini was a shock to me, they'd been very frugal in the market prior to that and then broke their transfer record by a good few million to land a player few people had heard of. It turned out to be a good piece of business and they'll make a profit on him at some point but it was a massive fee for a club like Everton to spend on a Standard Liege player.
Bergkamp - Couldn't believe we had signed him and spent £7.5mill which I think was a British transfer record at the time
Shearer - £15mill world record fee, couldn't understand where the hell Newcastle got that much money!
Ronaldo - Couldn't understand why Barca let him go after the season he had, was a world record fee but still madness to let him leave
Figo - Shocking that R.Madrid had activated his clause and even more he decided to leave!
Zidane -That was a blockbuster deal, could not get my head around the fee they paid. Probably the one that shocked me the most.
Ronaldo - People go on about how they got a bargain but what did you expect for £80mill? At the time but at the time apart from Zidane and Kaka no other club had even gone above £35mill so was mega money. They've got their moneys worth, that is for sure!
Been a lot of stupid fees where I was like the player isn't worth it (Carroll probably being the worst) but the above actually shocked me.
Shearer - £15mill world record fee, couldn't understand where the hell Newcastle got that much money!
Ronaldo - Couldn't understand why Barca let him go after the season he had, was a world record fee but still madness to let him leave
Figo - Shocking that R.Madrid had activated his clause and even more he decided to leave!
Zidane -That was a blockbuster deal, could not get my head around the fee they paid. Probably the one that shocked me the most.
Ronaldo - People go on about how they got a bargain but what did you expect for £80mill? At the time but at the time apart from Zidane and Kaka no other club had even gone above £35mill so was mega money. They've got their moneys worth, that is for sure!
Been a lot of stupid fees where I was like the player isn't worth it (Carroll probably being the worst) but the above actually shocked me.
Carroll for £35million
A shite player could actually worth alot. Mad world.
A shite player could actually worth alot. Mad world.
Verón shocked me, the same summer as we signed RvN as well. Also, Rio. And probably Rooney.
Bebe. Beggared belief then, and even moreso with the benefit of hindsight.
Probably what RedRonaldo said - Carroll for £35m. What a glorious Return of the King Kenny that was...
I remember more than half of the Caf was stunned, while the other half was trying not to piss themselves from laughter, including Arsenal resident brigade with other ones like Glaston and Duffer.
Newcastle milked the lulz cow to the last drop.
I remember more than half of the Caf was stunned, while the other half was trying not to piss themselves from laughter, including Arsenal resident brigade with other ones like Glaston and Duffer.
Newcastle milked the lulz cow to the last drop.
Carroll by far. What were Liverpool thinking? You could already see a donkey in him. If the Bale to Madrid for 85m goes through then that would officially tell me the transfer market has officially gone mad, if it hadn't already before torres and carrol.
Becks to Real is the bargain all time.
We were totally screwed by him.
We were totally screwed by him.
What's your name Hindsight Harry? Yes the fee was massively overblown, but they had just got an equally ludicrous £50m for Torres, and at that time Carrol was smashing the Premier league up and was central to England's plans.
So don't act like it was a mad transfer itself, just a bit too mad in fee
Mario Goetze. I was surprised his buy out fee was that low
Obi Wan Mikkel. When Fergie found out he was a midfielder, he sold him to Chelsea for 700% profit, before he'd had a chance to unpack.
Ok. Plenty of revisionism, but it turned out ok.
Ok. Plenty of revisionism, but it turned out ok.
What are the biggest rejected bids? Or bids that didn't go through because of other factors?
Anzhi £205m for Messi - (did this actually happen?)
Madrid £85m (inc. players) for Bale
Madrid £80m for Ronaldo - went through
City £30m for Messi (he meant to say "it's getting messy")
Anzhi £205m for Messi - (did this actually happen?)
Madrid £85m (inc. players) for Bale
Madrid £80m for Ronaldo - went through
City £30m for Messi (he meant to say "it's getting messy")
Cristiano to Real
Steal
Probably made that back on marketing alone
Steal
Probably made that back on marketing alone
I thought we made a £250,000 profit, but Wikipedia reckons we made £8 million? Wikipedia must be lying again. I know you were joking by the way
Zlatan / Eto deal
Darren bent to Villa for £24m
Robbie Keane to Pool for £20m!
Alfonso Alves to Boro for €20 m
Darren bent to Villa for £24m
Robbie Keane to Pool for £20m!
Alfonso Alves to Boro for €20 m
Not sure if mentioned but I remember being shocked that Arsenal brought Franny Jeffers for £8m. Had instant failure written all over it even though he was like 20 at the time
Must admit, £21.8m for Diego Costa shocked me a bit tonight.
High fees:
Bale, if anything above £45m as reported
Andy Carroll
Hulk
Eto'o + ca$h for Zlatan
Moutinho to Monaco - I know there was something fishy as he's deal was with Rodriguez (who had a third party owner), but they still valued Moutinho at €45m, right?
Low fees:
Ozil (1 year left on his contract though)
Tevez to Juve (pain in the arse but still quality)
Bale, if anything above £45m as reported
Andy Carroll
Hulk
Eto'o + ca$h for Zlatan
Moutinho to Monaco - I know there was something fishy as he's deal was with Rodriguez (who had a third party owner), but they still valued Moutinho at €45m, right?
Low fees:
Ozil (1 year left on his contract though)
Tevez to Juve (pain in the arse but still quality)
selling beckham to real for 25million was like you selling your bugatti veyron for half of it's supposed price to your equally good looking rival, and you know that that guy is going to bring home different hot girls every weekend because of that.
Bale
Diego Costa lot
Diego Costa lot
Always surprised Arsene went for him. Unless he thought Jeffers was the new Ian Wright, he just didn't look like an Arsenal player either in terms of style or ability.
Nope. Moutinho went for 25m while Rodriguez went for 45m. Probably Moutinho would have gone for a bit higher and Rodriguez for a bit lower, but Moutinho had a clause that for every profit Porto made from his signing (they signed him from Sporting for 11m if I remember it correctly) Sporting get 50% of it. So likely they toyed a bit with the prices of them.
What's your name Hindsight Harry? Yes the fee was massively overblown, but they had just got an equally ludicrous £50m for Torres, and at that time Carrol was smashing the Premier league up and was central to England's plans.
So don't act like it was a mad transfer itself, just a bit too mad in fee
Smashing up the premier league? Yup, with a grand total of 11 goals for Newcastle in that season. I could already see a massively overhyped English player (just another one) in him and was laughing when Liverpool paid that amount for him. It wasn't hindsight.