Rickie Lambert?
Your 5 worst signings in Premier League history?
- Thread starter Fortitude
- Start date
Wasn't Sancho being "protected" a bit because of the abuse after the EURO's, I also vaguely recall he wasn't that fit when he arrived
No he wasn't. If you spend that amount on someone you should have done enough background research to not find yourself preferring every other player in your squad to them within a few days of their arrival.
There is also no real way looking at it from the outside to know if the issue was Sancho not trying or Sancho's confidence being shot by the club he signed for treating him like an unwanted spare part before he'd even started a game and despite the team massively struggling. Which is something Ole had form for with VDB.
The fact Sancho then wasn't very good when he did eventually get picked is why its very easy to put him in this list. I think it's the dumbest signing we've made and we've definitely been the best at dumb signings for a decade now. Although it's only the smaller fee for Mount that stops that topping it.
I agree with the bolded part. We signed him to solve our RW problem only to discover that this wasn't his best position. Part of me thinks we mainly went off his G/A numbers, factored in his age and assumed he'd be a success here, without doing the proper groundwork.
I disagree that Ole is the main person to blame for that though. It is pretty common knowledge that he wasn't the driving force behind several of his transfers. The same with Van De Beek.
I never said Ole was the main person to blame I just said it factored in to why it was such a dumb/bad signing.
If you pay what was it, £90m for a player and then your manager immediately benches them and prefers every other player in the squad who can even vaguely play in their position over them, that is dumb. I don't think there's much to debate around this point? Its an extremely stupid thing to happen, and given Ole would have had a say in the transfer targets, at least part of the stupidity was down to him.
Because if he doesn't do anything in the next two games then you have literally got nothing for your £55m and years wages.
And still has plenty of years to justify his fee.
We could've waited a year to get him on a free.
Sancho to United
Antony to United
Sanchez to United
van der Beek to United
Kepa to Chelsea
Drinkwater to Chelsea
Lukaku to Chelsea
Shevchenko to Chelsea
Torres to Chelsea
Carroll to Liverpool
Keita to Liverpool
Pepe to Arsenal
Philips to City
United and Chelsea are on a level of their own.
Antony to United
Sanchez to United
van der Beek to United
Kepa to Chelsea
Drinkwater to Chelsea
Lukaku to Chelsea
Shevchenko to Chelsea
Torres to Chelsea
Carroll to Liverpool
Keita to Liverpool
Pepe to Arsenal
Philips to City
United and Chelsea are on a level of their own.
1) Lukaku to Chelsea
2) Mudryk to Chelsea
3) Antony to United
4) Pepe to Arsenal
5) Maguire to United
Honourable mentions: Phillips to City, Mount to United, Cucurella to Chelsea, Torres to Chelsea
2) Mudryk to Chelsea
3) Antony to United
4) Pepe to Arsenal
5) Maguire to United
Honourable mentions: Phillips to City, Mount to United, Cucurella to Chelsea, Torres to Chelsea
There is no guarantee he would have signed for us or wouldn't have extended with Chelsea.
The ones I find difficult to judge are signings like that of Keita for Liverpool. At the time, having seen him play for Leipzig quite a bit, I was convinced he’d be a huge success for Klopp and that he would fit his style perfectly. Sure, he’s been a bit prone to injuries, but other than that, everything looked perfect and the deal made a lot of sense to me.
He ended up doing close to nothing for them, was basically constantly injured and a huge flop.
But I don’t think that was a bad transfer. It was more or less bad luck.
The ones that were clear screw ups however, are signings like Carroll to Liverpool. Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, outside of Liverpool thought this was a good idea. They were ridiculed and laughed at relentlessly and as it turned out, everybody but them was right all along. A transfer that never had a chance to become good. A disaster from start to finish.
I think that transfers like the first one can be classified as flops. But the second category is the worst one and the list should be compiled mostly off deals like these.
He ended up doing close to nothing for them, was basically constantly injured and a huge flop.
But I don’t think that was a bad transfer. It was more or less bad luck.
The ones that were clear screw ups however, are signings like Carroll to Liverpool. Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, outside of Liverpool thought this was a good idea. They were ridiculed and laughed at relentlessly and as it turned out, everybody but them was right all along. A transfer that never had a chance to become good. A disaster from start to finish.
I think that transfers like the first one can be classified as flops. But the second category is the worst one and the list should be compiled mostly off deals like these.
For the reputation + fee. It's basically us and Chelsea vying for honours.
Shevchenko to Chelsea
Torres to Chelsea
Sancho to United
Maguire to United
Sanchez to United
Rodwell to Sunderland
Phillips to City
Antony, Kepa and Pepe were bad but they weren't really known in the PL like the above. More of a stupidly expensive punt.
Shevchenko to Chelsea
Torres to Chelsea
Sancho to United
Maguire to United
Sanchez to United
Rodwell to Sunderland
Phillips to City
Antony, Kepa and Pepe were bad but they weren't really known in the PL like the above. More of a stupidly expensive punt.
I admit it there probably has been worse transfers than him, but the difference between the Martial and the players you mention is the they all came to their clubs after Martial came here and they've all move on. Martial still collects his 300k a week 9 years later and has played a grand total of 2437 minutes the last 3 seasons....
TBF - That Pepe transfer was wild, Martial levels wild.
I don't see how Lukaku to Chelsea isn't at the top of this list. Signed for close to £100m on a 5 year deal, played about 4 months before he started publicly talking about wanting to back to Inter and he's been on loan ever since. He hasn't played for us for 2 years and he still has 2 years left on his deal.
What makes you think he'd have ran his contract down and then joined you on a free?
Because we don't know how it ends.
It's silly to talk about him, Mount and Antony as "worst transfers ever" before they are moved on.
He is 31. You are not going to get anything from him.
Essentially 15 goals (8 in the league) for a 150m+ investment. Likely the worst signing in the history of the league when you consider return/financial_cost.
Care to make a wager on that?
A lot of great shouts here. The price tag rockets Antony to the top of the list by some distance, made even more appalling by the fact that we could have spent 40m for Antony but for whatever reason we decided to offer 70m instead, which Ajax was happy to accept after they slapped their while they asked themselves who the fukk runs United.
A better question for me is which club has been as appalling in its transfer dealings over the last decade than United. No one comes even close to us.
A better question for me is which club has been as appalling in its transfer dealings over the last decade than United. No one comes even close to us.
Not really, but I think he is your Casemiro. In the wrong sides of 30, in very high salary.
At least Casemiro gave us a good season and didn't chat shit.
What could possibly happen that would make it not an all time bad transfer?
Chelsea have spent around 400m in Lukaku, Cucurella, Drinkwater, Shevchenko, Torres, Mudryk.
Sterling, Morata, Kepa and Pulisic.
Getting some money back. If you can get around half it won't be as bad as some on the list.
Meh. He has release clause of around £38m I believe. Even if someone pays that, it's not enough to move him off the top of the list for me.
Fair. So half a billion in garbage.
We reach 220m in Sancho, Antony, vad der Beek and Sanzhez. Even if you add AWB, Maguire and Casemiro, you're still just at around 400m.
Our shit is less expensive than Chelsea's shit.
Us getting a ton of money for him makes it less shit than if we get nothing
Him coming back next season and winning the golden boot on the way to a league title. Ok, this is a little unlikely.
Hard to judge until he leaves.
At least Lukaku had the decency to bugger off and not stick around half assing it, costing the team money and points due to a lack of effort.
I get your point but isn't the issue with Lukaku the fact that he wants to bugger off whenever he is expected to do better? His decency is kind of indecent.
Pierre van Hoijunk
Lukaku is an egomaniac with delusions that he is a Balon Dor winner. He's never been lazy or didn't give a shit though.
If you have the audacity to offer him the Ballon d'Or, you can bet that he will complain about the fact that his talent deserves pure palladium.
Sanchez is probably the biggest disappointment but nowhere the worst. We swapped him for an awful Mkhitryan so it didn't really impact us.
Worst for me in no real order:
1. Anthony
2. Kepa
3. Pepe - As above
4. Shevchenko to Chelsea
5. Andy Carroll to Liverpool
Worst for me in no real order:
1. Anthony
2. Kepa
3. Pepe - As above
4. Shevchenko to Chelsea
5. Andy Carroll to Liverpool
Nothing. If we were unable him to get him on a free then so be it. Judging by how we've been unable to find a role for him in the team, it wouldn't have been a big deal had we missed out on him in 2024. Whereas spunking 55m on him when he had a year left on his contract, and no other clubs were seemingly in for him, was idiotic.
However I disagree with the posters on here who believe it makes the top 5 worst PL transfers - I'd give it another year before jumping to that conclusion.
That's an interesting stat.
Martial also played in a worse United iteration than any of them, and under crap & negative managers.
Would have been interesting to see him fulfilling more of his potential and staying fit for longer periods of time.
The potential was immense.
Nobody is going to talk about him in the future, but yeah, we had way worse signings than him.
Having Mudryk above Antony is fecking insane
1. Antony
2. Lukaku return
3. Pepe
4. Fofana (underrated one here, guy was already coming off a huge knee injury and they spunked 80m and now he's torn another knee)
5. Drinkwater
Chelsea and United have money men who should be interrogated under oath as to what they were playing at. Such squandering. Both clubs have paid a heavy price for it, too.
It boggles the mind how we have managed to get it so wrong so often.
It boggles the mind how we have managed to get it so wrong so often.
Thank god for some common sense. This thread quickly became an excuse to moan about recent transfers and for some people to proudly display their clinical stupidity. I can’t imagine putting Mount on the top 5 worst PL transfers ever after less than a year at the club. Most of which has been injured. The fallacy argument of “he would’ve been free next month”, is either painfully naive or just wilfully dense.
This whole thread has recency bias. What happens if Antony has a really good season next year, or Mount becomes integral to the team? Do they come off “the worst 5 transfers in premier league HISTORY” list, and we quietly forget a few angry posters put them on there in the first place? What if we sell them and get 50, or 75 or even 100% of our money back? Changes the complexion of things a bit I think.
Neither transfer looks good at this point, but at 1 and 2 years at the club, respectively, it’s a bit early to put them on an all time list of anything.
This list should be for the Adrien Mutu’s of this world. Or maybe Pogba, who left on a free, was bought back for 89m and left on a free again, after several underwhelming seasons, lots of injuries, even more haircuts, and not much football. Or 75m Pepe who barely played and left on a free. Or United spending 7m on a homeless amateur. There are so many better and bookended examples.
Yet we have muppets citing Mudryk. When we signed Alexis Sanchez who cost us Micky Targaryen, derailed Martial during one of his rare good periods, pulled down record wages, barely scored or assisted, and then we paid 20+m just to leave.
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