Viv Anderson | Arsenal | £250,000 | July 1987 |
Brian McClair | Celtic | £850,000 | July 1987 |
Steve Bruce | Norwich City | £825,000 | December 1987 |
Jim Leighton | Aberdeen | £500,000 | May 1988 |
Lee Sharpe | Torquay United | £200,000 | June 1988 |
Mark Hughes | Barcelona | £1,800,000 | June 1988 |
Mal Donaghy | Luton Town | £650,000 | October 1988 |
Ralph Milne | Dundee United | £175,000 | November 1988 |
Guiliano Maiorana | Histon FC | £30,000 | November 1988 |
Mark Bosnich | Sydney United | Free | June 1989 |
Mike Phelan | Norwich City | £750,000 | July 1989 |
Neil Webb | Nottingham Forest | £1,500,000 | July 1989 |
Gary Pallister | Middlesbrough | £2,300,000 | August 1989 |
Paul Ince | West Ham United | £1,000,000 | September 1989 |
Danny Wallace | Southampton | £1,300,000 | September 1989 |
Les Sealey | Luton Town | Free | June 1990 |
Neil Whitworth | Wigan Athletic | £45,000 | June 1990 |
Denis Irwin | Oldham Athletic | £625,000 | June 1990 |
Andrei Kanchelskis | Shakhtar Donetsk | £650,000 | March 1991 |
Peter Schmeichel | Brondby IF | £500,000 | August 1991 |
Paul Parker | Queens Park Rangers | £2,000,000 | August 1991 |
Patrick McGibbon | Portadown | £380,000 | August 1992 |
Dion Dublin | Cambridge United | £1,000,000 | August 1992 |
Eric Cantona | Leeds United | £1,200,000 | November 1992 |
Les Sealey | Aston Villa | Free | January 1993 |
Roy Keane | Nottingham Forest | £3,750,000 | July 1993 |
Graeme Tomlinson | Bradford City | £100,000 | June 1994 |
David May | Blackburn Rovers | £1,400,000 | July 1994 |
Andrew Cole | Newcastle United | £6,000,000 | January 1995 |
Nick Culkin | York City | £250,000 | September 1995 |
Tony Coton | Manchester City | £500,000 | January 1996 |
William Prunier | Bordeaux | Loan | December 1996 |
Raimond van der Gouw | Vitesse | £500,000 | July 1996 |
Ronny Johnsen | Besiktas | £1,200,000 | July 1996 |
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer | Molde FK | £1,500,000 | July 1996 |
Karel Poborsky | Slavia Prague | £3,500,000 | July 1996 |
Jordi Cruyff | Barcelona | £1,500,000 | August 1996 |
Teddy Sheringham | Tottenham Hotspur | £3,500,000 | June 1997 |
Erik Nevland | Viking | £1,500,000 | July 1997 |
Henning Berg | Blackburn Rovers | £5,000,000 | August 1997 |
Jonathan Greening | York City | £750,000 | March 1998 |
Jaap Stam | PSV Eindhoven | £10,750,000 | July 1998 |
Jesper Blomqvist | Parma | £4,400,000 | July 1998 |
Dwight Yorke | Aston Villa | £12,600,000 | August 1998 |
Mark Bosnich | Aston Villa | Free | July 1999 |
Quinton Fortune | Atletico Madrid | £1,500,000 | August 1999 |
Massimo Taibi | Venezia | £4,900,000 | August 1999 |
Mikael Silvestre | Internazionale | £4,000,000 | September 1999 |
Fabien Barthez | AS Monaco | £7,800,000 | May 2000 |
Andy Goram | Motherwell | Loan | March 2001 |
Ruud van Nistelrooy | PSV Eindhoven | £19,000,000 | July 2001 |
Juan Sebastián Verón | Lazio | £28,100,000 | July 2001 |
Roy Carroll | Wigan Athletic | £2,500,000 | July 2001 |
Laurent Blanc | Internazionale | Free | August 2001 |
Mads Timm | Odense | Free | August 2002 |
Diego Forlan | Independiente | £7,500,000 | January 2002 |
Luke Steele | Peterborough United | £500,000 | June 2002 |
Rio Ferdinand | Leeds United | £30,000,000 | July 2002 |
Ricardo | Valladolid | £1,500,000 | August 2002 |
Souleymane Mamam | La Semeuse Lomé | Unknown | June 2002 |
David Bellion | Sunderland | £2,000,000 | July 2003 |
Eric Djemba-Djemba | Nantes | £3,500,000 | July 2003 |
Tim Howard | New Jersey Metrostars | £1,200,000 | July 2003 |
Cristiano Ronaldo | Sporting Club | £12,240,000 | August 2003 |
Kleberson | Atletico PR | £5,930,000 | August 2003 |
Giuseppe Rossi | Parma | Free | July 2004 |
Liam Miller | Celtic | Free | January 2004 |
Louis Saha | Fulham | £12,825,000 | January 2004 |
Alan Smith | Leeds United | £7,050,000 | May 2004 |
Gabriel Heinze | Paris Saint-Germain | £6,900,000 | June 2004 |
Gerard Pique | Barcelona | £5,000,000 | May 2004 |
Fangzou Dong | Dalian Shide | £3,500,000 | January 2004 |
Wayne Rooney | Everton | £25,600,000 | August 2004 |
Ji-Sung Park | PSV Eindhoven | £4,000,000 | July 2005 |
Edwin van der Sar | Fulham | £2,000,000 | July 2005 |
Ben Foster | Stoke City | £1,000,000 | July 2005 |
Nemanja Vidic | Spartak Moscow | £7,200,000 | January 2006 |
Patrice Evra | AS Monaco | £5,500,000 | January 2006 |
Michael Carrick | Tottenham Hotspur | £18,600,000 | July 2006 |
Henrik Larsson | Helsingborgs | Loan | January 2007 |
Owen Hargreaves | Bayern Munich | £17,000,000 | July 2007 |
Tomasz Kuszczak | West Bromwich Albion | £4,000,000 | July 2007 |
Nani | Sporting Club | £17,300,000 | July 2007 |
Anderson | FC Porto | £20,400,000 | July 2007 |
Carlos Tévez | Corinthians | Loan | August 2007 |
Federico Macheda | Lazio | Free | September 2007 |
Manucho | Petro Atlético | Unknown | August 2008 |
Rodrigo Possebon | Internacional | Unknown | August 2008 |
Rafael da Silva | Fluminense | £2,600,000 | August 2008 |
Fabio da Silva | Fluminense | £2,600,000 | August 2008 |
Dimitar Berbatov | Tottenham Hotspur | £30,750,000 | September 2008 |
Zoran Tosic | Partizan FK | £7,000,000 | January 2009 |
Ritchie De Laet | Stoke City | Unknown | January 2009 |
Antonio Valencia | Wigan Athletic | £16,000,000 | June 2009 |
Michael Owen | Newcastle United | Free | July 2009 |
Gabriel Obertan | Bordeaux | £3,000,000 | July 2009 |
Mame Biram Diouf | Molde FK | £2,000,000 | July 2009 |
Chris Smalling | Fulham | £10,000,000 | January 2010 |
Javier Hernández | Deportivo Guadalajara | £6,000,000 | July 2010 |
Bebe | Guimaraes | £7,400,000 | August 2010 |
Anders Lindegaard | Aalesunds FK | £3,500,000 | November 2010 |
Phil Jones | Blackburn Rovers | £17,000,000 | June 2011 |
Ashley Young | Aston Villa | £16,000,000 | June 2011 |
David de Gea | Atletico Madrid | £18,000,000 | June 2011 |
Shinji Kagawa | Borussia Dortmund | £12,000,000 | June 2012 |
Nick Powell | Crewe Alexandra | £4,000,000 | June 2012 |
Robin van Persie | Arsenal | £24,000,000 | August 2012 |
Alexander Buttner | Vitesse | £3,900,000 | August 2012 |
Ángelo Henríquez | Universidad de Chile | £4,000,000 | August 2012 |
Wilfried Zaha | Crystal Palace | £15,000,000 | January 2013 |
Not 90%, but a significantly large portion.
That’s quite frankly an embarrassing list to use to prove any point.
How many of those were even bought with the remote idea if the first team in mind?
Let’s play another stupid game:
Nuno Morais (Penafiel) – free
Jiri Jarosik (CSKA Moscow) – £3m
Asier del Horno (Athletic Bilbao) – £8m
Lassana Diarra (Le Havre) – £2m
Salomon Kalou (Feyenoord) – £3m
John Obi Mikel (Lyn Oslo) – £16m
Khalid Boulahrouz (Hamburg) – £9m
Tal Ben Haim (Bolton Wanderers) – free
Steve Sidwell (Reading) – free
Juliano Belletti (Barcelona) – £3.7m
Luis Jimenez (Ternana) – £4.7m
Sulley Muntari (Portsmouth)
£12.7m
Victor Obinna (Chievo) – free
Thiago Motta (Genoa) – £3.6m
Kerlon (Chievo) – free
Goran Pandev (Lazio) – free
McDonald Mariga (Parma) – £4.3m
Sergio Canales (Racing Santander) – £3.8m
Pedro Leon (Getafe) – £8.4m
Hamit Altintop (Bayern Munich) – free
Jose Callejon (Espanyol) – £4.4m
Raphael Varane (Lens) – £8.8m
Diego Lopez (Sevilla) – £3.2m
Marco van Ginkel (Vitesse) – £9m
Mark Schwarzer (Fulham) – free
Kurt Zouma (St Etienne) – £12m
Mo Salah (Basle) – £11m
Loic Remy (Queens Park Rangers) – £8m
Asmir Begovic (Stoke City) – £8m
Baba Rahman (Augsburg) – £21.7m
Kenedy (Fluminense) – £6.7m
Papy Djilobodji (Nantes) – £2.2m
Michael Hector (Reading) – £4m
Marco Amelia (free agent) – free
All managers, even the cheque book ones buy plenty of players with “potential” if you’re gonna try and paint it like that.
And this list of lesser known or punts doesn’t even include Porto.