Clubs that wasted money from player sales

The holy trinity 68 · Oct 15, 2020

Following on from the thread in which clubs should have cashed in on players, what are the biggest wastes of money on players after selling another player for large fees?

The two stupidest ones that spring to mind are Hazard to Madrid after selling Ronaldo for £100m and Carroll to Liverpool for £35m after selling Torres for £50m.

What is the craziest waste of money in your opinion after making a large fee from a player sale?

Lay · Oct 15, 2020

Barcelona with the Neymar money.

Was it Napoli with the Cavani money? They splurged a lot one year on average players minus Mertens

Skills · Oct 15, 2020

Spurs, Liverpool and Barcelona after they sold Bale, Suarez & Neymar respectively.

Spurs bought : Paulinho, Chadli, Soldado, Capoue, Chirches with the saving graces being Eriksen and Lamela.

Liverpool bought : Lambert, Lallana, Can, Markovic, Lovren, Origi, Moreno & Balotelli.

JPRouve · Oct 15, 2020

Sell Lukaku buy Maguire?

Runs to the opposite direction

AltiUn · Oct 15, 2020

JPRouve said:
Sell Lukaku buy Maguire?

Runs to the opposite direction

We wasted the Ronaldo money too. Maybe that's why we sell for such low fees, so we can't waste the transfer fees!

DoomSlayer · Oct 15, 2020

The holy trinity 68 said:
Carroll to Liverpool for £35m after selling Torres for £50m.

To be fair, they got Suarez at the same time and made a huge profit on him after his phenomenal period there. The cnut.

Did we even spend the Ronaldo money to say that we wasted it? Maybe we can say the club wasted it on paying dividends to the Glazers or to pay some of the withstanding debts.

Pogue Mahone · Oct 15, 2020

DoomSlayer said:
To be fair, they got Suarez at the same time and made a huge profit on him after his phenomenal period there. The cnut.

Did we even spend the Ronaldo money to say that we wasted it? Maybe we can say the club wasted it on paying dividends to the Glazers or to pay some of the withstanding debts.

Yes. On Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen and Gabriel Obertan.

DoomSlayer · Oct 15, 2020

Pogue Mahone said:
Yes. On Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen and Gabriel Obertan.

And the rest went to help the Glazers agenda so we definitely wasted that money.

ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg · Oct 15, 2020

The holy trinity 68 said:
Following on from the thread in which clubs should have cashed in on players, what are the biggest wastes of money on players after selling another player for large fees?

The two stupidest ones that spring to mind are Hazard to Madrid after selling Ronaldo for £100m and Carroll to Liverpool for £35m after selling Torres for £50m.

What is the craziest waste of money in your opinion after making a large fee from a player sale?

the only problem with the carrol one is that they also bought Suarez with the Torres money. He turned out pretty well. Even if you said Carroll’s value was Zero, they did well out of that deal.

The holy trinity 68 · Oct 15, 2020

ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
the only problem with the carrol one is that they also bought Suarez with the Torres money. He turned out pretty well. Even if you said Carroll’s value was Zero, they did well out of that deal.

But £35m was still wasted, the rest of the money spent on Suarez was good business, but the money on Carroll was still spent poorly.

The holy trinity 68 · Oct 15, 2020

Skills said:
Spurs, Liverpool and Barcelona after they sold Bale, Suarez & Neymar respectively.

Spurs bought : Paulinho, Chadli, Soldado, Capoue, Chirches with the saving graces being Eriksen and Lamela.

Liverpool bought : Lambert, Lallana, Can, Markovic, Lovren, Origi, Moreno & Balotelli.

That is some terrible business right there.

Kasper · Oct 15, 2020

Yeah first thought was Liverpool after Suarez and Spurs after Bale. Remember their fans on here trying to explain why there dealings have been great because now they have far better depth and quality all round.

ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg · Oct 15, 2020

The holy trinity 68 said:
But £35m was still wasted, the rest of the money spent on Suarez was good business, but the money on Carroll was still spent poorly.

I’m just making the valid point, that if you look at the entire deal. Torres for Carroll and Suarez, was good business for Liverpool.

Revaulx · Oct 15, 2020

Pogue Mahone said:
Yes. On Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen and Gabriel Obertan.

The holy trinity 68 · Oct 15, 2020

ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
I’m just making the valid point, that if you look at the entire deal. Torres for Carroll and Suarez, was good business for Liverpool.

Well if you want to get technical.

Liverpool sold Torres for £50m. Then went on to Buy Carroll £35m, Meireles £11.7m, Poulsen £4.9m, Konchesky £3.8m, Wilson £2.5m, Shelvey £1.8m, Suarez £23.8m.

So we can say they wasted the £50m on the first 3 or 4 listed and Suarez was from money they would have spent regardless of the Torres money

simonhch · Oct 15, 2020

I remember Barca selling Figo to Real and replacing him with Overmars, Lopez, Alfonso and Petit. On paper good players but it never worked out.

ThierryHenry14 · Oct 15, 2020

On paper the worst must be Neymar money on Ousmane Dembele, Coutinho and Antoine Griezmann. The last 2 are on big wages too.

ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg · Oct 15, 2020

The holy trinity 68 said:
Well if you want to get technical.

Liverpool sold Torres for £50m. Then went on to Buy Carroll £35m, Meireles £11.7m, Poulsen £4.9m, Konchesky £3.8m, Wilson £2.5m, Shelvey £1.8m, Suarez £23.8m.

So we can say they wasted the £50m on the first 3 or 4 listed and Suarez was from money they would have spent regardless of the Torres money

although it was just Carroll and Suarez who were presented together. So seems strange to appropriate the Torres money just to Carroll.

you might as well just have a bad transfer thread, which Carroll would be part of.

Andy_Cole · Oct 15, 2020

We still have the Ronaldo war chest.

Or we wasted it in the biggest way. Paying out dividend to the Glazers.

simonhch · Oct 15, 2020

ThierryHenry14 said:
On paper the worst must be Neymar money on Ousmane Dembele, Coutinho and Antoine Griezmann. The last 2 are on big wages too.

Those Three cost the best part of 350m+. So 130 more than they received for Neymar. Talk about wasted money.

monosierra · Oct 15, 2020

Its a vicious cycle as sellers are well aware that the buyer is 1) Flush with cash and 2) In a weak negotiating position as they'd just sold their best player. The trick is to actually have a squad that can play just as well without this star player - like Pool when they sold Coutinho - and have the market know about it. Buying a replacement that is not a readymade supstar is another necessary step (The exact opposite of what Barca did).

Wittmann45 · Oct 15, 2020

Southampton sold Jay Rodriguez (12 million pounds) and VVD (75 million) for nearly 90 million pounds and have only brought in one, maybe two, contributing players over a number of transfer windows with the money raised from those two players.

The way Roma has spent the Allison money has not been great either - they bought Nzonzi, Kluivert and Pastore, all expensive, all kind of flops

Wittmann45 · Oct 15, 2020

Pogue Mahone said:
Yes. On Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen and Gabriel Obertan.

I also kind of feel like Berbatov was bought with the recognition that the money would be recouped with a likely Ronaldo sale the next season. I think Fergie/Gill and the Glazers probably knew they could only hold onto Ronaldo for one more year and brought in his, sort of, replacement before he left. Who knows, maybe even the 2007-08 spending spree was allowed only because the Glazers knew lots of money would eventually be coming back in through the inevitable sale of Ronaldo

Ali Dia · Oct 15, 2020

An injury free Carroll and Suarez on paper is a very good attack. The scouting was good there. Can is also a pretty good player. The rest are pure punts. When you consider what Torres was becoming they cashed out at the exact right time, credit where credit is due. Torres was massive for them and It would have been easier to just give him a huge new contract and keep him on the way down. That’s what we’ve done with DDG. Good business getting rid.

do.ob · Oct 15, 2020

Didn't Juventus buy Higuain the summer they sold Pogba? The fee seemed ridiculous to me even then.

tomaldinho1 · Oct 15, 2020

Pogue Mahone said:
Yes. On Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen and Gabriel Obertan.

I remember genuinely laughing out loud when Newcastle bought Obertan though.

Wilt · Oct 15, 2020

Skills said:
Spurs, Liverpool and Barcelona after they sold Bale, Suarez & Neymar respectively.

Spurs bought : Paulinho, Chadli, Soldado, Capoue, Chirches with the saving graces being Eriksen and Lamela.

Liverpool bought : Lambert, Lallana, Can, Markovic, Lovren, Origi, Moreno & Balotelli.

Yes, Eriksen aside, Spurs made a proper horlicks with the Bale money

FootballHQ · Oct 15, 2020

Aston Villa 2010-15 easily beats all these suggestions.

Summer 2010....James Milner sold for 18m + Stephen Ireland.

Ireland comes in and within 4 months he's already fallen out with Houllier and has to train with reserves. :lol:

We then loan him to Newcastle where he dosen't do much. In fairness he comes back the next season and plays alright for half a season and gets POTY. Dosen't kick on and eventually we sell him to Stoke for a couple of million the next year.

Summer 2011...sell Downing and Young for combined 35m. Replaced with Charles N'Zogbia for about 12m. Full five years of mediocre performances with the odd genius moment and leaves on a free in summer 2016.

Summer 2015. Lose Benteke and Delph for combined 40m. Spent it on Amavi, Gana, Veretout, Adama Traore, Jordan Ayew.....and Rudy Gestede. Infairness the first 5 have all gone to have good/excellent careers in premier league and abroad but all contributed to our 17 point relegation season.

And finally in summer 2016 we spend another 40m on Kodjia, Ross McCormack and Scott Hogan. Kodj was unlucky as he was scoring plenty but got a bad leg injury and was never the same. All three left on pretty much free transfers.

Of the big clubs I'd say Liverpool 2014 completely wasted the Suarez money. Lambert, Balotelli, Lazar Markovic!

The Brown Bull · Oct 16, 2020

JPRouve said:
Sell Lukaku buy Maguire?

Runs to the opposite direction

Ouch!

The Brown Bull · Oct 16, 2020

Andy Carroll for 35 Mill. Jesus. It still shocks me.

Gazza · Oct 16, 2020

Going back a bit, but Blackburn banked £15 million for Alan Shearer in 1996, a world record I think. Can’t really remember who they bought, I recall £7.5 million on Kevin Davies and then maybe some other strikers for way too much money. Got relegated in 1999 so they can’t have spent it too well.

Gazza · Oct 16, 2020

Arsenal sold Overmars and Petit for something mad like £30 million to Barca in 2000, a year later they bought Francis Jeffers for £10 mil and Richard Wright for about £5 mil. And yet they won the league in 2002. I was so sure we were going to sign Sol Campbell on a free from Spurs and pair him up with Stam, Wenger pulled a master stroke getting Campbell.

Revaulx · Oct 16, 2020

monosierra said:
Its a vicious cycle as sellers are well aware that the buyer is 1) Flush with cash and 2) In a weak negotiating position as they'd just sold their best player. The trick is to actually have a squad that can play just as well without this star player - like Pool when they sold Coutinho - and have the market know about it. Buying a replacement that is not a readymade supstar is another necessary step (The exact opposite of what Barca did).

That’s a good point. It says a lot when the best example I can come up with of it working was at Liverpool when they signing Dalglish to replace Keegan. That was over 40 years ago

Skills · Oct 16, 2020

Pogue Mahone said:
Yes. On Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen and Gabriel Obertan.

Antonio Valencia was a great signing. The other two cost a negligible amount tbh

flappyjay · Oct 16, 2020

Pogue Mahone said:
Yes. On Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen and Gabriel Obertan.

Thats like a quarter of the money. Owen was a free and obertan was less than 5m if my memory serves right.

Dancfc · Oct 16, 2020

The holy trinity 68 said:
Well if you want to get technical.

Liverpool sold Torres for £50m. Then went on to Buy Carroll £35m, Meireles £11.7m, Poulsen £4.9m, Konchesky £3.8m, Wilson £2.5m, Shelvey £1.8m, Suarez £23.8m.

So we can say they wasted the £50m on the first 3 or 4 listed and Suarez was from money they would have spent regardless of the Torres money

Technically Suarez was signed before Torres left so the Torres money was used to sign Carroll and Henderson.

The latter has worked out in the end (understatement) but for the first few years that was hilarious and made me somewhat feel a little better for the Torres farce.

Chabon · Oct 16, 2020

Pogue Mahone said:
Yes. On Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen and Gabriel Obertan.

We'd actually already signed Valencia before Ronaldo went and Owen was free, so, more accurarely, the next £80 million's worth of transfers after we got the money were: Obertan (3m), Diouf (2m), Smalling (10m), Hernandez (6m), Bebe (7.5m), Lindegaard (3.5m), Jones (17m), Young (17m), and De Gea (19m).

A mixed bag with a very young average age. I know this isn't actually how transfers work at all (net spend is meaningless), but you can at least see what Fergie was trying to do.

giorno · Oct 16, 2020

Lay said:
Barcelona with the Neymar money.

Was it Napoli with the Cavani money? They splurged a lot one year on average players minus Mertens

Higuain, Raul Albiol and Callejon. So, nope

do.ob said:
Didn't Juventus buy Higuain the summer they sold Pogba? The fee seemed ridiculous to me even then.

It was a short-term move, for a player who'd just broken the all time scoring record and helped them win the league and reach a CL final...

Price was steep, and he declined quickly though...

do.ob · Oct 16, 2020

giorno said:
It was a short-term move, for a player who'd just broken the all time scoring record and helped them win the league and reach a CL final...

Price was steep, and he declined quickly though...

€90m or whatever Juve paid was the 3rd or 4th highest fee ever at that point, wasn't it?
For that money you would expect someone who dominates games by himself, yet Higuain - aside from that one season - never really posted insane goal numbers, nor was he ever a big game player, actually quite the opposite from what I remember. Germany owes their 2014 WC as much to him as they do to Götze.
I mean if Lukaku scored 36 goals this season, would you pay €150m (or whatever the equivalent to €90m back then is now) for him?

monosierra · Oct 16, 2020

do.ob said:
€90m or whatever Juve paid was the 3rd or 4th highest fee ever at that point, wasn't it?
For that money you would expect someone who dominates games by himself, yet Higuain - aside from that one season - never really posted insane goal numbers, nor was he ever a big game player, actually quite the opposite from what I remember. Germany owes their 2014 WC as much to him as they do to Götze.
I mean if Lukaku scored 36 goals this season, would you pay €150m (or whatever the equivalent to €90m back then is now) for him?

It was a weird choice but you can see how Juve never was able to attract a top tier striker in those years (Say, top 5 in the world) until Ronaldo left Real - and even Ronaldo was past the best of his prime when he joined. Its a Serie A problem. Higuain was the best they could do - a 90 mil bet that he could be the difference between winning and losing a CL final. A very risky bet that turned South but Juve was also at a weaker negotiation position from the striker department given the market knows they are desperate for someone close to proven and world class.

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