Yeah Wenger fleeced them there. Overmars and Petit both on the wane while Gerard and Alfonso never quite delivered. Left the squad in a hole that took them 3-4 years to climb out of.
Clubs that wasted money from player sales
- Thread starter The holy trinity 68
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Overmars/Petit money went on Pires, Wiltord, Lauren & Edu in 2000. Still can't believe you flogged Stam, even 20 years later.
Higuain was always a great goalscorer who posted big numbers, and seemed to have just hit his peak with 36 goals in the league alone the season before. He was massive for them in the league, absolutely carrying them in the big games, and his brace against monaco in the semi-final got them to cardiff....in year one it looked like a great signing. But then he declined in 17/18, though he was still instrumental to their league title
As others have said though, juventus at the time weren't exactly a prime destination for star players...it was either Higuain or spend on a bunch of lesser players and hope....all in all, not unreasonable, though it didn't quite work out in the end. Still. They might not have won the title in either of his seasons without him
So much this.
1. In today's age, a player performing at a high level at your club is worth much more than two expensive players from a different team. Because, no matter the transfer price, there is no guarantee that a player would actually emulate the level they showed at their previous club. So it always makes sense to increase their salary to keep them than try to find a ready made replacement outside, where you'd be paying a big fee plus similar wages.
As mentioned in the other posts,
1. Barca were absolutely rinsed for Dembele and Coutinho fees after they lost Neymar. Neither of whom have provided half of Neymar's output.
2. Napoli fleeced Juve in the Higuain for almost the entire fee they got for Pogba. Higuain was great in the years of Rafa and Sarri at Napoli and he never came close to reaching that level at Juve.
3. Real tried to replace Cristiano with Mariano Diaz
While United also replaced Ronaldo poorly, at least they got good service out of Valencia and Owen!2. Of course, keeping hold of players by paying them crazy salaries doesn't always work out great either, since you have no guarantee they will keep up their high levels in the future or not suffer a serious injury. DeGea being a good example of this. Rewarded with an big contract after 4 years of top class performances, and then he promptly dropped the ball.
So a team should ideally not have any lynchpins and have a upcoming player ready to replace them over a season or two. Liverpool having AOC and Mane ready to share Coutinho's duties after he left being a great example. Dortmund replacing Dembele with Pulisic and Pulisic with Sancho being another good example. Leicester also did well after losing Maguire I think? So looks like a trend, where smaller clubs who are always prepared to lose their stars and have their replacements ready, do much better than big times. Obviously not an apples to apples comparison, since the replacements for key players at the big teams are much more rare.
Indeed. I'm actually surprised at how Dortmund almost never gets fleeced by sellers after they received massive fees for players they sold - but Dortmund themselves always charges richer clubs a king's ransom (well, the market rate for young stars I guess). I guess it helps a lot that Dortmund has built a well deserved reputation as a club that develops young players before letting them go to richer clubs and that they buy from smaller clubs who aren't in a position to charge Dortmund 80 million. Some call it the United Tax (Woodward bragging about his spending ability didn't help at all) but I see Barca and Real getting their consumer surplus (The difference between the most that you can pay and what you are paying in the market) maxed out as well after they sold their main superstar.So much this.
1. In today's age, a player performing at a high level at your club is worth much more than two expensive players from a different team. Because, no matter the transfer price, there is no guarantee that a player would actually emulate the level they showed at their previous club. So it always makes sense to increase their salary to keep them than try to find a ready made replacement outside, where you'd be paying a big fee plus similar wages.
As mentioned in the other posts,
1. Barca were absolutely rinsed for Dembele and Coutinho fees after they lost Neymar. Neither of whom have provided half of Neymar's output.
2. Napoli fleeced Juve in the Higuain for almost the entire fee they got for Pogba. Higuain was great in the years of Rafa and Sarri at Napoli and he never came close to reaching that level at Juve.
3. Real tried to replace Cristiano with Mariano Diaz
2. Of course, keeping hold of players by paying them crazy salaries doesn't always work out great either, since you have no guarantee they will keep up their high levels in the future or not suffer a serious injury. DeGea being a good example of this. Rewarded with an big contract after 4 years of top class performances, and then he promptly dropped the ball.
So a team should ideally not have any lynchpins and have a upcoming player ready to replace them over a season or two. Liverpool having AOC and Mane ready to share Coutinho's duties after he left being a great example. Dortmund replacing Dembele with Pulisic and Pulisic with Sancho being another good example. Leicester also did well after losing Maguire I think? So looks like a trend, where smaller clubs who are always prepared to lose their stars and have their replacements ready, do much better than big times. Obviously not an apples to apples comparison, since the replacements for key players at the big teams are much more rare.
Squad building is something Pool has improved a lot in recent years (Maintaining a healthy depth, age profile, reasonable wage structure and contract lengths). They buy from a position of strength - in that they don't desperately need to plug a gaping hole (Remember how they had to drain their consumer surplus replacing Torres with Caroll at the last minute) and they have the draw of being Klopp's team and reigning champions. These are great incentives to entice players (Thus potentially negotiating a lower price than if they msotly just money to offer, like us). Sell a superstar when you have his replacement lined up within the team already I say - maybe DVDB for Pogba in our case.
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Still you spaffed a ton of money on Jeffers and Wright
Andy Carroll for 35m
Maguire for 80m (world record for defender)
Coutinho for 142m
Dembele for 145m
Denilson for 21.5m (world record at that time)
Maguire for 80m (world record for defender)
Coutinho for 142m
Dembele for 145m
Denilson for 21.5m (world record at that time)