Big moves for big players that turned out badly?

[Fortitude]

Talk of Barca being open to offers on Griezmann may well turn out to be bollocks, but given Barca's history of offloading what they deem to be bad fits, it wouldn't really be a surprise, would it?

Griezmann was the great unobtainable just a couple of years ago and this 'dream move' ending with him being sold would be a bonkers turnaround.

Can you think of moves of similar level players, which ended up being absolute calamities? Bonus points if you don't just dip into Barca and Real's pool of castaways.

 

[Kostur]

In before Alexis Sanchez.

 

[royboy16]

Torres from liverpool to Chelsea.
Kaka from Milan to Real.

 

[Ibi Dreams]

Di Maria signing for United

Especially annoying because it's not like he was past it, he was in his prime. Horrible transfer in the end, despite his ability and some amazing moments early on. At least we got a good price for him

 

[Nickelodeon]

Pogba?

 

[siw2007]

Di Maria and Alexis to United in recent years. Torres to Chelsea was one, but I also remember Shevchenko to Chelsea was a big one at the time, one of the best strikers in the world at AC Milan, perhaps coming down the hill a little bit when he joined Chelsea but never got to grips with the premier league.

 

[Skills]

Zlatan to Barcelona. It's not as if he did bad, just didn't fit in and they offloaded him for a massive loss just two seasons later (1 of which he spent on loan).

 

[kopviolator]

Veron

 

[Lelouch geass]

Shevchenko in chelsea, sanchez, veron,(united), dembele at barca. Andy caroll at liverpool, just for good laugh.

 

[DWelbz19]

Barcelona have signed an awful lot of duds in the past 3 years.
The 'big players' only: (Transfermarkt fees so give or take a bit)

Antoine Griezmann - £108m
Philippe Coutinho - £130m
Ousmane Dembele - £112m

That's about £350m in the past 3 years with very little to show for it. Mental.

 

[Boneli]

Mendieta to Lazio is one that comes to mind. Going from being voted the best midfielder in Europe to ending up at Middlesbrough.

 

[Rasendori]

Gaizka Mendieta

The example you mentioned is Griezmann. As you know, A.Madrid have been runners up in the Champions League in a close proximity of time. Similarly, Mendieta was a runners up in 1999/0 and 2000/1. Valencia were very much a side that weren't to be taken lightly. Similarly, A.Madrid were very much threatening the hegemony of Barcelona and Real Madrid. Whilst both players were unable to win the Champions League for their respective clubs, they were able to win silveware outside of that, Supercup

 

[OleBoiii]

Barcelona have signed an awful lot of duds in the past 3 years.
The 'big players' only: (Transfermarkt fees so give or take a bit)

Antoine Griezmann - £108m
Philippe Coutinho - £130m
Ousmane Dembele - £112m

That's about £350m in the past 3 years with very little to show for it. Mental.

I wonder how much of this comes down to the manager/team chemistry? All of the above are very good players. It doubt it's just a case of all of them suddenly dropping in quality.

 

[DWelbz19]

I wonder how much of this comes down to the manager/team chemistry? All of the above are very good players. It doubt it's just a case of all of them suddenly dropping in quality.

In some ways they remind me a bit of us*; every transfer they’ve made in the last 4-5 years has been ‘alright’ at best, most have been poor or just a straight flop. As you say, it’s typically down to a lack of cohesion in a team, managers not being competent, coaching etc. Messi’s existence does an awful lot to cover it up.

* = of course we are slowly fixing in that department this season

 

[Lay]

I wonder how much of this comes down to the manager/team chemistry? All of the above are very good players. It doubt it's just a case of all of them suddenly dropping in quality.

Dembele is mainly injuries and probably a style of play.

Coutinho in my opinion doesn't have a role he excels at in today's game.

 

[simplyared]

2 Liverpool signings:
Benteke and Caroll. Disasters both of them!

 

[IrishMcD]

Shevchenko to Chelsea and to a lesser extent, Crespo as well.

 

[Haddock]

Rebrov to Spurs. £11m was a lot in those days and he was a record buy for them.
The Dutch quintet of Van der Vaart, Robben, Sneijder, Drenthe and Huntelaar. Madrid signed them all in the same summer and while all of them had some great moments it never really worked out. In Drenthe's case - calamitous.

Ian Rush went to Juventus, toured the stadium and returned. Robbie Keane spent half a season at Liverpool and transferred back to Spurs.

Barca are a magnet for this sort of thing. Arda Turan and Hleb come to mind. Quaresma to Inter

Gianluigi Lentini - he was once the world's most expensive player in the 90s. He was in a car crash and suffered from memory loss and periods of blurred vision and it never really happened for him. Has a hatful of medals from his days at Milan but it never really happened for him.

Can I add Limpar to this list?

 

[Tom Cato]

Futureposting João Félix Benfica - Atletico Madrid : £113 million. 4 goals in 20 games in Primiera Division thus far.

He's only 20, but compared to Haaland and Mbappe, well.. with a £113 million investment, you expect a return immediately, not as a developing prospect. 4 goals for that price tag is a colossal failure so far. .- He CAN become good, but right now this is a very bad signing.

 

[Frasbul]

Rebrov to Spurs. £11m was a lot in those days and he was a record buy for them.
The Dutch quintet of Van der Vaart, Robben, Sneijder, Drenthe and Huntelaar. Madrid signed them all in the same summer and while all of them had some great moments it never really worked out. In Drenthe's case - calamitous.

I don't know why I know that, but Huntelaar signed in January.

 

[SilentWitness]

Kepa. Has time on his side but in his short Chelsea career he has refused to be substituted under one manager and dropped for Willy under the other.

Joelinton. Just bad.

 

[pacifictheme]

Van nistelrooy to real Madrid? One good season then just faded away.

 

[pacifictheme]

Di Maria signing for United

Especially annoying because it's not like he was past it, he was in his prime. Horrible transfer in the end, despite his ability and some amazing moments early on. At least we got a good price for him

That was our fault, he obviously never wanted to come but knew he had to leave real.

 

[Untd55]

Futureposting João Félix Benfica - Atletico Madrid : £113 million. 4 goals in 20 games in Primiera Division thus far.

He's only 20, but compared to Haaland and Mbappe, well.. with a £113 million investment, you expect a return immediately, not as a developing prospect. 4 goals for that price tag is a colossal failure so far. .- He CAN become good, but right now this is a very bad signing.

Felix and Dembele are arguably the worst transfers in history, judging by their current contributions. I had never even heard of either of them before they signed for their new clubs for ridiculous money.

The question is are they actually big players? It seems more like a big price for nobodies.

 

[SilentWitness]

Futureposting João Félix Benfica - Atletico Madrid : £113 million. 4 goals in 20 games in Primiera Division thus far.

He's only 20, but compared to Haaland and Mbappe, well.. with a £113 million investment, you expect a return immediately, not as a developing prospect. 4 goals for that price tag is a colossal failure so far. .- He CAN become good, but right now this is a very bad signing.

Everytime i see his name it annoys me that he won the Goldenboy over Sancho.

 

[Brophs]

Wayne Bridge into the house down the road from John Terry.

 

[kundalini]

Ian Rush from Liverpool to Juventus for a British transfer record of £3.2m. Spent one season in Serie A, scoring 7 goals, then back to Liverpool.

 

[thepolice123]

Rebrov to Spurs. £11m was a lot in those days and he was a record buy for them.
The Dutch quintet of Van der Vaart, Robben, Sneijder, Drenthe and Huntelaar. Madrid signed them all in the same summer and while all of them had some great moments it never really worked out. In Drenthe's case - calamitous.

Ian Rush went to Juventus, toured the stadium and returned. Robbie Keane spent half a season at Liverpool and transferred back to Spurs.

Barca are a magnet for this sort of thing. Arda Turan and Hleb come to mind. Quaresma to Inter

Gianluigi Lentini - he was once the world's most expensive player in the 90s. He was in a car crash and suffered from memory loss and periods of blurred vision and it never really happened for him. Has a hatful of medals from his days at Milan but it never really happened for him.

Can I add Limpar to this list?

Drenthe and Van Der Vaart were hardly big moves. Drenthe went for 11m pounds and Van Der Vaart 13m. By constrast, Robinho went to City for 32m the following season.

 

[Tom Cato]

Wayne Bridge into the house down the road from John Terry.

Virgil Van Dijk got kicked out of his home by OGS. Well not litterally, he was renting it Ole and his family have since moved in.

 

[Redcy]

Mangala to City?

 

[thepolice123]

Van nistelrooy to real Madrid? One good season then just faded away.

He was already 30 when he signed for Real and he cost them 12m (?). Real knew exactly what they got him for and he was instrumental in both their title winning seasons. If he is a flop then RVP certainly is one as well.

 

[Redcy]

Rebrov to Spurs. £11m was a lot in those days and he was a record buy for them.
The Dutch quintet of Van der Vaart, Robben, Sneijder, Drenthe and Huntelaar. Madrid signed them all in the same summer and while all of them had some great moments it never really worked out. In Drenthe's case - calamitous.

Ian Rush went to Juventus, toured the stadium and returned. Robbie Keane spent half a season at Liverpool and transferred back to Spurs.

Barca are a magnet for this sort of thing. Arda Turan and Hleb come to mind. Quaresma to Inter

Gianluigi Lentini - he was once the world's most expensive player in the 90s. He was in a car crash and suffered from memory loss and periods of blurred vision and it never really happened for him. Has a hatful of medals from his days at Milan but it never really happened for him.

Can I add Limpar to this list?

I remember Lentini being the most expensive player on Sensible World of Soccer at £19m
Interesting that in the 5-3 ACM - Lazio game the scorers were Van Basten , Gullit, Fuser, Signori, Papin, Simone, Winter some big names from football italia

 

[Gopher Brown]

I wonder how much of this comes down to the manager/team chemistry? All of the above are very good players. It doubt it's just a case of all of them suddenly dropping in quality.

Or how much it comes down to Messi wanting, justifiably, to be the main man in any team?

 

[Charlie Foley]

The Dutch quintet of Van der Vaart, Robben, Sneijder, Drenthe and Huntelaar. Madrid signed them all in the same summer and while all of them had some great moments it never really worked out. In Drenthe's case - calamitous.

Drenthe, Robben, and Sneijder signed in August 2007. Van der Vaart signed in August 2008. Huntelaar wasn’t until January 2009.

 

[GledTheRed]

Barca were seen coming for Greizmann, he's 29!

 

[Mr Smith]

Every striker Chelsea have signed post Drogba. Even Costa, who was brilliant, ended badly.

 

[Redcy]

Denilson for 21m in 2001, got relegated two years later

 

[Redcy]

How could we forget Morata, the player everyone at the CAF wanted ahead of Lukaku, and somehow Lukaku turned out the better buy....

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

Barcelona have signed an awful lot of duds in the past 3 years.
The 'big players' only: (Transfermarkt fees so give or take a bit)

Antoine Griezmann - £108m
Philippe Coutinho - £130m
Ousmane Dembele - £112m

That's about £350m in the past 3 years with very little to show for it. Mental.

Have Barcelona made any successful signings since the summer of 2014? An honest question, as I'm not sure.

 

[pacifictheme]

He was already 30 when he signed for Real and he cost them 12m (?). Real knew exactly what they got him for and he was instrumental in both their title winning seasons. If he is a flop then RVP certainly is one as well.

I honestly couldn't remember.