Big moves for big players. It doesn't say big money.
He went back to China.
Arthur, De Jong, Umtitti, Lenglet sure have to be seen as good signings, I would go as critical as all signings have been failures.
I get the feeling that Messi has little patience with those who go off message and try too much individual play. In hindsight Barca was a bad move for Dembele stylistically. I think he is a great talent, dynamic, two footed, capable of great imagination and creativity. He is erratic though, wastes a lot of ball trying outrageous things, hard to get away with that at Barca where give the ball to Messi is nearly always the correct choice.
Lovely player. His goal against Atlético Madrid is one of my favourite demonstrations of individual brilliance
Guangzhou offered 42 million for a 30 year old and we couldn't refuse that offer.
Youse are all idiots
Yes, but that is not what was in the game.
I don't know what is your definition of a big move and a big player. But if we follow the OP of using Griezmann to Barcelona as an example, then Van der Vaart and Drenthe don't exactly tally.
That's a good ones.
Watched Dembele at Dortmund and he reminded me so much of Sterling at Liverpool and in his first 18 months at Man. City. Capable matchwinner but also equally as likely to fall over his own feet when through on goal.
Oh ok, that makes sense.
Kepa was never a big player, dont think most people had even heard of him until we signed him.
He was very highly rated and a lot of the big clubs were interested in him.
If you tuned in to the CL in them seasons then yes most people would know who they are.
Shearer could have left Newcastle if he felt that way - he had won the PL, and evidently playing for his hometown club was more important to him that guaranteed trophies, that’s commendable and he’s an absolute Newcastle legend as a result, and one of their best ever players. In no way was his move there a failure.
He wasn't really past it. His technique and footballing brain remained perfect. He just had lost speed.
And his body shape changed every time he came back from an injury
Meh, I already prefaced my post with all that Local Hero stuff. What you said there doesn’t change anything - no way did he think Newcastle were gonna be so mediocre over his time there when he joined. In terms of a great player making full use of his abilities, then of course he failed to turn his goals into trophies, so yes, his move to Newcastle was not a great one for him in at least one major sense.
I agree, Newcastle was a feckin terrible decision for him to make.
This is what I think, I think he could come to Newcastle bang in 0.6-0.7 goals per game and turn them into champions. It really is boys comic stuff. Unfortunately it never materialised for him, and once he was there he could not leave. I can't say I blame him, if I had his ability right now, and United came in for me I would join them, even if I am not sure we can win CL. Was it a bad move? Only in hindsight really.
To be fair, Newcastle had just finished runners-up in the PL and had broken the world transfer record to sign him so at the time he could have been excused for thinking they were the next big thing. It was really Keegan's penchant for quitting unexpectedly, a trait he repeated elsewhere, that cost them most as it was the first indication that decades of instability were around the corner.
Crouch really??
He was 30 and essentially done. He was almost 100kg in his final seasons at Real and found it hard to shed the weight due to a combination of mental and physical issues. When Capello came, he got duly dropped for Ruud. His transfer to Milan wasn't exactly a big thing back then, he went for a meagre sum of 8m and people definitely wasn't expecting him to light up the Serie A again.
