The Brown Bull
It's Coming Home.
Bit premature to call Rice a success?
Yeah I agree about De Jong. I will amend it at some point.Mbappe definitely worked out, Rice and Bellingham too soon to say but I expect those two and Kane will be with all three doing really well so far.
De Jong has been quality for Barcelona - main issue for them has been his wages and their financial issues.
I think trophies should be some measure of whether a high profile, high money transfer worked. Not the be all end all, but it should factor in.If a player has to win something to consider as success then in EPL may be only new players for man city can qualify.
Yea, the logic is genuinely all over the place.The list is just very bad. Really bad. I know it is a personal opinion but certain players objectively can only be seen as a succes.
I dont think winning is any way to decide if a player is a succes but why are Bellingham and Rice a succes but Kane isnt? Kane is also with his new club and doing fantastic but he isnt a succes?
You have to expect more, the more people were willing to give up of course. Veron would be considered and ok-signing and not be on any flop lists if Lazio let him go for a dollar I suspect. But he cost the same in 2001 as Arsenal paid for Odegaard in 2022, and that is why he has been on most flop lists over the years.I don't understand the correlation between the success of a transfer and the transfer fee. Put the definition of "success" aside, does it mean player with low transfer fee "often" success?
Excellent post.Every transfer poses a risk so I think spending so much money on transfer fees should be the absolute exception for every club out there. Clubs should focus on long term planning as in either signing very promising players when they are still flying under the radar, signing players with favorable contract situations and only playing high sums when a player is either too good to miss out on or you have a glaring hole in your squad.
Which means you need elite scouting, you need to prepare transfers in advance (sometimes multiple years) and you need a sustainable squad management that means that the last case (glaring holes in your squad) occur as rarely as possible. Thing is, it is all connected with each other. When you have a good scouting and can make many transfers with great value for money, you can allow to wait for players instead of having to sign them expensively. It will also make players want to join you and increase their willingness to wait for that chance, especially when you scout them early on and keep in touch throughout their careers.
Successes1 Neymar Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain £198million
2 Kylian Mbappé Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain £163 million
3 Philippe Coutinho Liverpool to Barcelona £135 million FAILED
4 Moisés Caicedo Brighton & Hove Albion to Chelsea £115 million
5 João Félix Benfica to Atlético Madrid £113 million FAILED
6 Enzo Fernández Benfica to Chelsea £107 million
7 Antoine Griezmann Atlético Madrid to Barcelona £107 million FAILED
8 Declan Rice West Ham United to Arsenal £105 million
9 Jack Grealish Aston Villa to Manchester City £100 million
10 Romelu Lukaku Inter Milan to Chelsea £97.5 million FAILED
11 Ousmane Dembélé Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona £97 million FAILED
12 Paul Pogba Juventus to Manchester United £89 million FAILED
13 Eden Hazard Chelsea to Real Madrid £89 million FAILED
14 Jude Bellingham Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid £88.5 million
15 Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid to Juventus £88 million
16 Harry Kane Tottenham Hotspur to Bayern Munich £86.5 million
17 Gareth Bale Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid £86 million
18 Antony Netherlands Ajax to Manchester United £83 million
19 Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United to Real Madrid £80 million
20 Harry Maguire Leicester City to Manchester United £80
21 Joško Gvardiol RB Leipzig to Manchester City £77 million
22 Neymar Paris Saint-Germain to Al Hilal £77 million WHO CARES
23 Gonzalo Higuaín Napoli to Juventus £75 million
24 Romelu Lukaku Everton to Manchester United £75 million FAILED
25 Virgil van Dijk Southampton to Liverpool £75 million
26 Jadon Sancho Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United £73 million FAILED
27 Kepa Arrizabalaga Athletic Bilbao to Chelsea £71.5 million FAILED
28 Kai Havertz Bayer Leverkusen to Chelsea £71 million
29 Luis Suárez Liverpool to Barcelona £70 million
30 Wesley Fofana Leicester City to Chelsea £70 million FAILED
31 Romelu Lukaku Manchester United to Inter Milan £70 million
32 Nicolas Pépé Lille to Arsenal £70 million FAILED
33 Aurélien Tchouaméni Monaco to Real Madrid £69.5 million
34 Lucas Hernandez Atlético Madrid toBayern Munich £68 million FAILED
35 Matthijs de Ligt Ajax to Juventus £67.5 million
36 Kai Havertz Chelsea to Arsenal £65 million
37 Victor Osimhen Lille to Napoli £65 million
38 Arthur Melo Barcelona to Juventus £65 million FAILED
39 Frenkie de Jong Ajax to Barcelona £65 million
40 Randal Kolo Muani Eintracht Frankfurt to Paris Saint-Germain £64 million
41 Rasmus Højlund Atalanta to Manchester United £64 million
42 Darwin Núñez Benfica to Liverpool £64 million
43 James Rodríguez Monaco to Real Madrid £63 million
44 Rodri Atlético Madrid to Manchester City £63 million
45 Thomas Lemar Monaco to Atletico Madrid £63 million FAILED
46 Alexander Isak Real Sociedad to Newcastle United £63 million
47 Alisson Becker Roma to Liverpool £62 million
48 Mykhailo Mudryk Shakhtar Donetsk to Chelsea £62million
49 Ángel Di María Real Madrid to Manchester United £60 million FAILED
50 Casemiro Real Madrid to Manchester United £60 million
Well, you would say that, as a Chelsea fan.Rice is too early to judge, same with Bellingham even after a decent 8 months.
Agree with the rest, big transfers almost never actually work.
Someone should have given this list to Clearlake...Well, you would say that, as a Chelsea fan.
Anything above £60 million makes it one of the biggest 50 transfers of all time!Anything bellow 80m is not big money these days
If there was unlimited subs in football, pretty sure everytime there was a right corner kick or right side free kick, James would get in to take them.Successes
Good, ultimately not worth the money/worth the money, not good enough/didn't live up to expectations
Still too early to tell
Antony = still early but looks like a guaranteed bust already
James = ultimately a failure but damn if he wasn't fantastic at first
Fixed
Yeah, agree with this revised criteria much more than the original list. It seems a bit much to label players straight up busts or successes 7 months after a transfer.Successes
Good, ultimately not worth the money/worth the money, not good enough/didn't live up to expectations
Still too early to tell
Antony = still early but looks like a guaranteed bust already
James = ultimately a failure but damn if he wasn't fantastic at first
Fixed
Yeah this is a better way of doing it.Successes
Good, ultimately not worth the money/worth the money, not good enough/didn't live up to expectations
Still too early to tell
Antony = still early but looks like a guaranteed bust already
James = ultimately a failure but damn if he wasn't fantastic at first
Fixed