Most terrible expensive buys xi

[Fortitude]

You're tasked with creating the worst value for money xi in football history.

The only rule is it's a proper formation xi, so not a gazillion forwards/attackers because they tend to cost the most; a 4-3-3/4-3-2-1/3-5-2 etc. with players in the correct positions shall trump a formation with 3 offensive midfielders across the midfield and 3 out-and-out strikers across the front 3 positions, for example.

If you're savvy enough to adjust for inflation, there are a number of gems to be had there, too!

Obviously, the bigger the flop the player was/is, the more he warrants his position in the team over someone who is just expensive, but overall is decent/good at his job ((a Lukaku or Maguire, for example).

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Kepa (70m)

Chygrynski (sic, Barca Ukrainian CB) (28m)
Stones (50m)
Mangala (42m)

Jesé (25m to PSG, pub player)
Drinkwater (35m)
Coutinho (140m)
Pepe (72m)

Torres (50m)
Benteke (32m)
Carroll (35m)

 

[Raees]

Coutinho Torres Pepe
Kaka
Pogba Verón
Drinkwater
Mendy Mangala Chygrynskiy
Kepa

​

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

GK - Kepa, Chelsea
Def - Mendy, City
Def - Mangala, City
Def - Woodgate, Madrid
Mid - Keita, Liverpool
Mid - Countinho, Barca
Mid - Drinkwater, Chelsea
RW - Dembele, Barca
LW - Sanchez, United
ST - Shevchenko, Chelsea
ST - Torres, Chelsea

of note.

Bogarde - Chelsea
Zlatan to Barcelona
Johnston to Leeds
Hazard to Madrid
chygrynskiy - Barca
Stones, City
Carroll, Liverpool
Veron, United then Chelsea
Pepe, Arsenal

* don’t trust Pep to buy defenders!

 

[JPRouve]

Torres
Hazard Coutinho Pepe
Verón Pogba
Drinkwater
Mendy Mangala De Ligt AWB
Kepa

Work in progress...​

Okay they are flops but it doesn't mean that they can be 12 on the field.

 

[flontiestacks]

Torres
Hazard Coutinho Pepe
Verón Pogba
Drinkwater
Mendy Mangala De Ligt AWB
Kepa

Work in progress...​

You should take a look at This. Juve supporters seem to disagree.

 

[Steve Bruce]

Veron must be in their somewhere. At the time it was a massive fee

 

[DannyCAFC]

A recent PL edition:

------------------------------Kepa--------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
Danilo-----D Sanchez----Mangala-----Mendy
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------Bakayoko------Xhaka----------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------Sigurdsson-----------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Pepe------------------Joelinton-------------Morata


Roughly £530m I make it for this starting XI - would they even make the top 6?

 

[Bale Bale Bale]

Denilson to Betis for £21.5m was a world record at the time. He scored 1 in his first season, 3 in his 2nd season and then they got relegated.

 

[CallyRed]

Aly Cissokho needs a mention too.
Alfonso Alves as well.

 

[giorno]

Torres
Hazard Coutinho Pepe
Verón Pogba
Drinkwater
Mendy Mangala De Ligt AWB
Kepa

Work in progress...​

Za???? De Ligt is great

 

[Raees]

Okay they are flops but it doesn't mean that they can be 12 on the field.

I said work in progress - still deciding at the moment, and @giorno is De Ligt doing well at Juve now?

 

[Sylar]

Trying to stick to Prem only and the first ones that came to my head
A.Sanchez is lucky he was part of a trade thus free

GK: Kepa (Che)
Def Mendy (MC)
Def Mangala (MC)
Def Stones (MC)
Mid: Keita (Liv)
Mid’ Drinkwater (Che)
Mid: Veron (MU)
Mid: Pepe (Ars)
Mid: DI Maria (MU)
ST: Torres (Che)
ST: Shevchenko (Che)

352

 

[Idxomer]

I said work in progress - still deciding at the moment, and @giorno is De Ligt doing well at Juve now?

Yes, one of their best players.

 

[giorno]

I said work in progress - still deciding at the moment, and @giorno is De Ligt doing well at Juve now?

He never wasn't doing well. Bit unlucky with the weird handball rules last year, is all

Beast of a defender

 

[anant]

Kepa

Danilo-Mustafi-Mangala-Mendy

Drinkwater- Bakayoko

Dembele-Coutinho-Hazard

Torres

 

[Raees]

Yes, one of their best players.

Good to hear and @giorno his talent was never in question - just thought he was struggling at Juve, haven’t kept tabs on them this season.

 

[Web of Bissaka]

343 Diamond

Hazard -- Griezmann -- Pepe
Coutinho
Pogba -- Veron
Drinkwater
Mendy -- Mangala -- Stones
Kepa​

 

[giorno]

Good to hear and @giorno his talent was never in question - just thought he was struggling at Juve, haven’t kept tabs on them this season.

Only thing he struggled with were the absurd handball rules honestly

 

[duffer]

Kepa
Rahman Boulahrouz Del Horno
Ambrosetti Drinkwater Veron Mutu
Shevchenko Sutton Torres

We are the kings of terrible expensive buys but I can 't think of too many defenders that were anywhere near the disasters of the other positions.

 

[Oly Francis]

No Jovic (65M €) yet??

Militao (50M) is also definitely in the mix.

 

[Moby]

Kepa
Rahman Boulahrouz Del Horno
Ambrosetti Drinkwater Veron Mutu
Shevchenko Sutton Torres

We are the kings of terrible expensive buys but I can 't think of too many defenders that were anywhere near the disasters of the other positions.

Hoping Havertz breaks into that one soon.

 

[harms]

Lentini* - Tevez - Kaká*
Coutinho
Mendieta - Denilson*
Mendy - Mangala - Chygrynskiy - Semedo
Kepa​

Subs: Lemar, Brinkwater, Mutu, Shevchenko, Torres, Verón

Some lesser known ones:

Gianluigi Lentini, £13m in 1992. He was signed for Milan for a world-record transfer at the time and got really, really unlucky. He started out quite well and got into a serious car accident a year after the transfer. He continued playing after that, but never got even close to fulfilling his initial potential.

Steve Daley, £1,45m in 1979. Man City signed him from Wolves, setting a new British transfer record (we would sign Bryan Robson for £1,5m 2 years later for comparison). Twenty months later he was sold to the all-mighty Seattle Sounders for £300,000.

Tevez's transfer to Shanghai Shenhua was reported (by The Guardian) to be £71.6m... with £615,000 per week salary.

* World record transfer

Man United's perspective: we've had some horrible deals, especially lately, but none that would instantly get into all-time XI.
Sanchez was a swap for a player with a short contract (otherwise a shoe-in)
We've god good money back for Di Maria and Verón, although the latter still makes the long list
Some deals, like Pogba & Maguire were overinflated, but probably not quite as drastic as they needed to be to get them into this. Also, they're still here so it's hard to make a final judgement yet — they can still miraculously improve (Maguire) or bring in big fee (Pogba); Shaw & AWB possibly... But none of them have been complete failures so far, only relative ones

 

[Gary_Walsh_Nou_Camp_Hell]

Kepa
Danilo Woodgate Mangala Mendy
Di Maria Pogba Coutinho
Shevchenko Carroll Torres

 

[HTG]

Renato Sanches, the most expensive 18 year old ever, surely deserves a shout.

 

[Murder on Zidane's Floor]

Kepa

Maguire
Mangala

Sanches
Bolasie
Coutinho

Torres
Griezmann
Havertz

Rest can be picked from other lists.

 

[paulscholes18]

Kepa
Sanchez Maguire Mangala
Drinkwater
Bakayoko Denilson
Pepe Coutinho Hazard
Torres

Over 700m

 

[Amar__]

Coutinho, Stones, Hazard should be in pretty much every lineup. Probably soon Griezmann too.

 

[Josep Dowling]

A recent PL edition:

------------------------------Kepa--------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
Danilo-----D Sanchez----Mangala-----Mendy
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------Bakayoko------Xhaka----------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------Sigurdsson-----------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Pepe------------------Joelinton-------------Morata


Roughly £530m I make it for this starting XI - would they even make the top 6?

Crikey that is criminal business by all the clubs involved.

 

[Maluco]

Kepa. €80m

Mendy. €57.5m
Stones. €55.6m
Mangala €45m
Mustafi. €41m
AWB. €55m

Melo €25m
Drinkwater €37.9m
Xhaka €45m

Benteke €31.2m
Carroll €41m

I tried to avoid players of genuine world class quality who just had bad transfers. I don’t want any real quality in my team (although obviously most had to show a hint of something at some stage/had good seasons previously)

We have a keeper who can’t save to start with. Then we add 3CB’s who are a mixture of terrible on the ball and extremely panicked under pressure.

We have a left back, who when he isn’t injured, can look lost as to what he should be doing and a right wing back who offers little going forward for his price (sorry AWB)

The midfield is a combo of Captain Xhaka, both slow and ponderous, a Brazilian hard man liability and a deep lying playmaker who was last seen kicking children in an u23 game.

The striking partnership offers little on the goal front and even less on the mobility front. In an alternate universe, I like to imagine the tandem still up front for a relegation threatened Liverpool side under Roy.

Total Price = €513, 2million

 

[Castia]

Mutu at Chelsea is a cert. 24m in 03 then within a year done for drugs and contract terminated

 

[mariachi-19]

How Dembele and Greizman aren't in any of these teams is beyond me. Barca could literally have purchased Daniel James and signed Cavani on a free and got more out of them than those 2.

 

[charlenefan]

Kepa. €80m

Mendy. €57.5m
Stones. €55.6m
Mangala €45m
Mustafi. €41m
AWB. €55m

Melo €25m
Drinkwater €37.9m
Xhaka €45m

Benteke €31.2m
Carroll €41m

I tried to avoid players of genuine world class quality who just had bad transfers. I don’t want any real quality in my team (although obviously most had to show a hint of something at some stage/had good seasons previously)

We have a keeper who can’t save to start with. Then we add 3CB’s who are a mixture of terrible on the ball and extremely panicked under pressure.

We have a left back, who when he isn’t injured, can look lost as to what he should be doing and a right wing back who offers little going forward for his price (sorry AWB)

The midfield is a combo of Captain Xhaka, both slow and ponderous, a Brazilian hard man liability and a deep lying playmaker who was last seen kicking children in an u23 game.

The striking partnership offers little on the goal front and even less on the mobility front. In an alternate universe, I like to imagine the tandem still up front for a relegation threatened Liverpool side under Roy.

Total Price = €513, 2million

Utterly ridiculous to put AWB in there

 

[Maluco]

Utterly ridiculous to put AWB in there

It’s harsh, but couldn’t really think of a right back and his price tag is insane. As wingback, he might not offer what was needed going forward.

Don’t take it so seriously. It’s not as ridiculous as you suggest at over 50 million.

 

[AltiUn]

There's no way Wan-Bissaka belongs in one of those 11s. He was one of our best players last season, limited as he is.

 

[charlenefan]

It’s harsh, but couldn’t really think of a right back and his price tag is insane. As wingback, he might not offer what was needed going forward.

Don’t take it so seriously. It’s not as ridiculous as you suggest at over 50 million.

Cancelo cost more than AWB didn't he?

 

[Maluco]

Cancelo cost more than AWB didn't he?

He did yeah, but there was some sort of Danilo swap if I remember correctly!

A real struggle to think of big money RB signings that haven’t worked out.

 

[Morty_]

He wasn`t, but he didnt fit in once Messi got the central role, so i feel Zlatan is a decent shout.

Eto + 50 mill(i think it was) for Zlatan was absolutely mental.

 

[Murder on Zidane's Floor]

Hazard

Basically any Man City defender; Danilo? Mangala, Stones, Mendy.

Bakayoko

Morata

Pepe

 

[Machine Elements]

-------------------Carroll----------------Benteke------------------

Coutinho-------Drinkwater------Paulinho*----Dembele

Mendy------------Mangala------------Maguire--------AWB

------------------------------------Kepa----------------------------------


*Paulinho to both Barca & China