There is no way Sancho is a worse signing than Antony. And we'll be able to recoup more from Sancho than Antony if we sell both. Also, there's a chance a new manager might get a tune out of Sancho as he's proven he has the basic skills, if perhaps not the mindset to be a consistent player. Antony just does not have the skills to be a top player.
Your 5 worst signings in Premier League history?
- Thread starter Fortitude
- Start date
Alexis Sanchez was the biggest flop ever even on a free transfer. His expectations were through the roof and it was almost inconceivable he was that bad.
Casemiro we saw this coming. It’s the club been idiots they did the deal.
Antony might be second as he’s just not even a good footballer.
Pogba I don’t put anywhere near the worst signings as the guy put in numbers and despite some poor showings did star in our brightest moments post Fergie like the Europa league final and Ole’s string of wins.
He was maybe the right player for the wrong United side before his injuries. Those sadly wrecked one of the best talents we’ll ever have at the club.
Casemiro we saw this coming. It’s the club been idiots they did the deal.
Antony might be second as he’s just not even a good footballer.
Pogba I don’t put anywhere near the worst signings as the guy put in numbers and despite some poor showings did star in our brightest moments post Fergie like the Europa league final and Ole’s string of wins.
He was maybe the right player for the wrong United side before his injuries. Those sadly wrecked one of the best talents we’ll ever have at the club.
All of which are pretty inaccurateThis thread should've been non-United transfer only, otherwise we keep coming back with similar posts over and over
Pogba to Utd.
Pogba to Juventus.
Pogba to Juventus.
Given money spent and return 3 or 4 stand out for United - all from the banter years
Antony - seems a twat as well as contributing very little for our 80m investment
Van De Beek - only 35m or so but absolutely nothing from him since his debut goal. A shadow of a footballer - nothing on loan either so will leave for free
Sanchez - just such a disappointment- thought he was the answer on the right as he had played there for Barca and Arsenal - decided he didnt want to play there disrupting the promising rotation we had between Martial and Rashford. Crazy wages
Casemiro hasnt been a success but our tactics have killed the guy this year and completely exposed him so i wouldn't mention him at all on this list. Mount a disaster so far but not his fault and he csn still be effective
the others to mind....
Winston Bogarde at Chelsea, superb CL winner for Ajax, refused to settle in London, barely played, used to fly over for training - was on huge wages
Torres to Chelsea/Carroll for Liverpool....
2 deals that were for huge money at the time and flopped badly
Aquilani - Alonso's replacement, bought him cheap as injured, ended up constantly injured
Mendy at City - super on that excellent Monaco side, barely played, legal problems, big fee
Mangala and Jo both shite too
Kalvin Phillips needs a mention in here
Bebe cost very little so wouldn't include him
Shevchenko big money, massive expectation and awful
Antony - seems a twat as well as contributing very little for our 80m investment
Van De Beek - only 35m or so but absolutely nothing from him since his debut goal. A shadow of a footballer - nothing on loan either so will leave for free
Sanchez - just such a disappointment- thought he was the answer on the right as he had played there for Barca and Arsenal - decided he didnt want to play there disrupting the promising rotation we had between Martial and Rashford. Crazy wages
Casemiro hasnt been a success but our tactics have killed the guy this year and completely exposed him so i wouldn't mention him at all on this list. Mount a disaster so far but not his fault and he csn still be effective
the others to mind....
Winston Bogarde at Chelsea, superb CL winner for Ajax, refused to settle in London, barely played, used to fly over for training - was on huge wages
Torres to Chelsea/Carroll for Liverpool....
2 deals that were for huge money at the time and flopped badly
Aquilani - Alonso's replacement, bought him cheap as injured, ended up constantly injured
Mendy at City - super on that excellent Monaco side, barely played, legal problems, big fee
Mangala and Jo both shite too
Kalvin Phillips needs a mention in here
Bebe cost very little so wouldn't include him
Shevchenko big money, massive expectation and awful
Nobody is arguing this, where is this coming from? Just that Sancho is up there as a bad signing.
Yup. Now it’s actually quite cheap.
Winston Bogarde?
Antony, Lukaku, Kepa, Carroll, Maguire, Pepe, Mangala, Fofana,
5 from these players.
5 from these players.
Pogba to Utd ? ….instrumental in 2 trophies and highest points finish since SAF
You could argubely just look at Man united players since Fergie retired. Sancho, Anthony, De Maria, Casemiro, Mount, Martial, Onana, Maguire.
I//Lukaku(Chelsea), Sancho, Anthony, Fofana, Pepe, Kepa, Cucurallea, Murdyk, Ndombele, Andy Caroll would be mine based on cost.
There was plenty of other flops as well but ones I picked are due to cost.
I//Lukaku(Chelsea), Sancho, Anthony, Fofana, Pepe, Kepa, Cucurallea, Murdyk, Ndombele, Andy Caroll would be mine based on cost.
There was plenty of other flops as well but ones I picked are due to cost.
Ricky Van Wolfswinkel transfer to Norwich in 13/14. Ricky scored on his Premier League debut, and never scored again. Norwich finished the season with just 28 goals, and got relegated. As you can imagine, relegation is a huge financial impact, and it meant Norwich had to cut their losses by selling their two best players in Robert Snodgrass and Leroy Fer.
John Hartson - The acquisition of John Hartson to Wimbledon, made him a club record signing at £7.5 million. Scored two goals in his first premier league Season. And in his second season, he fared better on the goal scoring front, but much to the dismay of Wimbledon, missed out on pretty much the whole second half of the season, was something like December till May he was out.
This was especially unfortunate as it meant he was unavailable to play in their shock defeat in the Fa Cup to Fulham who although decent in 2024, but at the time of 1999/2000 it was the case that Fulham were playing in the first division, so could have been a real opportunity for Wimbledon to cash in on the financial opportunities, such as the prize money for each round, especially given that the very Fulham that knocked out Wimbledon, went out to Tranmere Rovers who were also languishing in the First Division. I don't say that to knock Fulham or Tranmere, its just that expenses can quickly add up and need to be covered by revenue streams such as ticket sales, increased gate receipts, broadcasting rights (matches in the latter stages are often televised and just imagine if it was a home game which presents opportunities for merchandise to be sold etc) , sponsorships, and prize money from competitions like the FA Cup.
Unfortunately, with his injury woes it was difficult to move him on, meaning John Hartson had to leave on a free transfer. And remember how I mentioned he was out for the majority of the second half of his second season, well there were significant implications in the league. As I mentioned earlier, he fared better on the goal scoring front in his second season as Wimbledon had a decent start to the campaign in 99/00 with some crucial draws. It was his absence for the second half of the season which contributed heavily to Wimbledon's results falling off a cliff, and they ended up being relegated. To put that into perspective, since the Premier League was formed in 1992, they hadn't been relegated once. And Wimbledon never recovered, they were dissolved in 2004.
José Bosingwa - QPR - Bosingwa joined QPR in 12/13 on a three year contract. And he was horrendous, to the extent he was their worst player in 12/13. To make matters worse, it wasn't just on the pitch he caused issues, at one point he refused to be on the bench. Needless to say, QPR were relegated and ended the players contract after a nightmare debut season, and took their losses on the two years left on his contract. Disastrous.
Fun fact, this reminds me of a special case. Well fun for me at least. If this isn't palatable to what you expected from creating the thread @Fortitude then by all means let me know. Naturally in a thread title predicated on worst signings in Premier League history, I normally wouldn't mention this signing, but I feel given the mitigating circumstances it at the very least contributes to the conversation. Basically Jean-Kévin Augustin's stint at Leeds United in January 2020 is a prime example. It's worth noting that Leeds were in the Championship at the time. Leeds had the option to sign him permanently for a hefty £17.7 million, but things didn't quite go as planned.
Augustin's time at Leeds was plagued by injuries and rumors of him not following the coach's orders. What makes this story stand out is that Leeds actually secured promotion to the Premier League that season, and its been reported that there was a clause in the contract that made Leeds obligated to complete a permanent transfer as a result of a promotion clause.
So this should've been a signing for Leeds in the Premier League. However, Leeds used the unique situation of the Corona Virus to insist the clause should be voided, and obviously RB Leipzig were having none of it. So Leeds made their appeal, and lost. They actually made a second appeal which was withdrawn in 2024 from the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Speaking of bang for buck, this is a player that had just 48 minutes in the Championship and zero minutes in the Premier League. And this would be quite the financial setback.
Apologies, I thought in your original post you said Sancho was our worst signing.
Utd:
Antony
DVB
Mount
Sanchez
Di Maria
Non-Utd:
Pepe
Schevchenko
Lukaku (to Chelsea)
Mendy
Drinkwater
Antony
DVB
Mount
Sanchez
Di Maria
Non-Utd:
Pepe
Schevchenko
Lukaku (to Chelsea)
Mendy
Drinkwater
I thought he was good at City.
Not something to be overly pleased with, but it is enough to warrant not being in the top 5 flops of all time. Fair enough it you think he was a flop who didn't meet expectations, but he still contributed more than the likes of Carroll at Liverpool and Lukaku at Chelsea.
Also I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy that night in Stockholm - so yes, I was relatively pleased with his contribution there.
I don't think Pogba to United gets in top 5.
Antony to United
Lukaku to Chelsea
Pepe to Arsenal
Carroll to Liverpool
Kepa to Chelsea
Then there's Sancho, Ndombele, Alexis and few others I can't remember. Keita to Liverpool also never worked out and they spent big money on him. Fofana has been injured most of his Chelsea career so maybe shouldn't write him off yet?
Antony to United
Lukaku to Chelsea
Pepe to Arsenal
Carroll to Liverpool
Kepa to Chelsea
Then there's Sancho, Ndombele, Alexis and few others I can't remember. Keita to Liverpool also never worked out and they spent big money on him. Fofana has been injured most of his Chelsea career so maybe shouldn't write him off yet?
Issue was for his price tag (after letting him go years prior anyway so already wasted money), plus his wages and all the bullshit drama, you'd need to win the treble every year he was here to make his transfer worth it.
Bebe, but not for the price tag but the sheer shadiness and the ridiculous nature of the transfer.
Almost identical to mine, although I'd swap Shevchenko for Kepa just because of how high the expectations were when he joined and how he seemingly messed up Chelsea's frontline.
That's fair. it was like playing with 10 men a lot of the time with Sheva and expectations were so high.
Kepa for a long time though was the worst goalie I've ever seen play for Chelsea (by some distance).
He was free but I’m still adding Joe Cole to Liverpool for Gerrards comments about him being as good as Messi
Sancho had to be given a few months off mid season to get his head right, showed next to zero desire in his whole time here and then shipped off.
Antony has been poor but not worse than Sancho.
It's still to he seen how much we'll get for him. You're dreaming if you think we'll get more than half of what we paid.
Top 2 in the all time sketchy United transfers.
Probably alongside Stam.
What was sketchy about Stam?
Despite all the points you mention Sancho has more G/A than Antony for us. That in itself should tell you what a car crash Antony has been.
Plus at least Sancho has shown he has the basic skill set to be a top footballer. That will make him far more attractive to suitors than Antony who's shown he just doesn't have any skills besides being able to spin around with the ball in circles.
The way we sold an absolute world class defender to then saddle ourselves with a desperation signing in 35 year old Blanc.
Then Stam failed a drugs test not a huge time after.
Ahhh. That rings a bell. Thanks.
No worries mate, let's watch our team get a pasting now...
Voronin
Sanchez
Shevchenko
Marcelino
Carroll
Sanchez
Shevchenko
Marcelino
Carroll
kalvin Phillips
Most people missed out Martial which was actually quite expensive and bad. Btw I stop watching the Arse match, just pointless, need the season to end soon.
Do you measure a bad transfer by the effect on the buying team, or the quality of the thinking behind it?
Eg Mutu or Sigurdsson were logical transfers while Carroll made no sense at all.
Eg Mutu or Sigurdsson were logical transfers while Carroll made no sense at all.
Agreed, jury is still out on it being a good signing, probably will be seen as a bad signing the way it's going, but it's like a 4 or 5 out of 10 signing among 1 out of 10s. I don't think United get Champions League last season for a start without Casemiro, for example. There was no sign they were going to at one point. That alone recuperated a lot of the money of the transfer fee. If you compare that to the likes of Antony who have been utter shite for the whole time they're here, or van de Beek who was bought to never play, it's a different ball game.
Nah Martial had 3 good seasons and won Man United player of the season one time, shouldn't be mentioned in this thread.
For world football:
Hazard to Madrid
Coutinho to Barcelona
Lukaku to Chelsea
Dembele to Barcelona
Griezmann to Barcelona
Hey, did you know Barcelona have been selling their underwear to stay solvent?
Hazard to Madrid
Coutinho to Barcelona
Lukaku to Chelsea
Dembele to Barcelona
Griezmann to Barcelona
Hey, did you know Barcelona have been selling their underwear to stay solvent?
Flop best 11:
Kepa
Cucurella---Maguire--Mangala---Mendy
Di Maria----Drinkwater
Antony----Sanchez----Pepe
Lukaku
Bench: Barthez, Fofana, Drinkwater, Shevchenko, Veron, Carrol
Kepa
Cucurella---Maguire--Mangala---Mendy
Di Maria----Drinkwater
Antony----Sanchez----Pepe
Lukaku
Bench: Barthez, Fofana, Drinkwater, Shevchenko, Veron, Carrol
City bought him from cska. He did well for a couple of seasons there, without looking anything too special; about on par with someone like Pavlyuchenko at the time, and better than teammate Olic, who went on to a quite good bundesliga career. The highlights being two good performances and great goals against Inter in the CL. I think he was only about 20 when City bought him, so i'd guess the thinking was as a prospect rather than someone meant to make a big impact from the start.
After cska he flopped everywhere he went in europe, but did play better after going back to Brazil. He was the top scorer when Atletico Mineiro won their first libertadores, playing alongside an aging Ronaldinho. He even got into the mix for a place in the national team at that point, though that says more about the decline of Brazilian forwards than anything else.
If the idea is WORST transfer, it should be sthg like what is happening nowadays with Antony and what ended happening with Hazard in Madrid:
. The coaches wanted them
. A big fee was paid
. The player didn't have great perfomances, nor numbers
. Sometimes, some players add to that combo to not even be fit most of the time adding salt to the "injury"
Other cases the player almost didn't played because of injuries, this shyte happens too from time to time.
Then there are transfers that we might think of them as worst due to expectations being high and the delivery not being on pair with those. But are far from being as bad as the mentioned first
Those can be a mixed bag, examples:
Di Maria wasn't precisly bad in terms of numbers and many perfomances, but he didn't get along at all with Van Gaal, his missus coukdn't kept her mouth shout and he left in a blizzard after being one of the biggest sums ever paid at the moment. Knowing what he can do and what he did before and after United, makes it feel even worse, but worst? just the money involved and how fast he left. I dunno who thought Louis and him was a good mix.
Pogba had great moments, some very good numbers, but lack consistency (it was kind of his trademark too) and some off field issues too. Yet to think of it as one of the worst? kind of an stretch with some of the really worst ones
So all in all to be the worst among so many transfers during so many years, should be really really really bad
. The coaches wanted them
. A big fee was paid
. The player didn't have great perfomances, nor numbers
. Sometimes, some players add to that combo to not even be fit most of the time adding salt to the "injury"
Other cases the player almost didn't played because of injuries, this shyte happens too from time to time.
Then there are transfers that we might think of them as worst due to expectations being high and the delivery not being on pair with those. But are far from being as bad as the mentioned first
Those can be a mixed bag, examples:
Di Maria wasn't precisly bad in terms of numbers and many perfomances, but he didn't get along at all with Van Gaal, his missus coukdn't kept her mouth shout and he left in a blizzard after being one of the biggest sums ever paid at the moment. Knowing what he can do and what he did before and after United, makes it feel even worse, but worst? just the money involved and how fast he left. I dunno who thought Louis and him was a good mix.
Pogba had great moments, some very good numbers, but lack consistency (it was kind of his trademark too) and some off field issues too. Yet to think of it as one of the worst? kind of an stretch with some of the really worst ones
So all in all to be the worst among so many transfers during so many years, should be really really really bad
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If you go back Chris Sutton signed for Chelsea for 5 million which was a decent amount and I think he only scored 1 goal for them which might have been against us and then left the following season.
I'm surprised not many people have mentioned Robinho
I'm surprised not many people have mentioned Robinho
Id really love to bump a thread where I got slaughtered for being against the Casemiro signing, but I won’t.