Our Most Expensive Flops of the Golden Premiership era

[BillyFOX12]

18 hours ago, Stadt said:

The opportunity cost of signing Perez was insane. If we’d signed.a proper winger we wouldn’t be in this position now. 

We could have signed a prime Messi and still be where we are today - give Danny Ward 26 games for any club and he’ll turn them into relegation fodder. 

[Guest]

Just now, BillyFOX12 said:

We could have signed a prime Messi and still be where we are today - give Danny Ward 26 games for any club and he’ll turn them into relegation fodder. 

I guess the point is more that with a better/more productive and consistent right winger then one or both of the top 4 collapses quite possibly don't happen, and then a situation whereby Danny Ward is our no.1 goalkeeper is avoided altogether

[The Doctor]

21 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

Better create a separate column for screamers then.. 

 

Southampton away, great example of creating lots of chances and not taking one of them. A striker at a big club scores a hat trick that game.

yea, but the Southampton game has been few and far between. we do not create a good amount of chances, hell Daka has slightly outperformed his xG, based on the chances he's gotten the average striker scores 3, he's got 4. he's average to just above average as a finisher, so if he's not scoring enough then take a look at the players behind him and the chance creation 

[SK3Blue]

Slimani, always looked like he was trying to run through mud in doc martens. 

[nwl fox]

On 05/04/2023 at 09:19, Harpenden Fox said:

Bertrand (free)

I can't be bothered to read through to see if someone's already said this, but I mean how bad do you have to be to come in on a free and still make the starting XI of the most expensive flops list!!

💯 Deserves to be in there though 😂

[Ian Nacho]

Harsh to have Amartey in there. Not set the world alight by any means but for £5m I don’t think we should have expected much more. Been a good servant to the club over the years. 

[FoxTimmy2]

On 05/04/2023 at 10:19, Harpenden Fox said:

So to pass the time on the drive back south last night (no road closures on the M1 felt like a genuine positive to take from the trip). We composed a list of the most expensive possible dross XI since we rejoined the Premier League in 2014. I reckon I can get up to about £176 million for my starting XI, but I need some expensive flops at full back, as my current selections are Bertrand, who was free, and Big Dan, which is perhaps a little harsh on big Dan. Who am I missing? I'd opted for Hernandez, but he was another free. And I think Bennett gets an honorary position on the bench for being our only signing when in pursuit of a Champions League place

 

So here you go, here's your rogues gallery, with estimated cost in brackets

 

 

Ward   (12)

 

Amartey (5)

Vestergaard (18)

Benkovic (12)

Bertrand (free)

 

Soumare (22)

Silva. (22)

Ghezzal (10)

 

Perez (30)

Slimani (29)

Musa (16)

 

 

Bench

 

Praet (18)

Inler (5)

Bennett (odd)

The signing of Vestergaard in relation to his signing fee and salary is arguably one of our worst signings. Spending £12.5M on Ward as a back-up, despite only having 2-3 Premier League starts in 7 years, was a costly decision. When considering his performance this season, he is a strong contender for the title of worst signing ever in the club's history.

[Benguin]

Kramaric was the most disappointing from an expectation be reality perspective. 
 

Slimani or Silva though based on transfer fee vs performances. 
 

Vardy, Kante and Mahrez obviously the top 3 for the reverse question. 

Edited 6 April 2023 by Benguin

[fuchsntf]

3 hours ago, Fox92 said:

Better create a separate column for screamers then.. 

 

Southampton away, great example of creating lots of chances and not taking one of them. A striker at a big club scores a hat trick that game.

Look at our  season driving for top 5…he scored Not many,but a few decent goals..

how things get easily forgotten..

[volpeazzurro]

On 05/04/2023 at 14:48, Sampson said:

As a goal poacher who offers nothing else and scored a bunch of goals in an extremely poor European league? Think we’ve already seen he could do that when he scored 4 against a bottom half Russian side tbf. Premier League defenders must love marking him though.

Yes, his team-mate Haaland playing with him in that same poor league turned out crap as well. I don't know why we do it to ourselves, buying players from poor leagues, Vardy, Kante and Marhez, who'd have em eh!

[Sampson]

5 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

Yes, his team-mate Haaland playing with him in that same poor league turned out crap as well. I don't know why we do it to ourselves, buying players from poor leagues, Vardy, Kante and Marhez, who'd have em eh!

Ermm… strange argument. No one is saying there aren’t exceptions, but my post was a reaction to a post who said he is a good player because he scored goals in a poor league and just being used wrong. It’s bizarre logic to operate from the position that scoring goals in a poor league means you’re good enough for the PL. 

 

Almost every golden boot winner in the Austrian league gets bought by a side from the big 4 European leagues and every single one bar Haaland has been a massive failiure. A couple have even dropped down to Serie B or La Liga 2 and still failed to score at that level. Haaland is very much the exception to the rule and the idea that because Daka scored a bunch of goals in Austria, he is a Premier League quality player just being misused is extremely bizarre logic which takes several jumps of faith. 
 

Same with Vardy, or Mahrez. The idea that if we sign a player from the Conference or Ligue 2, they’re PL quality because Vardy and Mahrez were is weird. For every Vardy, there’s about 2,000 other quality players at Conference level who are never going to be good players in the PL.

 

Kante had just been the best ball-winning midfielder in Ligue 1 and statistically the best ball-winning midfield in all top 5 European leagues the season before we signed him, so it’s strange to include him in your argument. That’s a much much higher quality league than the Austrian league or the Conference.

Edited 7 April 2023 by Sampson

[volpeazzurro]

22 minutes ago, Sampson said:

Ermm… strange argument. No one is saying there aren’t exceptions, but my post was a reaction to a post who said he is a good player because he scored goals in a poor league and just being used wrong. It’s bizarre logic to operate from the position that scoring goals in a poor league means you’re good enough for the PL. 

 

Almost every golden boot winner in the Austrian league gets bought by a side from the big 4 European leagues and every single one bar Haaland has been a massive failiure. A couple have even dropped down to Serie B or La Liga 2 and still failed to score at that level. Haaland is very much the exception to the rule and the idea that because Daka scored a bunch of goals in Austria, he is a Premier League quality player just being misused is extremely bizarre logic which takes several jumps of faith. 
 

Same with Vardy, or Mahrez. The idea that if we sign a player from the Conference or Ligue 2, they’re PL quality because Vardy and Mahrez were is weird. For every Vardy, there’s about 2,000 other quality players at Conference level who are never going to be good players in the PL.

 

Kante had just been the best ball-winning midfielder in Ligue 1 and statistically the best ball-winning midfield in all top 5 European leagues the season before we signed him, so it’s strange to include him in your argument. That’s a much much higher quality league than the Austrian league or the Conference.

We weren't the only club interested in Daka by all accounts and Liverpool too were supposedly very interested andina front 3 there could well have kicked on well.

 

When he first arrived with us, his initial goals in European competition, for me, showed a great element of skill and coolness in how they were actually taken. 

 

My point is that the reason, imo, for his misfiring lack of progress has been largely due to how Rodgers has tried to employ him. At Salzburg he was played in a 2 or a 3 whereas Rodgers has played him typically tried to use him as a lone striker. Likewise Vardy can't operate effectively in the tippy tappy slow build up play because he's no space to run into, rarely gets the ball and is essentially nullified. Iheanacho, when he rarely plays needs to be in a 2 also. Daka is just one of three strikers that are not being played to their strengths that's all. It's not the only area on the pitch where round pegs have been put into square holes. A half decent manager could quite easily rectify this.