The Premier League is one of the biggest and best leagues in world football.
Countless top talents have plied their trade in the English top flight over the years. One of the reasons for this is the financial power of the division.
Last summer, the current 20 Premier League clubs are estimated to have spent over £1.1billion on transfers. By comparison, Serie A was the second highest spending league with gross spending of £475m, less than half of the PL.
But with such financial muscle, serious financial mistakes are inevitable. With that in mind, 101 took a look at the 10 most expensive flops in Premier League history.
10) Alexis Sanchez (Manchester United) – 30,6 millions de livres sterling
Alexis Sanchez will sign for Manchester United in January 2018 after a very successful spell at Arsenal.
The Chilean cost the Red Devils around £30.6million, although it was actually a swap deal for Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Sanchez has managed just three goals and six assists in his 32 league appearances for Manchester United, contributing £2.35m per goal.
The South American would then go on loan to Inter Milan for 2019/20, before later completing a free transfer to the Italian powerhouse in the summer of 2020.
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9) Christian Benteke (Liverpool) – £ 32.5 million
Christian Benteke made a name for himself in the Premier League with Aston Villa, with 49 goals and 12 assists in 101 games for the Villains.
The Belgian’s superb form for Villa earned him a move to Liverpool in 2015 for £32.5million.
However, Benteke’s form took a serious dive when he moved to Merseyside, scoring just 10 and assisting six in 42 outings for Liverpool. This equates to £2.03m per goal contribution.
Benteke will join Crystal Palace just a year after his move to Liverpool and has never been able to recapture the form he found at Villa.
8) Sebastien Haller (West Ham) – £45m
The 2019 summer transfer window was shaping up to be full of promise for West Ham. The Londoners spent over £80m on transfers, including bringing in Sebastien Haller, who was part of that impressive Eintracht Frankfurt squad that now also included Real Madrid flop Luka Jovic.
Like Jovic, Haller had a big flop after leaving Germany. The Ivorian moved to east London for £45million which is a club record for West Ham.
Haller, however, scored just 14 and assisted three in 54 outings – costing West Ham over £2.6m per goal contribution.
Haller has since moved to the Netherlands where he scored 41 goals and provided 15 assists for Ajax.
7) Fernando Torres (Chelsea) – £50m
Fernando Torres is the first of a number of Chelsea stars to make this list and goes a long way to providing proof of the ‘striking curse’ at Chelsea Football Club.
Torres made a name for himself in England with Liverpool. The Spaniard had pace, power and a deadly finish – scoring 81 goals and providing 21 assists in 142 draws for Liverpool.
The striker was then bought for a staggering £50m in 2011 which broke the UK transfer record at the time.
Torres, however, has scored just 20 Premier League goals in 110 outings for Chelsea. Comparatively, he has scored 45 more league goals for Liverpool in eight fewer games.
6) Tanguy Ndombele (Tottenham) – £53.8m
Tottenham signed Tanguy Ndombele from Lyon in 2019 for a club record £53.8million. After reaching the Champions League final the previous season, Ndombele, along with a handful of other new signings, were expected to help Tottenham get started and finally end their trophy drought.
However, Spurs and Ndombele have suffered badly in 2019/20. The midfielder was compared to Paul Pogba before his spell in England but struggled to prove his worth under four separate permanent managers.
The Frenchman’s lack of fitness and work ethic proved to be the main issue before Ndombele was loaned to Lyon in January. A big waste of money from Tottenham.
5) Alvaro Morata (Chelsea) – £60m
Another Chelsea striker, another flop.
Chelsea would sign Alvaro Morata from Real Madrid in the summer of 2017 for £60million which was a club record for them at the time.
Morata went on to score 24 goals in 72 outings for Chelsea. It’s not the worst comeback in the world, but those who have watched Chelsea closely during this period will be well aware of Morata’s poverty in front of goal.
The Spaniard will leave Chelsea on loan in January 2019 before leaving permanently in 2020. His goalscoring ability remained equally questionable.
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4) Nicolas Pepe (Arsenal) – £72m
Arsenal, despite some very questionable spending over the past few years, have only one entrant on this list, but it certainly doesn’t come cheap.
Nicolas Pepe would cost Arsenal a club-record £72m in the summer of 2019. Pepe had scored 22 goals and assisted 11 in 38 Ligue 1 appearances the campaign before his move to Arsenal, so it’s easy to see why Lille demanded so much for the Ivorian.
However, Pepe has since been a major flop, with the majority of his goal contributions coming against below-average sides in the Europa League and domestic cups.
So far this season, Pepe has scored no goals and provided one assist in 10 Premier League appearances, and is well behind Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe in the pecking order of wingers. Arsenal.
3) Kepa Arrizabalaga (Chelsea) – £71.8m
Kepa Arrizabalaga was snapped up by Chelsea in the summer of 2018. The Blues paid £71.8m for the Spaniard which remains the world record for a goalkeeper.
Kepa, however, had a difficult start to life in England, committing a number of high-profile mistakes which eventually led to Chelsea bringing in their current No.1 Edouard Mendy in September 2020 for a fraction of the price. they paid. Kepa.
The Ondarroa native has since shown flashes of quality when given the chance by Thomas Tuchel and he could still become a solid keeper if given more minutes, but there’s no escaping the fact that Chelsea now has a nearly £72million sub-keeper.
Kepa’s transfer failure is even more visible when you realize that Liverpool paid £67m for Alisson Becker in the same summer and he went on to help transform Liverpool’s backline.
2) Paul Pogba (Manchester United) – 89 millions de livres sterling
If there’s one deal that sums up the mess that is Manchester United’s post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, it’s the transfer of Paul Pogba.
The Frenchman had spent several years in Manchester United’s youth system before leaving for Juventus on a free transfer.
Manchester United then paid £89million – a world record at the time – to bring Pogba back to Old Trafford in 2016.
Pogba has since been one of the most frustrating and inconsistent players to watch. The 28-year-old has obvious talent but often chooses not to show it regularly. As a result, one of United’s weakest areas in recent years has been central midfield – something you shouldn’t see if you’ve spent £89million on a midfielder.
He also cost Manchester United exactly £1million per goal contribution in his second spell at the club.
But what is perhaps most disconcerting is that Pogba now looks set to leave Manchester United for free for a second time when his contract expires in the summer of 2022.
1) Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea) 97.5 M £
Romelu Lukaku made a triumphant return to Chelsea last summer. The hitman set Chelsea back £97.5m, which is the second most expensive transfer in British football at the time of writing.
After floundering in west London during his youthful years, Lukaku left the club and went on to show his abilities in England and Italy – most recently winning the Serie with Inter Milan and ending the reign of dominance by Juventus.
And with Chelsea flying high under Thomas Tuchel, Lukaku was expected to be the last piece of the Chelsea puzzle as they prepare to mount a veritable title load in 2021/22 following their League triumph of champions.
However, Lukaku has since fallen out of favor at the bridge. In his last outing, the 28-year-old had just seven touches against Crystal Palace – a performance which led to him being dropped by Tuchel for Chelsea’s clash against Lille on Tuesday, with the decision genuinely pleasing to fans of Chelsea on social media.
A nightmarish start to what was to be a fairy tale comeback for Lukaku.
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