Players that have been massive letdowns

shadowcomplex

Ok Im going to start this thread by saying i think andrei arshavin has been one of the biggest disapointments in recent years, when he played in the euros a few years back he looked a world beater, nowadays he looks a decent player but nothing special, probably some more suited to spain or italy

mikemac

Andriy Shevchenko. Ok, hard to call him a let down, had a magnificent career. But his spell in England was a letdown and sad to see

And I suppose you can include Sergei Rebrov in this too.

Dempsey

Fernando Torres

d93c2inhxfok4y

Edit: Ninja'd

fulhamfanincork

Steve Marlet
Bjorn Runstrom
Gab Zakuani

d93c2inhxfok4y

Kleberson - WC Winner
Liam Miller - Was tipped with real promise, I was especially excited given he was Irish
Juan Sebastien Veron

keano_afc

From an Arsenal point of view we've had a few, but Jose Reyes springs to mind. I was a huge fan of his at Sevilla, remember being ecstatic that we bought him. Wasnt really able to adapt, and Neville's hatchet job on him didnt help matters.

inforfun

shadowcomplex wrote: »

Ok Im going to start this thread by saying i think andrei arshavin has been one of the biggest disapointments in recent years, when he played in the euros a few years back he looked a world beater, nowadays he looks a decent player but nothing special, probably some more suited to spain or italy

He was brilliant for Zenith and during EURO2008.
Personally i think he is used wrong at Arsenal. I dont think you ll get the best from him when he has to play on the left wing. He was playing the bergkamp role for Russia during Euro2008 and that suits him best.

Let downs?
Kezman, Huntelaar but the all time biggest is Denilson who once had the highest transfer sum paid on his name and the last thing i heard he played in Vietnam.

Liam O

suppose Rooney was a letdown earlier this season too :rolleyes:

Torres may come good, may not but his 2 or 3 good seasons at Liverpool and his time at Atletico have cemented him as not a letdown, and there's already a thread on this so take it over there imo...

MrStuffins

Robinho

UpTheSlashers

Theo Walcott - Picked to go to a WC at 17, didnt make the squad 4 years later.
Luke Chadwick - Thought he was going to be the next big thing at Man United
Liam Miller - Mentioned above
Paul McShane - For some reason I expected big things from him when he was called up to the Ireland team.

Cypher_sounds

Aquilani- cost 17 million and only played 18 times so far for Liverpool and was sent straight back to where he came from for now.

Fr Tod Umptious

UpTheSlashers wrote: »

Theo Walcott - Picked to go to a WC at 17, didnt make the squad 4 years later.
Luke Chadwick - Thought he was going to be the next big thing at Man United
Liam Miller - Mentioned above
Paul McShane - For some reason I expected big things from him when he was called up to the Ireland team.

Bit harsh, he was picked as the last throw of the dice by a desperate man, no way he should have been in that squad.

partyndbs

so obvious arshavin wasnt all that. i mean sure players improve, he played twice i think in euro 2008, 2 good performances ye but overhyped way 2 much.

Warper

Bilayedinov at Everton. Cost over £10m which is a lot and hasnt fulfilled the transfer tag yet. Im not even going into Andy Van Der Meyde.

Chrginsgky (spelling) at Barca. A €30m defender that was sold the following year. Ibrahimovic at Barca was a bit of a let-down too. He played ok but I was expecting a lot more considering the move.

Diego at Juve. Cost €24m approx. Started off great but then completely lost his way looking slow and overweight by the end of the season.

joe123

Was only reading this yesterday....http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/the-rundown/article/1234/

With the struggles of big-money duo Fernando Torres and Edin Dzeko and Benni McCarthy's expensive release by West Ham in the public eye, we list some of the Premier League's big-money flops.

McCarthy will have cost the Hammers around £6 million in total after he was paid off to get out of Upton Park, the portly South African having long lost the physique and ability to be a top-flight player.

Torres and Dzeko are expected to eventually come good for Chelsea and Manchester City - they are young, gifted and surely recoverable - but some of the megabucks signings in the modern era quite literally went to waste.

Steve Marlet didn't know whether he was a striker or a winger or even a footballer, Afonso Alves was comically flaky and Tomas Brolin was, well, big-boned.

So in no particular order, we give you our top 10 Premier League flops...

Afonso Alves (Heerenveen to Middlesbrough, 2007, £12.7m)

The mercurial Brazilian striker seemed like money well spent at the time, having scored 45 goals in 39 Eredivisie matches, including seven in one game - a Dutch record. But, along with Chelsea flop Mateja Kezman, he remains a cautionary tale about strikers from Holland: it is a lower standard and the ability won't always translate. Alves started reasonably, but inconsistently, netting six goals in 11 games after joining at the end of the January transfer window: however, five of those goals game in two matches. The next season he was straight-up awful, clearly lacking the stomach for a relegation fight - he only scored four times as Boro went down. Since then he has plied his trade in the Gulf, a graveyard for washed-up pros that simply does not count.

Steve Marlet (Lyon to Fulham, 2001, £11.5m)

When France forward Marlet arrived, he openly admitted he had moved for the money, saying: "It's a fantastic offer for any player and too good to refuse." A bad start got worse as the forward took over four months to score his first goal, and ended with a tally of just 11 Premier League strikes in two seasons as he transpired to be not particularly quick, not particularly strong, not particularly skilful and not particularly good. His disastrous spell ended in litigation, as Fulham owner Mohamed Al Fayed refused to pay the final instalment of Marlet's fee, accusing manager Jean Tigana of deliberately inflating his price, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport ordered Fayed to pay up. A half-decent spell at Marseille followed but he slid into obscurity afterwards and now plays for an amateur side in France.

Andriy Shevchenko (Milan to Chelsea, 2006, £30m)

This deal brought great personal embarrassment upon Shevchenko's greatest advocate, Roman Abramovich. Having scored 83 goals in his final three seasons at Milan, Sheva netted just 22 in two seasons for Chelsea - only nine in the Premier League - while his prickly relationship with Jose Mourinho contributed to both men's downfall. He was sent on loan back to Milan but could not manage a single goal in half a season, having clearly lost the edge required at the highest level: Sheva's problem was that, at 30, he had lost a yard of pace when he arrived at Chelsea, which was horribly exposed by the quicker tempo of the England game. A sorry tale ended when Shevchenko left Chelsea for former club Dynamo Kiev on a free transfer, where he finds the back of the net more frequently from deeper positions.

Corrado Grabbi (Ternana to Blackburn, 2001, £6.75m)

Most will remember Grabbi as having been totally unable to adapt to life in England after his big-money move. He was also not really very good, a lower-league striker who rose to prominence after a 20-goal season in Italy's second division. But that campaign made him hot property, leading to a move that, it later transpired, he did not want: after refusing to sign with the agent son of since-jailed Juventus crook Luciano Moggi, transfers to other Italian clubs mysteriously fell apart, forcing him abroad. He scored one league goal in his first season at Rovers and ended up back in Italy's lower leagues, playing for Ancona, Genoa and Arezzo as he drifted into obscurity, hardly helped by a rare foot disease that resulted in extended periods out of the game.

Adrian Mutu (Parma to Chelsea, 2003, £15.8m)

Six goals in the striker's first five games and the Stamford Bridge faithful were singing both his name and his praises. But all that ended when he tested positive for cocaine amid lurid tales of blood-sucking sex parties. A bizarre early-morning police chase through the streets of Bucharest and a failed attempt to engineer a transfer to Juventus later, Mutu was finally sacked, and subsequently ordered to pay Chelsea a ridiculous £14.6m for breaching his contract. Has since rebuilt his career at Fiorentina, although keeps getting in trouble for nightclub scrapes and recently served a ban for an apparently accidental positive drug test (dietary, not recreational). Probably more suited to being a rock star than a footballer, he is still talented and - remarkably given his lifestyle - in good shape for 32.

Massimo Taibi (Venezia to Manchester United, 1999, £4.5m)

Sir Alex Ferguson does not usually get it wrong, but the post-Schmeichel era saw some hapless goalkeeping displays, none more so than Taibi's against Southampton. The Italian, highly rated in a homeland blessed with top shot-stoppers, allowed a Matt Le Tissier daisy-cutter to squirm through him a la Robert Green, leading to jibes such as the ‘blind Venetian'. He wasn't all that great in the three other league matches he played in, conceding five against Chelsea, and Fergie quickly decided it was enough, shipping him back to Italy at a loss of £2m where he served with relative distinction for several clubs before retiring in 2009. At least Fabien Barthez was good for a bit, and at least Mark Bosnich was free.

Pierluigi Casiraghi (Lazio to Chelsea, 1998, £5.4m)

There is a lot of Chelsea on this list, unsurprising given how they have spent money since the late 1990s, and it is possibly harsh to include Casiraghi given that his 10-game Chelsea career was ended by injury. But it has to be remembered that he arrived as a lauded Italy international striker and that he only scored once in those 10 games, sliding the ball into the net after winning a race with Phil Babb, whose tear-inducing legs-akimbo collision with the post was more memorable than the goal. Not long after Casiraghi collided with West Ham keeper Shaka Hislop, destroying his knee - after 10 operations he gave up and his career was over. He has since become a moderately successful coach with the Italy U21 team.

Ade Akinbiyi (Wolves to Leicester, 2000, £5.5m)

Akinbiyi makes this list despite having rebuilt his career after this disastrous spell. Akinbiyi was one of the best players outside the Premier League, with searing pace and a powerful physique. His exploits for Wolves, Bristol City and Gillingham led Peter Taylor to take a punt after the sale of Emile Heskey to Liverpool. Akinbiyi's problem was a case of wrong man, wrong club, wrong time: Leicester were on a downward spiral after the departure of Martin O'Neill, their limitations exposed when one of the game's top bosses left what was in reality an over-achieving Championship squad. Akinbiyi's first season was by no means a disaster - he scored nine in the league - but his second saw him lose confidence as his team's plummeted. He failed to score in his first nine games which, while not unheard of, was accompanied by some terrible misses until he finally broke his duck against Sunderland. The damage was done though and the club sold him in February; they went down at the end of the season. Maybe they would have stayed up had they persisted with him but Akinbiyi's name was forever associated with Leicester's relegation, even though he did well with Stoke, Burnley and Sheffield United afterwards.

Marco Boogers (Sparta Rotterdam to West Ham, 1995, £1m)

The striker insisted he wasn't mad, but clearly he was. Anyone who rejects a Premiership footballer's lifestyle in favour of a Dutch caravan park has to be. Signed by Harry Redknapp, Boogers's career got off to a terrible start when he committed a horror tackle on Manchester United's Gary Neville in his second game for the Hammers. The resulting red card allegedly forced him into hiding (in the aforementioned mobile home) before being offloaded on loan to Groningen soon after. Redknapp claimed he bought him on a whim after watching some videos. There have been no confirmed sightings of Boogers in this country since, although he did play on in Holland, claiming the caravan report was a fabrication.

Tomas Brolin (Parma to Leeds, 1995, £4.5m)

Possibly the chubbiest player ever to grace a Premiership pitch, Brolin's fall from grace is the stuff of legends. George Graham watched the Swede's devastating performances at Euro '92 but waited until 1995 to bring him to Leeds, by which time the rot had already set in. A series of training ground bust-ups and continual speculation over what exactly he was eating ended with Brolin leaving for Crystal Palace after making just 19 appearances. He is now a businessman back in Sweden and an international-level poker player.

You would have to include Aquilani. Total disaster of a transfer. Ryan Babel for 11 million aswell.

Outside of the premier league, Zlatan Ibrahimovic's move to Bracelona was a total flop and loosing Eto in the deal made 0 sense.

Glico Man

joe123 wrote: »

Outside of the premier league, Zlatan Ibrahimovic's move to Bracelona was a total flop and loosing Eto in the deal made 0 sense.

I still struggle to understand why people think he was a "total flop"

He scored 21 goals in 41 games, assisted in 9 others all in the process of collecting 4 trophies whilst playing in a completely different footballing system than Italian football.

If that is a flop, then I'd love to see your interpretation of a success.

tdv123

Brolin is a good shout. Was great in Serie A for Parma & had a great World Cup but didnt do anything when he came to the Premiership. Retired very young as well think he was about 28.

Saviola - Showed a lot of promise for Barcelona in his early days & was excellent at Sevilla helping them to back to back Uefa Cups but never reached the heights I felt he should have. The move to Madrid really messed up his career.

Baptista - Again showed a lot of promise in his early days baning them in for Sevilla like there was no tomorrow. But never reached anywhere near the potential he showed.

De La Pena - Brilliant passer of the ball with terrific technique & vision. Never made it at top side which it looked like he was destined to do around 96/97.

joe123

aaronh007 wrote: »

I still struggle to understand why people think he was a "total flop"

He scored 21 goals in 41 games, assisted in 9 others all in the process of collecting 4 trophies whilst playing in a completely different footballing system than Italian football.

If that is a flop, then I'd love to see your interpretation of a success.

I think people regard him as flop becuase he lasted one season and in part lost a quality player in Eto. What was it 40 million + eto? For that money you would want a much better return than 21 goals and you have to consider Barcelona destroyed most teams.

premierstone

aaronh007 wrote: »

I still struggle to understand why people think he was a "total flop"

He scored 21 goals in 41 games, assisted in 9 others all in the process of collecting 4 trophies whilst playing in a completely different footballing system than Italian football.

If that is a flop, then I'd love to see your interpretation of a success.

Yeah but Dunphy said he's crap, so now everyone thinks it :rolleyes:

GavRedKing

Love these threads :rolleyes:

gustavo

joe123 wrote: »

I think people regard him as flop becuase he lasted one season and in part lost a quality player in Eto. What was it 40 million + eto? For that money you would want a much better return than 21 goals and you have to consider Barcelona destroyed most teams.

Yea but Barca wanted to sell Eto'o and Inter didn't want to sell Ibra hence their differing valuations

UpTheSlashers

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Bit harsh, he was picked as the last throw of the dice by a desperate man, no way he should have been in that squad.

But as a result of this (wrongful) selection peoples expectations of him were raised.

joe123

premierstone wrote: »

Yeah but Dunphy said he's crap, so now everyone thinks it :rolleyes:

Wow. And people wonder why so many posters dont like the soccer forum. I would put in the obligatory rolls eye face but its really not worth it.

Paparazzo

Zlatan wasn't a flop, just ridiculously over priced.
Michael Owen was a let down at every club since Liverpool.
David Bently has to be up there

Paully D

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Bit harsh, he was picked as the last throw of the dice by a desperate man, no way he should have been in that squad.

It's shocking that Darren Bent wasn't called up for that squad instead of Walcott, absolutely shocking.

hatz7

Rivaldo joining A.C. Milan. When they signed him I was delighted, he was some player, he had so many good qualities, but he never played well for Milan, when transfers such as this don't work out, the player gets labelled a 'bidone'.

Add Ronaldinho + Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to the list of disappointing signings that just didn't work out for Milan.

UpTheSlashers

Paully D wrote: »

It's shocking that Darren Bent wasn't called up for that squad instead of Walcott, absolutely shocking.

The 2006 squad?

NeoKubrick

UpTheSlashers wrote: »

Theo Walcott - Picked to go to a WC at 17, didnt make the squad 4 years later.

How many times have you actually watched Walcott play?

FlawedGenius

For the transfer fee and how poo hes been, defo Torres!

tolosenc

Ali Dia?

MD1990

Juan Veron

James_LWAU

George O'Callaghan
Michael McGowans second spell with Dundalk

Galvasean

Looking at some of the flops here, suddenly Arshavin doesn't seem bad at all... This season his strike rate has been pretty dcent and he's chipped in with plenty of assists. He's certainly nowhere near as big a flop as Shevchenko or robinho that's for sure!

Insect Overlord

Massimo Taibi!

Galvasean

Looking at some of the flops here, suddenly Arshavin doesn't seem bad at all... This season his strike rate has been pretty dcent and he's chipped in with plenty of assists. He's certainly nowhere near as big a flop as Shevchenko or Robinho that's for sure!

UpTheSlashers

NeoKubrick wrote: »

How many times have you actually watched Walcott play?

Quite a few. Im looking at it from the perspective of 2006. A 17 year-old being called up to a WC squad. A lot more was expected of him than he has delivered to date.

Lawrence1895

Jens Lehmann joining Borussia Dortmund from Schalke 03+1 in 1999, even at that stage he was prone to some blunders

Dante

Robbie Keane for Inter - £13 million and managed only 14 appearances.

Kleberson for United - £6.5 million and only managed 20 appearances in 2 seasons racking in 2 goals.

Scott Parker for Chelsea - £10 million and only got 1 goal in a measly 15 appearances.

Huntelaar for Real Madrid - Cost £20 million and played only 20 times scoring 8 goals. Considering the huge transfer free and the fact that he scored something like 70 goals in 90 games with Ajax I'd consider this a big flop, even though admittedly he wasn't given much time there.

yahoo_moe

UpTheSlashers wrote: »

Quite a few. Im looking at it from the perspective of 2006. A 17 year-old being called up to a WC squad. A lot more was expected of him than he has delivered to date.

But it was the wrong decision to take him then. And I don't think anyone really expected him to suddenly light up the tournament.

Incidentally, it was also the wrong decision not to take him last year, a fact Capello admitted afterwards. So he's hardly gone backwards and has actually improved a lot in his time at Arsenal.

DaaaaaaaaaaN wrote: »

Scott Parker for Chelsea - £10 million and only got 1 goal in a measly 15 appearances.

Good one, judge him on how many goals he scored. Parker was never given a chance at Chelsea and has always been a good player when playing regularly.

_blank_

When Glen Crowe moved from Bohs to $H€£$ back in the day he was a bit of a let down for me, he never really hit the heights with us as he did with Bohs, never really got any kind of partnership going with Jason Byrne, I would have preferred the three strikers we already had in Byrne, Fitzpatrick and a young tricky Gary O'Neil.

Alan Moore too, we were signing an Irish international, and he never did a tap for us apart from in the Euro games "Moore, Moore, Moore, nobody likes you, nobody likes you".

I would say the career of Seba Veron was a let down when he came to Old Trafford, one of the best midfielders in the world, but just not really suited to the Premier League, for whatever reason. Some sensational performances in Europe mind.

Paul McShane looked like the re-incarnation of Paul McGrath against the Czech Republic in Landsdowne Road that time, but turned out to be the re-incarnation of Bambi.

Raze_them_all

Forlan for united.


And somewhat controversially.... Hargo for united too

UpTheSlashers

yahoo_moe wrote: »

But it was the wrong decision to take him then. And I don't think anyone really expected him to suddenly light up the tournament.

Incidentally, it was also the wrong decision not to take him last year, a fact Capello admitted afterwards. So he's hardly gone backwards and has actually improved a lot in his time at Arsenal.

Yes it was the wrong decision to take him in 2006. If you read my posts you would see that I said that. Yes he has improved but he has not reached the level he was expected to reach. The standard was set so high (especially by the media) because he went to the World Cup as a 17 year-old.

UpTheSlashers

DaaaaaaaaaaN wrote: »

Scott Parker for Chelsea - £10 million and only got 1 goal in a measly 15 appearances.

This was a period where many very good players went to Chelsea but werent given the chances or stability to play to their potential. Its a bit unfair to single him out. Since he left Chelsea he has been a very important player for Newcastle (where he was very unlucky and broke his leg) and now he is West Ham's talisman.

L'prof

Obligatory mention for Francis Jeffers & Richard Wright who, combined, managed 35 starts and 8 goals. That said, if we could sign 2 flops and go on to win the double every season I'd be very happy indeed!

Ordinary man

winston bogarde

yahoo_moe

L'prof wrote: »

Obligatory mention for Francis Jeffers & Richard Wright who, combined, managed 35 starts and 8 goals.

And Richard Wright got 7 of those

My biggest Arsenal disappointment would be Stuart Taylor actually. People like Pennant and Bentley eventually carved out decent careers elsewhere but I really thought Taylor would be our keeper for 10 years after Seaman. Just didn't happen for him through injury and bad luck at a few clubs and has been a career reserve keeper since. Still only 30 as well!

shadowcomplex

remember stephan hughes at arsenal, he was like wilshire back in the 90s

Officer Giggles

jordi cryuff,kleberson, djemba djemba(so good they named him twice), DAVID BELLION, manucho, bebe, obertan and let me not forget the italian goalkeeping wonder of massimo taibi

Dante

UpTheSlashers wrote: »

This was a period where many very good players went to Chelsea but werent given the chances or stability to play to their potential. Its a bit unfair to single him out. Since he left Chelsea he has been a very important player for Newcastle (where he was very unlucky and broke his leg) and now he is West Ham's talisman.

Yea true, I'll admit I didn't really read OP's post properly. I kind of had it in my head that this thread was about transfers that didn't work out. Nonetheless, my suggestions of Robbie Keane and Kleberson still stand.

UpTheSlashers

DaaaaaaaaaaN wrote: »

Yea true, I'll admit I didn't really read OP's post properly. I kind of had it in my head that this thread was about transfers that didn't work out. Nonetheless, my suggestions of Robbie Keane and Kleberson still stand.

I agree with Keane in a sense. Of course has had a decent career and been very good for Ireland. But I always feel hes a level short of what he could have been.