Just read some pointers regarding bad transfers in another topic, which made me think... What's the worst piece of business we've done?

The're are some obvious ones.
- Selling Salah, KDB, Robben and Lukaku. All for cheap.
- Acquiring players like Danny Drinkwater and Zappacosta - who both must be considered as pretty mediocre players - for a total of £60M. 

And with growing concern that we'll be buying more mediocre players for ridiculous amounts, I couldn't help but thinking of the strategic aspect. 

Do we need someone like Arnesen or Emenalo - or in general a DoF? I know that the made mistakes as well - but lacking a DoF could make us do even more doubtful business onwards. I've read that Sarri said he knew next to nothing about the transfer of Pulisic. All he knew was that the club asked him whether he liked him as a player - to which answered that he thought he was a great talent. A few weeks later the club had signed him for £60M. 

We've heard those kind of stories before. Conte wanting Bonucci or Koulibaly - instead he got Djilobodji. Wanted Alex Sandro as wingback - got Alonso (who turned our pretty good though). 

There a just countless examples of us buying players for no reason what so ever. And with more and more quality coming through our, in fact brilliant youth setup, should we take a break and give players like Mount, Ampadu, Abraham, Tomori, Chalobah and James a chance to show what they're capable of? Maybe even Zouma, who's been pretty decent for Everton, showing that the injury is truly behind him. 

Or are we gonna see history repeat itself with us selling 5/6 for cheap - and then buy some unknown guy from a middle tier club from Italy for £20M?

Factoring everything in our worst transfer is Torres by quite some distance.

Shevchenko was £140m in todays market, and didnt contribute anything, other than that worldie against spurs. Torres was £114m so he comes a close second.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11662/11490165/most-expensive-premier-league-transfers-in-todays-money

Edited May 20, 20197 yr by big blue

I don’t think we can beat Drinkwater. £40m and barely played. He’s literally stealing wages, it’s like someone has been hired and he doesn’t even turn up.

Not his fault but somebody definitely deserves sacking for letting that happen.

 

What a signing!

Bogarde ......

4 hours ago, big blue said:

Shevchenko was £140m in todays market, and didnt contribute anything, other than that worldie against spurs.

Worth every penny. 

4 hours ago, Argo said:

Factoring everything in our worst transfer is Torres by quite some distance.

To be fair, he did score one of the most important goals in the clubs history when we were hanging on for dear life against Barca. He also played well in the Europa League run. 

12 minutes ago, Dixons said:

To be fair, he did score one of the most important goals in the clubs history when we were hanging on for dear life against Barca. He also played well in the Europa League run. 

That was Ramires, Torres goal actually meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. 

I was so pumped when we signed Shevchenko. I thought he was gonna light the god damn world on fire for Chelsea, butttttt nooooooooooooooooooo

Papy Djilobodji

 

3 minutes ago, Boston Blue said:

Papy Djilobodji

 

No he’s already Sunderland’s unfortunately 

16 minutes ago, Boston Blue said:

Papy Djilobodji

 

Was quoted in a different thread already, but considering we quadrupled our money in 1 year's time, it wasn't a bad bit of business.  He barely played though.

30 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

That was Ramires, Torres goal actually meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. 

Yes, going by the in final score the Ramires goal was the crucial one. But the Torres goal finished it at a time when they were truly battering us and looked like they would score, just like they did at the Bridge in that cruel game.                                                                                                

45 minutes ago, Dixons said:

To be fair, he did score one of the most important goals in the clubs history when we were hanging on for dear life against Barca. He also played well in the Europa League run. 

Unfortunately negatives overweigh any positives with Nando x20 atleast.

People will say for example Juan Cuadrado was worse and if they look purely on performances alone they maybe right, but as sh*t as Juanny C was ultimately he was here for six months and didn't really effect our performances as it was a period we won the PL title comfortably. Not only that given all the loan fees we would have made a minimul loss at absolute worst, same with other flops like Bakayoko, Morata.

Torres was like a weight around the neck until the day he left and he held us back as a team and a club. It was pretty clear early on that we not only had absolutely no chance of recouping our money for him we would have been lucky to get anything atall, which meant we had to give him numerous chances to try and get our moneys worth and with it, lost Sturridge alongside chances to get other strikers in (Falcao, Cavani, Aguero).

Pound for pound he's probably the worst signing in not only our history but the history of the PL, only Alexis can make a claim to be as bad/worse in my opinion.

46 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

That was Ramires, Torres goal actually meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. 

Torres won THAT corner.

53 minutes ago, coco said:

Torres won THAT corner.

See, there’s a sensible contribution. 

7 hours ago, Hanzen said:

Just read some pointers regarding bad transfers in another topic, which made me think... What's the worst piece of business we've done?

The're are some obvious ones.
- Selling Salah, KDB, Robben and Lukaku. All for cheap.
- Acquiring players like Danny Drinkwater and Zappacosta - who both must be considered as pretty mediocre players - for a total of £60M. 

And with growing concern that we'll be buying more mediocre players for ridiculous amounts, I couldn't help but thinking of the strategic aspect. 

Do we need someone like Arnesen or Emenalo - or in general a DoF? I know that the made mistakes as well - but lacking a DoF could make us do even more doubtful business onwards. I've read that Sarri said he knew next to nothing about the transfer of Pulisic. All he knew was that the club asked him whether he liked him as a player - to which answered that he thought he was a great talent. A few weeks later the club had signed him for £60M. 

We've heard those kind of stories before. Conte wanting Bonucci or Koulibaly - instead he got Djilobodji. Wanted Alex Sandro as wingback - got Alonso (who turned our pretty good though). 

There a just countless examples of us buying players for no reason what so ever. And with more and more quality coming through our, in fact brilliant youth setup, should we take a break and give players like Mount, Ampadu, Abraham, Tomori, Chalobah and James a chance to show what they're capable of? Maybe even Zouma, who's been pretty decent for Everton, showing that the injury is truly behind him. 

Or are we gonna see history repeat itself with us selling 5/6 for cheap - and then buy some unknown guy from a middle tier club from Italy for £20M?

Djilobodji was signed for Mourinho, not a Koulibaly replacement for Conte.

9 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Djilobodji was signed for Mourinho, not a Koulibaly replacement for Conte.

Correct - my bad. Doubt it was Mou though. Probably the club via some analyst and/or scouts. Made a decent profit on him, which makes it fairly reasonable.

8 hours ago, coco said:

Torres won THAT corner.

Was about to post exactly the same.

Debt paid.

Torres and it isn't close, when you think of the talent and managers he had around him and wasted, and that it was mandatory to trot him out for 75 minutes every game. There were times when he visibly didn't want to be anywhere near the ball or goal. Then you factor in the opportunity cost, imagine if we'd spent that money on Aguero or Suarez instead, or had at least given Lukaku a fair shake.

That being said if we end up with Morata back up front next season he could have a contender.

If we ignore all context and you're asking solely about the worst signing in terms of talent, Benayoun looked like a make a wish foundation kid on the field.

8 hours ago, coco said:

Torres won THAT corner.

And the rest is history, winning that corner was the begining of the greatest night in our history, he was worth every penny just for that.

1 hour ago, Jonty said:

Torres and it isn't close, when you think of the talent and managers he had around him and wasted, and that it was mandatory to trot him out for 75 minutes every game. There were times when he visibly didn't want to be anywhere near the ball or goal. Then you factor in the opportunity cost, imagine if we'd spent that money on Aguero or Suarez instead, or had at least given Lukaku a fair shake.

That being said if we end up with Morata back up front next season he could have a contender.

If we ignore all context and you're asking solely about the worst signing in terms of talent, Benayoun looked like a make a wish foundation kid on the field.

Cuadrado has got to be up there in this regard.

Shevchenko, Torres, Morata take your pick. We have a history for signing strikers who tend to buckle at the Bridge for some strange reason. 

Mutu was a huge waste too when you consider we only got a limited time before he started snorting class A’s. 

Drinkwater and Bakayoko for contributing next to nothing while still being paid a kings wage is also a factor given they were £30 million and £40 million fees. 

Guys like Torres at least won things with us like the CL and Europa playing a part  albeit not equivalent of our expectations.

16 hours ago, Andy2461 said:

Bogarde ......

Part of me has a sneaky bit of respect for Winston, getting the contract that he did then taking his 30k per week and refusing a transfer... "whats that I have to play with the under 12s OK no problem, just remember my wages on Friday"