19 minutes ago, wizardous said:

That 2017 transfer window (excluding Rudiger) was probably the worst one in history of football.

AvB's spending spree with the Bale windfall at Spuds was pretty poor 

14 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

AvB's spending spree with the Bale windfall at Spuds was pretty poor  fantastic

 

54 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Hmm you think he dislikes Jorgi more than Luiz eh?

That's a tough one mate. Almost forgot about 'Not Emile Heskey'. Surely there's room for him somewhere on that list.

Imagine signing a player for a record fee, record wages and he just gets worse and piles on the timber, what an embarrassment of a player

Most have been covered but maybe Tal Ben Haim? Why?

5 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I'd put Baba Rahman ahead of Del Horno if we're making a list of useless left back signings. 

£20m and looked completely out of his depth every time he played.

5. Zhirkov (I'm not even sure if he was signed as a LB or a left winger, but oh well)

4. Del Horno

3. Kennedy

2. Filipe Luis

1. Baba Rahman

We try...

Also, from the lot of useless signings shout-out to my countryman Mineiro! What a player! (He was really good at São Paulo, but I guess the same can be said about Baka in Monaco?)

Edited February 8, 20224 yr by Brigadeiro Mk II

6 hours ago, Brigadeiro Mk II said:

5. Zhirkov (I'm not even sure if he was signed as a LB or a left winger, but oh well)

4. Del Horno

3. Kennedy

2. Filipe Luis

1. Baba Rahman

We try...

Also, from the lot of useless signings shout-out to my countryman Mineiro! What a player! (He was really good at São Paulo, but I guess the same can be said about Baka in Monaco?)

Haha I saw this out of the context of the post you were replying to and wondered 'why does this guy hate left-backs so much?'

In my opinion Zhirkov and Luis were both legitimately good for us, in fact in the case of the latter there were quite a few shouts to drop Ivanovic for him and move Azpilicueta to right-back. Zhirkov had the misfortune of his competition being the best left-back on the planet (Ashley Cole) and Florent Malouda in the form of his life. If I remember right he did have a brief spell in centre midfield in Ancelotti's second season when everyone bar a recently-signed and misfiring Ramires and the only sane man Mikel were injured.

13 hours ago, chiefBlueCFC said:

5. Djibulijbijilil (Djib) - wtf was the point of this

This was a success for us - it was a poor bit of business for Sunderland if anything 

Granted we didn't lose any money on him when we sold him on, but Mateja Kezman was a huge disappointment for me ... I really thought we'd signed someone who would leave Van Nistelrooy's goalscoring achievements in tatters, but Batman went from 38-40 goals a season at PSV to ... 7 .... making even Timo Werner seem successful in comparison !

 

11 hours ago, tmarmsi said:

Imagine signing a player for a record fee, record wages and he just gets worse and piles on the timber, what an embarrassment of a player

Sadly imagination is not required ! We are all living that particular "dream" LOL

8 hours ago, RomansRoubles said:

Most have been covered but maybe Tal Ben Haim? Why?

Was signed on a free transfer. Either Roman suddenly threw a paddy and said there's no more money for transfers because he got fed up with Jose or Mourinho was trying to prove some weird point. 

We went from making record buys 4 years running to signing Ben Haim, Sidwell and Pizarrio on free transfers. It was a strange summer that one. 

8 hours ago, Brigadeiro Mk II said:

5. Zhirkov (I'm not even sure if he was signed as a LB or a left winger, but oh well)

4. Del Horno

3. Kennedy

2. Filipe Luis

1. Baba Rahman

We try...

Also, from the lot of useless signings shout-out to my countryman Mineiro! What a player! (He was really good at São Paulo, but I guess the same can be said about Baka in Monaco?)

I think Zhirkov was signed mainly because of his nationality. I got the impression Roman wanted a Russian/Easten European pressence in the team and that's why we had previously sign Smertin and Jarosik. 

He didn't play too badly for us but was always going to play second fiddle to Ashley Cole. 

Luis was a good player. I think he struggled to settle in England and also Mourinho liked to play Azpilicueta at left back to effectively compensate for Hazard doing no defensive work. 

10 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Granted we didn't lose any money on him when we sold him on, but Mateja Kezman was a huge disappointment for me ... I really thought we'd signed someone who would leave Van Nistelrooy's goalscoring achievements in tatters, but Batman went from 38-40 goals a season at PSV to ... 7 .... making even Timo Werner seem successful in comparison !

I never really understood the high expectations that came with Kezman. He was signed for a fairly modest £5m and was mostly used as a sub. His total played minutes played in the league amount to the equivalent of playing just over 8 full 90 min matches. He also scored the winning goal in the League Cup final during his one season with us. 

In recent years, kepa and it is not even close.

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

In recent years, kepa and it is not even close.

Kepa is the best #2 in the league, not even close.

1 hour ago, coco said:

Kepa is the best #2 in the league, not even close.

Yeah but 70M? I would put him in the terrible transfers bucket as well.

13 minutes ago, RomansRoubles said:

Yeah but 70M? I would put him in the terrible transfers bucket as well.

We would only of wasted the money on another Lukaku.

51 minutes ago, coco said:

We would only of wasted the money on another Lukaku.

Touche. Or bought 2 Kantes 😉

 

Edit: Our current contract situation. Lukaku till 2026 😞 (source: Athletic)

 

Edited February 8, 20224 yr by RomansRoubles

6 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

Haha I saw this out of the context of the post you were replying to and wondered 'why does this guy hate left-backs so much?'

In my opinion Zhirkov and Luis were both legitimately good for us, in fact in the case of the latter there were quite a few shouts to drop Ivanovic for him and move Azpilicueta to right-back. Zhirkov had the misfortune of his competition being the best left-back on the planet (Ashley Cole) and Florent Malouda in the form of his life. If I remember right he did have a brief spell in centre midfield in Ancelotti's second season when everyone bar a recently-signed and misfiring Ramires and the only sane man Mikel were injured.

Hahaha nothing against LBs, in fact used to play there a few times.

Tbh Zhirkov only made the list because it had to be 5 and I didn't remember any more LB signings besides Alonso. But yeah, you have a point on his competition being hard at any spot and he did have some good games, I quite liked him.

On Filipe Luis tho I genuinely don't remember a single good thing from him, I guess he did the basics but barely played and the expectations were for him to become a major threat on the left side for years to come. His 2nd spot comes mostly from my expectations being shattered and we once again having to sign someone. 

2 hours ago, coco said:

Kepa is the best #2 in the league, not even close.

Is he better than dean henderson ?

2 years ago Kepa was so bad that force Lamp to play cabalerro over him

5 minutes ago, RomansRoubles said:

Or bought 2 Kantes

How dare you insinuate that Kante is not unique.

1 minute ago, Bob stark said:

Is he better than dean henderson ?

we wont know what Henderson would be like behind a failing defence as Kepa was, since the defnce has been largely sorted Kepa looks decent and at least on par with Henderson.

On 07/02/2022 at 12:54, bisright1 said:

1. Kepa.

2. Bakayoko

3. Drinkwater

4. Veron

5. Lukaku

Kepas transfer will never make sense to me, he wasn't good enough when we bought him, the fee was ridiculous, the contract (7 years) obscene. 

From a purely business pov it just makes no sense. 

I can't hate on Torres, and Lukaku made at least sense at the time we bought him. I don't like calling a transfer bad in hindsight.

Kepa's transfer was forced by Courtois forcing his way out and not showing up for training. Bilbao doesn't sell players, you have to pay the release clause, which we ended up doing. The contract was so long because if you pay such a high fee it makes sense to tie him down to a long contract, besides he was suppose to be our number 1 for years to come. If we had offered him a 3 year deal he would have left on a free and we would have lost all the money we invested. 

10 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Is he better than dean henderson ?

2 years ago Kepa was so bad that force Lamp to play cabalerro over him

henderson couldn't save a penalty in 8 attempts, kepa did in 1 

2 minutes ago, coco said:

we wont know what Henderson would be like behind a failing defence as Kepa was, since the defnce has been largely sorted Kepa looks decent and at least on par with Henderson.

Usually gk perform "better" behind failing defense because he can show his ability more. Kepa conceded easy shot and he barely caught any cross

5 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Was signed on a free transfer. Either Roman suddenly threw a paddy and said there's no more money for transfers because he got fed up with Jose or Mourinho was trying to prove some weird point. 

We went from making record buys 4 years running to signing Ben Haim, Sidwell and Pizarrio on free transfers. It was a strange summer that one.

I actually thought Ben Haim was going to do pretty well for us. Not oust JT or Carvalho well but he looked very good for a Bolton side regularly challenging for Europe and I think we made enquires about him a couple of years before. For a 3rd/4th choice I didn't really have any complaints.

Sidwell however was very odd, it was very obvious he was at his ceiling playing for Reading.

Torres was by far the most destructive to the club, he stopped us signing any competing striker until the 13/14 season proved to Roman we were a striker away from winning.

It led to us signing ex Liverpool team mates and his ex coach, who failed to win the League cup and CWC even though RDM had done all the hard work making it easy for him.

The things he gets credit for are a bit of a stretch, like scoring in the Nou Camp when we were already winning, winning-the-corner-that-led-to-the-equaliser-in-the-final.. can't credit him for luck..

Above all he got support from the fans but he ultimately to this day blames the club for his failures.