Who Was The Biggest Waste Of Money Then?

[ThaiPauly]

Ladies and gentlemen.

Open for discussion

My vote would go to Veron

but there are plenty more

[Naam]

"Who Was The Biggest Waste Of Money Then?"

can you rephrase that question in a language i understand?

[eddie11]

Tomas Brolin.

Parma -Leeds 4.5 million for a fat has been.

Winston Bogarte -11 games in 4 years and 40 grand a week???

[gennisis]

Ladies and gentlemen.

Open for discussion

My vote would go to Veron

but there are plenty more

Francis Jeffers....high transfer fees over the years...never produced...and still at it....Ipswich I think is the latest sucker

[rgs2001uk]

tor andre flo

chelsea paid something like £300,000 and sold him to glasgow rangers for £12 million.

no heart no bottle no fight or fire in the belly, rangers eventually offloaded him to sunderland for £6 million, from there to obscurity.

excellent business sense on the part of chelsea, complete waste of money on the part of rangers and sunderland.

[binnsy]

Ladies and gentlemen.

Open for discussion

My vote would go to Veron

but there are plenty more

Francis Jeffers....high transfer fees over the years...never produced...and still at it....Ipswich I think is the latest sucker

Us Tractor boys agreed fee with Blackburn but Jeffers could not agree personal terms so he ain't coming.

[binnsy]

From my point of view it has to be FINDI GEORGE 3.2 million which is a lot for us Tractor Boys

Scored 2 on debut That was it

[ThaiPauly]

What about Sean Wright-Phillips...23m I think Chelsea paid for him , what would he go for now?

Dr. Nam, if u have an interest in Football I am sure you would understand the question !

[keddy]

What about Sean Wright-Phillips...23m I think Chelsea paid for him , what would he go for now?

Dr. Nam, if u have an interest in Football I am sure you would understand the question !

Serhiy Rebrov cost Tottenham 11 million pounds went to West Ham United on a free transfer a couple of years later.

[EastSaxCol]

Apart from the obvious inclusion of one of those triangular Premiership patches to be sewn on a Sheffield United shirt

I remembered one blast from the late 60's early 70's in the form of a Scottish bloke signed by Arsenal by name of Peter Marinello.

Some paper did a survey years ago and put his transfer fee at the equivalent of about £14m in 2000 prices - gawd alone knows what todays equivalent would be.

He was supposed to be the new George Best, but the only thing he ever became famous for was a cringeworthy , embarrassing appearance on Top Of The Pops where he presented the top 10 singles to the best dancers in the studio.

He played less than a season's worth of matches before they shunted him down to Pompey - then in the old Division 2.

But to be fair though - it was still probably a step-up from Scottish football.

Didn't Souness take some geezer who came on as sub for ten minutes in a game at Backburn and was promptly himself subbed after about ten minutes. Turned out to be Weah's cousin or something.

[keddy]

Apart from the obvious inclusion of one of those triangular Premiership patches to be sewn on a Sheffield United shirt

I remembered one blast from the late 60's early 70's in the form of a Scottish bloke signed by Arsenal by name of Peter Marinello.

Some paper did a survey years ago and put his transfer fee at the equivalent of about £14m in 2000 prices - gawd alone knows what todays equivalent would be.

He was supposed to be the new George Best, but the only thing he ever became famous for was a cringeworthy , embarrassing appearance on Top Of The Pops where he presented the top 10 singles to the best dancers in the studio.

He played less than a season's worth of matches before they shunted him down to Pompey - then in the old Division 2.

But to be fair though - it was still probably a step-up from Scottish football.

Didn't Souness take some geezer who came on as sub for ten minutes in a game at Backburn and was promptly himself subbed after about ten minutes. Turned out to be Weah's cousin or something.

I remember Peter Marinello from 'Goal" magazine around 1971 . Arsenal have a had few white elephants, over the years Charlie Nicolas, Pox in the Box Franny Jeffers, Wiltord was a flop there too. There must be loads more. Though they and Liverpool have palmed us (WHUFC) off with John Radford, Stewart Robson and from the 'Pool Rigoberta Song and Titi Camara, of course. As for the Souness story he mentioned it an interview a couple of years ago when he said it was the first and only time that he had seen a player not touch the ball while he was on the pitch. (Although John Radford must have come very close to that record ). He didn't explain why he played him though.

[toasted]

Harry Kewell. Massive wage packet no doubt and fit to play only Champion's League finals. Great at Leeds, mind.

Every goalkeeper at Man Utd between Schmeical and Van Der Saar.

A second vote for Bogarde at Chelsea.

[Jared]

Bogarde at Chelsea what a waste of space, hasnt his contract only just run out this summer, or was it last?

Anyway I think the biggest waste of money was when Gerrard houllier spent his summer budget of 20 million on Diouf 10m, Diao,5m and Cheyrou(the next Zidane)5m.

[mrtoad]

Got to hand it to Bogarde though. He sat out his contract training with the youth team and collecting 40K a week.

Taibi at United 4.5 Mil , made Jim Leighton look good.

Veron - Man Utd 29mil, Chelsea 16 mil. Two big transfers but not much else.

Cisse - Liverpool 14 mil. Overated and over priced.

Jeffers -I can see peoples point there. Why the hel_l do people continue to spend money on the guy?

Justin Fashanu -1.25 Mil, in 1981. Oh dear, not one of Brian Cloughs greatest signings.

A couple of others that are so bad that people have probably forgotten them.

Bosko Balaban - Villa 6Mil. Never started a game and never scored a goal.

Steve Marlet - Fulham. 11.5 mil. I can't make too much comment, cause there's l;ittle to say about him, other than he was crap.

Marcelino - Newcastle. 7.5 Mil. Couldn't play for 6 months becasue he broke his finger, or someting like that.

Titus Bramble - Newcastle. creates planty of goals, sadly normally for the opposing team.

Boumsong -Newcastle. Notice the pattern with Newcastle and Centre Backs?

Ralph Milne- Man Utd. What was Fergie thinking? Now owns a boozer in Nailsea, Somerset. Nice enough bloke and didn't take offence one evening when I said he was an inspiration to me, because it gave me hope that I still might get a game for Man Utd.

Gary Birtles - Man Utd. Over a million quid, couldn't hit a cows ass with a banjo.

Sure there are plenty of others.

Edited July 13, 2007 by mrtoad

[nev]

agree with most said on here, but i must add bartez was great for united toasted!

i would say shevchenco at 30 million last year not done much after so much hype.

and yes mrtoad gary birtles i watched most of his games for united could not hit a barn door from 20 paces.

[Naam]

What about Sean Wright-Phillips...23m I think Chelsea paid for him , what would he go for now?

Dr. Nam, if u have an interest in Football I am sure you would understand the question !

sorry, i shot from the hip. realized much later that the question concerns football. about football i know as much as my dog knows about quantum physics.

[toasted]

Nev - Yeah, I forgot about Barthez, but he still left with his tail between his legs as a result of THAT Arsenal game!

How about Mutu at Chelsea and Forlan at Man Utd?

[nev]

toasted forlan was worth his weight in gold mate just for this song.

diego oh oh, diego oh oh, he made the scousers cry he made the scousers cry.

after his 2 goals against them at anfield. dudek blunders game.

[scousemouse]

In 1999 , Chelski paid 10 million squid ( a lot back then ) for striker Chris Sutton who went on to score the total of 1 goal .

Cisse wasnt that much better for Liverpool , along with Sean Dundee , Titi Camara , Bruno (the next Zidane) Cheryou , Torbon Pichnic , Phill "donna ke " Babb , Paul Stewart , El Hadj Diouf , Salif Diao , David Speedie ----- I'm going to stop now !!!!!!!!!!.

Corrado Grabbi - Blackburn

Hugo Vianna and Albert Luque - Geordies.

[scousemouse]

In 1999 , Chelski paid 10 million squid ( a lot back then ) for striker Chris Sutton who went on to score the total of 1 goal .

Cisse wasnt that much better for Liverpool , along with Sean Dundee , Titi Camara , Bruno (the next Zidane) Cheryou , Torbon Pichnic , Phill "donna ke " Babb , Paul Stewart , El Hadj Diouf , Salif Diao , David Speedie ----- I'm going to stop now !!!!!!!!!!.

Corrado Grabbi - Blackburn

Hugo Vianna and Albert Luque - Geordies.

And 1 for the blue sh#te .

Daniel " i'm a taxi " Amokachi.

[bendix]

Pretty much every player Leeds bought during the Ridsdale years, all on-sold at huge losses while we still paid most of their salaries. Seth Johnston, Robbie Fowler, Michael Duberry, Danny Mills .. . . oh, I can't go on. It's too depressing.

[ThaiPauly]

Pretty much every player Leeds bought during the Ridsdale years, all on-sold at huge losses while we still paid most of their salaries. Seth Johnston, Robbie Fowler, Michael Duberry, Danny Mills .. . . oh, I can't go on. It's too depressing.

Duberry is playing Premier League footy again, and not badly either, probably needs a good man manager like Coppell to get the best out of him, though he wont be first choice when Sonko returns.

Sonko is Superman

[farangconnection]

Chris Sutton............................missed a COUPLE OF SITTERS IT WAS EASIER TO SCORE THAN MISS, IN HIS DEBUT GAME.

[Jim's_a_Thai_Fox]

Too many wasters to name - though on transfer fees, Veron does stick in my mind as about 45,000,000 quid went on him and he was pretty crap...

...about the Souness thing. The guy was a student or something, he blagged it with Souness by saying he was George Weah's cousin. Souness got a call from this kid's mate acting as Weah. Souness was desperate, the kid came on as a sub and was subbed 10 minutes later!

dunno how Souness wasn't laughed out of management immediately after that.

[ThaiPauly]

Too many wasters to name - though on transfer fees, Veron does stick in my mind as about 45,000,000 quid went on him and he was pretty crap...

...about the Souness thing. The guy was a student or something, he blagged it with Souness by saying he was George Weah's cousin. Souness got a call from this kid's mate acting as Weah. Souness was desperate, the kid came on as a sub and was subbed 10 minutes later!

dunno how Souness wasn't laughed out of management immediately after that.

Yeah I remember that.

How they could have been taken in like that was so funny

[scousemouse]

Too many wasters to name - though on transfer fees, Veron does stick in my mind as about 45,000,000 quid went on him and he was pretty crap...

...about the Souness thing. The guy was a student or something, he blagged it with Souness by saying he was George Weah's cousin. Souness got a call from this kid's mate acting as Weah. Souness was desperate, the kid came on as a sub and was subbed 10 minutes later!

dunno how Souness wasn't laughed out of management immediately after that.

Yeah I remember that.

How they could have been taken in like that was so funny

I'm not that sure souness was taken in by anybody , i've heard there was an envelope waiting for him at the end

[ThaiPauly]

Too many wasters to name - though on transfer fees, Veron does stick in my mind as about 45,000,000 quid went on him and he was pretty crap...

...about the Souness thing. The guy was a student or something, he blagged it with Souness by saying he was George Weah's cousin. Souness got a call from this kid's mate acting as Weah. Souness was desperate, the kid came on as a sub and was subbed 10 minutes later!

dunno how Souness wasn't laughed out of management immediately after that.

Yeah I remember that.

How they could have been taken in like that was so funny

I'm not that sure souness was taken in by anybody , i've heard there was an envelope waiting for him at the end

If thats the case then footy is in BIG trouble...where does it leave us fans????

[binnsy]

50 Stan Collymore, Liverpool to Aston Villa, £7m, May 1997

The striker scored just seven goals in 46 league appearances for the club he supported as a boy.

49 Khalid Boulahrouz, SV Hamburg to Chelsea, £7m, August 2006

Related Links

50 top football transfers

The world's top 50 footballers

The 50 worst footballers

The “Cannibal” has devoured only the weakest of Premier League opponents.

48 Eddie McGoldrick, Crystal Palace to Arsenal, £1m, June 1993

The Ireland winger was reunited with Ian Wright but could not supply crosses for his former Crystal Palace team-mate as he had done at Selhurst Park.

47 Mark Hateley, Rangers to Queens Park Rangers, £1.5m, November 1995

The England centre forward was a hero in Glasgow but the fans at the other Rangers did not take to him.

46 Darren Huckerby, Coventry City to Leeds United, £4m, August 1999

A world-beater on his day, the forward was not one of David O’Leary’s successes at Leeds.

45 Georgios Samaras, Heerenveen to Manchester City, £6m, January 2006

A lack of goals led to Stuart Pearce’s sacking as manager and the Greece striker was among the chief culprits.

44 Massimo Taibi, Venezia to Manchester United, £4.5m, August 1999

United splashed out in the hope of finding the next Peter Schmeichel, to no avail. The Italian goalkeeper lasted just four months.

43 Titus Bramble, Ipswich Town to Newcastle United, £5m, July 2002

Bramble looked like a future England player when at Ipswich but became a byword for calamitous defending at Newcastle.

42 Fernando Morientes, Real Madrid to Liverpool, £6.5m, January 2005

The striker who helped knock Chelsea out of the Champions League as an AS Monaco player failed to trouble English defences much while at Liverpool.

41 Francis Jeffers, Everton to Arsenal, £8m, June 2001

Signed as Arsene Wenger’s “fox in the box”, he was sold as a donkey in the box at a loss of £5.4m.

40 Michael Owen, Real Madrid to Newcastle United, £16m, August 2005

The English striker has fared reasonably well when fit but injuries mean Newcastle have yet to see anything like a decent return for their money.

39 Chris Kiwomya, Ipswich Town to Arsenal, £1.25m, January 1995

Signed in the dying days of George Graham’s reign and later allowed to leave for nothing.

38 Massimo Maccarone, Empoli to Middlesbrough, July 2002

Views on the Italian range from not picked enough to not good enough. Either way, 18 league goals in four years was a poor return for the striker, who was allowed to leave on a free transfer.

37 Gerry Creaney, Portsmouth to Manchester City, £1m, September 1995

The Scottish striker was a prolific scorer at Portsmouth but misfired at City.

36 Jon Dahl Tomasson, Heerenveen to Newcastle United, £2.5m, July 1997

Played as a striker rather than his more familiar attacking midfield role, the Dane was out of position and out of luck.

35 Ned Zelic, Borussia Dortmund to Queens Park Rangers, £1.25m, July 1995

Blamed the hard English ground for his injuries and quickly returned to Germany.

34 Dean Saunders, Galatasaray to Nottingham Forest, £1.5m, July 1996

The striker who specialised in relegations endured a barren run in front of goal as Forest plunged from the Premier League.

33 Eoin Jess, Aberdeen to Coventry City, £2m, February 1996

An unsuccessful spell at Highfield Road had the Scotsman scuttling back to Aberdeen for a third of the original transfer fee.

32 Paul Furlong, Watford to Chelsea, £2.3m

Chelsea would spend this on a team bus nowadays but it was their record transfer fee in 1994. The striker’s spell was characterised by howlers in front of goal.

31 Ramon Vega, Cagliari to Tottenham Hotspur, £3.5m, January 1997

The Switzerland central defender gave Tottenham fans countless nervous moments.

30 Salif Diao, Sedan to Liverpool, £5m, August 2002

Gerard Houllier, the Liverpool manager who signed the midfield player, compared him to Patrick Vieira. Well, he is tall and from Senegal, but otherwise...

29 Milan Baros, Liverpool to Aston Villa, £6.5m, August 2005

Nine goals in 42 league games was not what Villa had in mind when signing the Czech from Liverpool and they were happy to offload him to Lyons.

28 Faustino Asprilla, Parma to Newcastle United, £6.7m, February 1996

The Colombian was a fine player who enjoyed some good times at Newcastle but his mid-season arrival appeared to unbalance a team that had seemed destined for the Premier League title.

27 Kevin Davies, Southampton to Blackburn Rovers, £7.5m, June 1998

The burly striker is having more luck down the road at Bolton Wanderer but at Blackburn he managed just one goal in a whole league season.

26 Andriy Shevchenko, AC Milan to Chelsea, £30.8m, May 2006

The Ukrainian may yet justify his fee but so far his arrival has contributed little apart from prompting a change in formation that arguably hindered Chelsea last season.

25 Stephane Guivarc’h, Auxerre to Newcastle United, £3.5m, June 1998

The World Cup winners’ medal that the striker collected with France needed to be seen to be believed by frustrated Newcastle fans.

24 Glen Johnson, West Ham United to Chelsea, £6m, July 2003

The first signing of the Roman Abramovich era has still to establish himself four years and one loan spell at Portsmouth later.

23 Corrado Grabbi, Ternana to Blackburn Rovers, £6.75m, June 2001

The Italian striker scored two goals in 30 Premier League appearances. That’s £3.38m per goal.

22 Adrian Mutu, Parma to Chelsea, £15.8m, August 2003

As if six goals in 27 league games was not bad enough, the Romania striker was sacked after failing a drugs test for cocaine.

21 Tore Andre Flo, Rangers to Sunderland, £6.75m, August 2002

Four goals in 29 league appearances by the Norway striker helped Sunderland towards an ignominious relegation.

20 Joey Beauchamp, Oxford United to West Ham United, £1m, June 1994

The Oxford-born winger was so homesick after joining West Ham that he left two months later without playing a competitive game. He returned closer to his roots with a move to Swindon Town.

19 Hugo Viana, Sporting Lisbon to Newcastle United, £8.5m, June 2002

The young Portuguese midfield player spent most of his two years at the club on the bench.

18 Andrea Silenzi, Torino to Nottingham Forest, £1.8m, August 1995

The Italian striker was so poor that Forest allowed him to leave for nothing.

17 Florin Raducioiu, Espanyol to West Ham United, £2.4m, July 1996

Lasted only six months after missing training to go shopping.

16 Sasa Curcic, Bolton Wanderers to Aston Villa, £4m, August 1996

Fell out with Brian Little, the manager, amid accusations of a wild lifestyle off the pitch.

15 Alex Nyarko, Lens to Everton, £4.5m, July 2000

Complained that the English league was too physical. Walter Smith, his manager, appeared to side with the Everton fan who ran onto the pitch at Highbury to confront the Ghanaian over a supposed lack of effort.

14 Ade Akinbiyi, Wolverhampton Wanderers to Leicester City, £5m, July 2000

Known to some Leicester supporters as Ade Abadbiyi, he was lampooned by fans across the country for his desperate misses.

13 Chris Sutton, Blackburn Rovers to Chelsea, £10m, July 1999

The striker was a regular goalscorer with Norwich City, Blackburn and Celtic but never recovered from missing a couple of sitters on his debut for Chelsea, for whom he scored once in 28 Premier League appearances.

12 Jean-Alain Boumsong, Rangers to Newcastle United, £8m, January 2005

Somehow made it into France’s World Cup finals squad last year but Newcastle fans were relieved when the error-prone central defender left for Juventus.

11 Juan Sebastian Veron, Lazio to Manchester United, £28.1m, July 2001; United to Chelsea, £15m, August 2003

To spare the Argentinian from appearing twice, these two moves have been placed together. If anything, Chelsea’s signing was worse, given that they knew Veron had failed to adjust to English football.

10 Darko Kovacevic, Red Star Belgrade to Sheffield Wednesday, £2m, December 1995

The forward made no impression at Hillsborough but promptly became a prolific goalscorer in the Spanish league with Real Sociedad when he left.

9 Robert Fleck, Norwich to Chelsea, £2.1m, August 1992

The Scottish striker was a cult hero at Carrow Road but a carthorse at Stamford Bridge, where he scored five times in 40 league appearances.

8 Bosko Balaban, Dynamo Zagreb to Aston Villa, £6m, August 2001

The Croatia forward did not start a league game in his two and a half years at the club.

7 Sergei Rebrov, Dynamo Kiev to Tottenham Hotspur, £11.5m, June 2000

The player who formed an outstanding attacking partnership with Andriy Shevchenko at Dynamo Kiev lost his radar after joining Tottenham.

6 Marcelino, Real Mallorca to Newcastle United, £5m, June 1999

Dubbed the “lesser-spotted Magpie”, he played just 17 Premier League games in three and a half years at St James’ Park.

5 Steve Marlet, Lyons to Fulham, £11.5m, August 2001

The Frenchman provided just one goal per five league games, fell out with Chris Coleman over his refusal to play out of position and spent two years on loan to Marseilles.

4 Tomas Brolin, Parma to Leeds United, £4.3m, November 1995

Injury had left Brolin overweight and over the hill but Leeds paid well over the odds for the Sweden striker. He left two dismal years later when his contract was cancelled.

3 Albert Luque, Deportivo La Coruna to Newcastle United, £9.5m, August 2005

One of a host of expensive signings by Newcastle to have disappeared down a black and white hole. The Stevens Inquiry placed a question mark over the transfer and the rest of the world placed a question mark over why Newcastle bought him at all.

2 Valerien Ismael, Strasbourg to Crystal Palace, £2.75m, January 1998

Hopeless in South London, the French central defender has since won the German league and cup double both with Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich.

1 Per Kroldrup, Udinese to Everton, £5m, June 2005

Everton paid a fortune for the Denmark central defender but then showed no interest in actually playing him amid suggestions they had suddenly discovered he couldn’t head the ball. Made one league appearance before returning to Italy.

[mrbojangles]

Thanks for that binnsy. I guess that's the end of this thread then

[binnsy]

Thanks for that binnsy. I guess that's the end of this thread then

That list was on THE TIMES web site.Could start with the top 50 best buys?