Was the summer of 2013 the most unsuccessful ever? We analyse the biggest signings of the window and find out.
They say you should give a player a year after they sign before you judge them, but we’ve done even better and given these players 15 months to show us what they can do. Almost every one of these players has been a flop for their new side after signing last summer.
SEE MORE:
Alexis Sanchez v Eden Hazard
Top Ten Champions League Eligible January Signings
The 20 Best Players In The World
13) Andy Carroll – West Ham United – £15m
Carroll is still West Ham’s record transfer after completing a move reported to be around £15m last summer. He spent most of last season injured, and has been crocked again this season.
Verdict: FLOP
12) Alvaro Negredo – Manchester City – £16m
Negredo started brightly, but as the season went on his goals dried up entirely, and he was shipped out on loan to Valencia before the Citizens were forced to pay any of the £4m of add-ons built into his deal.
Verdict: FLOP
11) Jesus Navas – Manchester City- £17m
Navas has not been as disastrous as some of the others on the list, but has never established himself in the starting lineup, and doesn’t look like he has the consistency to be a real star.
Verdict: Undecided
10) Paulinho – Tottenham Hotspur – £17m
Tottenham beat off interest from Chelsea to secure the highly rated Brazilian midfielder, who was out of the team in months, and is now often out of the squad entirely.
Verdict: FLOP
9) Mamadou Sakho – Liverpool – £18m
Sakho played regularly last season, but Brendan Rodgers clearly doesn’t trust the defender, consistently picking the even worse Dejan Lovren ahead of the Frenchman.
Verdict: FLOP
8) Andre Schurrle – Chelsea – £18m
Schurrle was good in patches last year, but has been very poor when he’s played this year. He was not the player Chelsea needed, and manager Jose Mourino probably didn’t arrive in time to have a say in the deal.
Verdict: FLOP
7) Stevan Jovetic – Manchester City – £22m
Injuries have restricted the big-money signing to just six starts in 15 months. While he’s got plenty of time left to show what he can do, if City decide do to cut their losses on the striker his signing will undoubtedly be considered a failure.
Verdict: FLOP
6) Roberto Soldado – Tottenham Hotspur – £26m
Perhaps the biggest flop of the lot, Tottenham’s big money signing scored a few penalties last year but has since entered a truly barren run, and has now lost his place to Harry Kane.
Verdict: FLOP
5) Marouane Fellaini – Manchester United £27.5m
The fact that Fellaini starting thee consecutive games for United recently was considered a renaissance for the Belgian giant shows just how much of a disaster the first 15 months of his Old Trafford career have been.
Verdict: FLOP
4) Erik Lamela – Tottenham Hotspur – £30m
Tottenham pulled off a serious coup when they signed the exciting attacker from AS Roma, but despite sticking with him ever since, the Argentine playmaker has been totally ineffectually – barring one beautiful rabona.
Verdict: FLOP
3) Willian – Chelsea – £32m
Willian had a good season last year, and has played well again this term- but has perhaps not quite reached the levels required of a £32m player. Has admitted himself that he needs to score more goals.
Verdict: Massively overpriced success
2) Fernandinho – Manchester City – £34
Fernandinho added balance to City’s midfield and helped them win the title last year, but has yet to do much that a player bought for half his fee could have done just as well.
Verdict: Massively overpriced success
1) Mesut Ozil – Arsenal- £42.5m
After a thrilling start to his Gunners career, Ozil was struck by a steady decline in form and has missed the majority of this season with injury. While not a Soldado-level disaster, the German has a long way to go to remove the label of “flop”.
Verdict: FLOP
Conclusion:
While clubs lower down the league did perfectly good business, 2013 was almost certainly the worst transfer window ever for the Premier League’s top clubs.
Liverpool and Tottenham both signed a host of expensive players who’ve largely failed to add anything to their sides, Chelsea didn’t either of the central midfielders they needed, Arsenal spent their budget reinforcing the one position they had cover in, Manchester City wasted huge money on strikers they didn’t need, and Man United blew their entire budget on Marouane Fellaini.
Let’s hope we’re not saying the same thing about 2014 in a year’s time, right Mario?