See the ten worst big money sprees in recent history…
The spending spree is a phenomenon that is becoming more common in football as billionaire owners take over clubs all over the world, but it rarely works out as intended.
Here are 10 spending sprees that went wrong for the teams holding the cheque books, partly inspired by this list.
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10) Atletico Madrid, 2014 – €110m
Diego Simeone’s side had money to burn after selling Diego Costa and Filipe Luis to Chelsea. While Mario Mandzukic and Antoine Griezmann have done well; Alessio Cerci, Jan Oblak and Raul Jimenez have struggled.
9) Ajax, 2008 – €35m
Ajax didn’t spend a huge amount compared to some of the sprees on this list, but it’s a lot compared to their ususal outlay, and Dario Cvitanich, Olegeur, Evander Sno and Ismael Aissati all flopped, while their record signing from that summer, Miralem Sulejmani, recently left the club on a free transfer.
8) Manchester United, 2014 – €196m
It’s too early to judge Louis van Gaal’s summer spree fully, but things aren’t looking great so far. Marcos Rojo looks massively overpriced at £16m, Luke Shaw will cost them £50m+ when his wages are considered, Radamel Falcao is costing them a quarter of a million pounds a week to sit on the bench and Daley Blind has barely featured.
7) Liverpool, 2014 – €160m
Another spree it’s too soon to judge properly, but it doesn’t look great for the Reds. Neither Mario Balotelli nor Rickie Lambert are now judged good enough to play up front, Lazar Markovic and Adam Lallana haven’t produced their best form and the less said about Dejan Lovren the better.
6) Juventus, 2009 – €55m
Juventus had returned to Serie A and after buying experienced trio Felipe Melo, Fabio Grosso and Diego they were supposed to return to their rightful place at the top of the table. In reality, none of the signings worked out, and it took another two years for the Old Lady to re-establish herself at the top.
5) QPR, 2012 – €50m
After just escaping relegation the previous year, Rangers spent big money on big players, including Loic Remy, Stephane M’Bia, Esteban Granero and Julio Cesar to avoid being stuck in relegation trouble again the following year.
Twelve months later, they were playing in the Championship.
4) AS Monaco, 2013 – €190m
Monaco made huge waves last summer with the big money purchases of James Rodriguez, Falcao and Joao Moutinho amongst others. Unfortunately Monaco’s owner Dmitry Rybolovlev seemed to lose interest just one year later, and he sold his Colombian star duo to Real Madrid and Manchester United respectively.
3) Tottenham Hotspur, 2013 – €150m
Like Liverpool this year, Tottenham were left with a huge wad of cash burning a hole in their pocket after Gareth Bale’s move to Real Madrid. Unfortunately for Spurs, that wad was spent on a mixture of the disappointing (Paulinho, Vlad Chiriches) and the disastrous (Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela).
2) Anzhi Makhachkala, 2011 – €115m
The Russian side spent huge money on fees and wages as they brought in Samuel Eto’o, M’bark Boussoufa, Mehdi Carcela and Jucilei after being bought by billionaire Suleyman Kerimov. Much like Monaco’s fickle Russian owner, Kerimov soon lost interest, and Anzhi were relegated in 2014 after selling off their big names.
1) Chelsea 2003 – €155m
Chelsea have got better at spending with every passing window, and while their first spree under Abramovich had some hits (Damien Duff, Claude Makelele, Wayne Bridge), it had some huge misses too (Adrian Mutu, Juan Sebastian Veron, Hernan Crespo, Alexei Smertin, Glen Johnson).