Top of the flops
ROB BRADLEY looks at some of the big signings who have spectacularly failed to live up to their price tags...
each. Jean Tigana gave up his agent role to become Fulham manager and he raised a few eyebrows in the Craven Cottage boardroom when he confirmed that former client Steve Marlet would be a good purchase.
Signed from Lyon for a club record £11.5m, he managed only 40 games in four seasons, outlasting his boss who was sacked soon after his arrival. Fulham chairman Mohamed Al Fayed later took Tigana to court over the deal, claiming that the fee was unduly exorbitant.
More legal matters concluded Adrian Mutu’s stay at Chelsea. Signed from Parma for £22.5m, he failed a drug test for cocaine and was banned by the FA for seven months. Not unreasonably, the Chelsea board felt this was a breach of contract and sent him on his way. Mutu eventually returned to Serie A to join Juventus. A few years later, the Brazilian Robinho rejected a new deal at Real Madrid saying he was desperately keen to play at Stamford Bridge. Instead, Manchester City paid £33m for him.
He wasn’t a great success there, though, making only 12 appearances in his second season. Perhaps his heart was never in it because when he first arrived he told one reporter he was delighted to have accepted Chelsea’s offer and the scribe had to politely remind him he was in Manchester.
Veron from Lazio to Manchester United for £28.1m, Schevchenko transferring from AC Milan to Chelsea for £30.8m, Liverpool paying Newcastle £35m for Carroll, and Torres costing £50m to move from Liverpool to Chelsea were all signings that encouraged opposing fans to sing ‘what a waste of money’.
Don’t forget that for all these expensive flops, there are some players who have justified their fees and their salaries.
Some have even proved to be out-and-out bargains. Sporting director Carles Rexach was so impressed with an 11-year-old playing for Newell’s Old Boys that he insisted he signed him there and then. He didn’t even have a piece of paper, and a napkin was used to write out a makeshift contract.
The player’s parents agreed that their son could sign for Rexach’s youth academy if he paid the medical bills for treating his growth hormone deficiency. And so it was a young Lionel Messi and his family moved to Barcelona. Then again, genius doesn’t come along too often.