Premier League: The Worst Premier League Signings
Stan Collymore signed for Aston Villa way back in 1997 for a club record, seven million pounds. Over the course of the next three seasons he went on to score seven goals in forty six appearances. Which is almost one goal every seven games. Even though this record wasn’t bad enough, Collymore also suffered from clinical depression, which eventually led to him leaving the club after three years on a free transfer.
Michael Owen scored a hundred and eighteen goals in two hundred and sixteen games at Liverpool, he then went on to Real Madrid where he also had a decent goal scoring record. So when Newcastle bought him for sixteen million pounds it seemed like a bargain. However his entire career was lined with regular injures. In four seasons at the club he only played seventy one games and scored twenty six goals. That’s roughly scoring six goals a season. Owen’s signing was was one of the biggest mistakes made by the club. After Newcastle got relegated Owen joined Manchester United on a free transfer.
Robbie Keane has had a good spell at Tottenham, scoring eighty goals in a hundred and ninety seven matches. Liverpool decided they could use some one with his capabilities and signed him for nineteen million pounds. He scored five goals and only appeared in nineteen matches. In the winter transfer window of the same year he was sold back to Tottenham for twelve million pounds. Liverpool lost seven million pounds over the player and he cost them over a million pounds for every goal he scored.
Robinho was signed by Manchester City for thirty two and a half million pounds in 2008. In his first season he scored fourteen goals in the Premier League. The next season however he got injured and just played in twelve games scoring only one goal. He soon fell down the selection order and was loaned to Santos where he scored nineteen goals in seventeen matches. So far City have bought themselves fifteen goals for thirty two and a half million pounds.
Adrian Mutu was signed by Chelsea in 2003 after a successful spell in Italy. He started by scoring four goals in three games, after which his performances went downhill. He scored two goals in the next twenty four games. He then failed a drug test, when he tested positive for cocaine in 2004. He was sacked as a result of this. In 2006 Mutu failed another drug test and now owes Chelsea around sixteen million pounds in compensation.
Andriy Schevchenko cost Chelsea a club record thirty million pounds in 2006. Rather than continuing his status as being a goal scoring machine, he only managed to score nine times in forty eight games for Chelsea. In his final season he scored only one goal in seventeen games. He was then loaned back to AC Milan where he continued his bad form and so was returned to his first club, Dynamo Kiev.
Juan Sebastian Veron, was bought for twenty eight million pounds by Manchester United in 2001, where he failed to cope with the faster paced game in England. Two years later he was sold to Chelsea for fifteen million pounds. Things didn’t get better for him at Chelsea as he made only fourteen appearances and scored one goal. He cost Chelsea over one million for each appearance he made and cost them fifteen million for each goal he scored. He spent two loan spells at Inter Milan and then Estudiantes, he soon left as a free agent for Estudiantes in 2007. Manchester United and Chelsea wasted a sum of forty three million pounds accumulatively on his transfer.
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