Signing football players is an inexact science and it would be unreasonable to expect every big-money purchase to work out well.
However, there are good reasons why some deals prove to offer better value than others, and the insipid performances of Frenkie de Jong and Antoine Griezmann for Barcelona in Sunday night’s Clasico loss perfectly illustrated that when you splash the cash, it’s better to know why you are doing so.
Here we take a look at the best and worst value big-money transfers over recent years in La Liga and the Premier League, the world’s two most financially powerful competitions.
And the bottom line? If you are prepared to splash top dollar on top talent, it’s preferable to have a plan in place which will allow the new investment to excel. Not too complicated, is it?
Click here to read about the best value big-money transfers
WORST VALUE
4-5-1 Kepa; Joao Cancelo, Eliaquim Mangala, Harry Maguire, Benjamin Mendy; Antoine Griezmann, Fred, Frenkie De Jong, Paul Pogba; Philippe Coutinho; Luka Jovic
After losing Thibaut Courtois to Real Madrid, Chelsea looked around the continent, saw a youngster who had made a few flashy saves during his 53 top flight league appearances and said: “He’ll do. Here’s an all-time record fee for a goalkeeper.”
Unfortunately, Kepa Arrizabalaga was still a work in progress, untested in the relentlessly demanding environments of a title race or a Champions League challenge, and the question of whether he would be able to perform at that level was little more than flipping a coin. His signing was a huge gamble which came with many unknowns.
It might have paid off and Chelsea could now be in possession of one of the world’s top keepers. Instead, they appear to be getting ready to replace him.
Joao Cancelo is proof that even Manchester City, who have often spent their money so wisely in the last decade, don’t always get it right in the transfer market…especially when it comes to defenders.
The full-back position has always been an important one for Pep Guardiola but this is one he got badly wrong, with the Portuguese international only starting seven league games to date and City reportedly already preparing to offload him – at a massive loss – in the summer.
Another big miss by City was their move for Eliaquim Mangala in the summer of 2014. The Frenchman’s physical attributes are obvious, but his propensity to commit careless errors has never left him and he failed to become a first team regular, spending moderately successful loan spells at Valencia and Everton before joining the Spanish club permanently last summer. Even there, though, he has struggled to make an impression and has spent most of the season on the bench.
It’s maybe a little harsh to include Harry Maguire in the worst-value XI. The England international hasn’t exactly been a disaster during his first season with Manchester United, and it’s clear the club’s problems run far deeper than the identity of their central defender.
But it’s impossible to separate Maguire from the £80m fee that made him the world’s most expensive defender.
At that kind of money, a player has to make an immediate and drastic difference, in the way that Virgil van Dijk did at Liverpool. Maguire has generally been okay, but he hasn’t been exceptional. And for that kind of money, only exceptional is good enough.
Left-backs are generally the cheapest players in football, with only three of them ever commanding a fee in excess of €30m.
The most expensive of all, though, is far from the most successful. Although his time at Manchester City has been blighted by injury, Benjamin Mendy has been underwhelming to say the least since joining the Premier League heavyweights from Monaco in 2017.
Pep Guardiola’s record in signing defenders is decidedly mixed (who can forget Dmytro Chygrynskiy?) and Mendy, injuries notwithstanding, has to go down as another big fail.
Paul Pogba was already a major superstar when he was signed – make that re-signed – by Manchester United from Juventus in the summer of 2017.
However, as often happens with big-time talent, he came with a big-time ego – something, in his defence, he has never attempted to hide.
The problem was that his new team were led by a manager, Jose Mourinho, not exactly known for his tolerance of free spirits who like to do as they please both on and off the pitch.
A clash both of personalities and playing style seemed inevitable, and barely a week went by without some kind of confrontation between the record signing and his coach. Although Mourinho is now long gone, that saga permanently damaged Pogba’s status at Old Trafford and he currently seems to be just buying time before his next move.
Frenkie de Jong is clearly a gifted performer who seems certain to take his place among the world’s top midfielders for many years to come. And there have been flashes of his quality since he joined Barcelona last summer, most notably with a brilliant goal at Real Betis a few weeks ago.
But the young Dutchman has largely looked lost and confused, even admitting in an interview that he is not being used in his best position and doesn’t feel comfortable on the pitch.
He also appears to feel uncomfortable alongside Lionel Messi, showing far too much deference to his iconic skipper and consequently failing to take the level of responsibility that his talent demands. De Jong remains a fine player, but at the moment he is being wasted.
You could make up a full team out of terrible signings by Manchester United during the Ed Woodward era, but Fred is possibly the worst.
Spending mega-money on a player the coach never wanted is a terrible starting point, but it’s well-known that Woodward recruited the Brazilian against the wishes of his manager Jose Mourinho.
It was not surprising then, that Fred endured a disastrous first season at Old Trafford, and although he has been better this season there is still a very long way to go before his fee even begins to look reasonable.
Philippe Coutinho is a wonderfully talented player, of that there can be no doubt. But signing a diminutive South American playmaker who likes to cut inside onto his stronger foot from the flank to either shoot or release a killer pass was perhaps not the best idea in the world when Barcelona already had another diminutive South American playmaker who likes to cut inside onto his strongest foot from the flank to either shoot or release a killer pass.
Coutinho never looked like forging a decent understanding with Lionel Messi, with the duo generally getting in each other’s way rather than combining.
Coutinho was just too similar to Messi to allow them to play together, and he lasted only 18 months before being ignominiously shipped out on loan to Bayern Munich.
Antoine Griezmann didn’t exactly endear himself to the Camp Nou dressing room by dramatically rejecting a move to Barcelona in the summer of 2018 in a heavily staged documentary, so it was rather strange to see the club force through the transfer 12 months later – especially coming at a time key players within the club were agitating to sign Neymar.
Griezmann’s rather strange allegiance to Uruguay had already been viewed warily by Luis Suarez, and the on-field chemistry between Griezmann and his fellow frontmen Suarez and Lionel Messi has always been conspicuous by its absence.
It’s no coincidence that the new signing’s best game in Barca colours came against Real Betis when the two South Americans were out injured.
When Luka Jovic arrived at the Bernabeu in the summer, the question was whether Zinedine Zidane intended to play him alongside Karim Benzema or in place of the Frenchman.
Eight months down the line, the answer appears to be: neither.
The Serbian frontman has barely been given a chance by his coach, even suffering the ignominy of being left out of the squad entirely for last weekend’s Clasico.
And as his replacement Mariano promptly scored, the Serbian misfit might have to get used to watching from the stands, wondering why his club went to such expense to sign a player who comes alive inside the penalty area when they play in a style that rarely sends the ball into the penalty area.
