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The Most Wasted Transfer Fees Ever!!!

Internationally;

1)Kaka to Madrid - 2010, 60 million quid; three injury-ravaged and extremely frustrating years. Real probably made the money back in shirt deals alone, but it was a waste of both a good player and a lot of dosh.

2)Denilson to Real Betis -1998, 21 million quid; I couldn't believe it at the time and I still don't believe it. Not the most expensive deal in the world, but certainly the most financially damaging when you consider the size of the club proportionate to the (then) world-record investment made in an under-peforming, luckless winger.

3)Andriy Shevchenko to Chelsea -2006, 31 million quid; An astonishing waste of money on a prestige buy that would in the end lead to a bitter fallout between Abramovich and Mourinho and be dumped on Milan after scoring 19 goals in two injury-plagued years.

4)Andy Carroll to Liverpool -2011, 35 million quid; Eh? Just because you sold one donkey doesn't mean you have to immediately buy another. On loan at West Ham, something no 35 million-pound footballer should have to sink to.

5)Robinho to Emirates Marketing Project - 2008, 32 million quid; the beginning of the project at Middle Eastlands. Spent two uninspiring years at City before shuffling off to Santos after complaining about the weather and the physicality and suffering a series of niggling injuries.

Spurs (post 1997-1998 );

1)Sergei Rebrov -2000, 11 million quid; why? A player that defined the decade of mainly malodorous arse served up by Spurs from 1995 to 2005.

2)David Bentley - 2008, 15.5 million quid; the new Goldenballs, ended up just being balls. THAT goal is all that keeps him off the top.

3)Grzegorz Rasiak - 2005, far too much - just....why?

4)Darren Bent -2007, 16.5 million quid; the fact that we recouped most of the money from his transfer means putting him here is harsh, given that he had quite a reasonable scoring rate as well. That being said, 'one-dimensional' was often a dimension too far for Darren.

5)Robbie Keane - 2009, 12 million quid; Scored four goals against Burnley, and....erm...not much else, really. Defoe's injury prompted his re-signing, but...jesus.

Honourable mentions to Ben Thatcher, Ramon Vega, Goran Bunjevcevic, and Paolo Tramezzani, only kept off the list by the relatively small fees involved. (Although 5 million for Thatcher was still 5 million too much)

Compared to those blokes, Crouchie (and his goal against City) was and remains a living legend.
 
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Rebrov, Bentley and Keane (second time around) have been the big money dumps.
We got our money back for Rasiak (ok 200k loss), Postiga (due to Mendes being part of the deal) and Bent (in full when Villa bought him).
Crouch was perhaps our most important player in his stint with us and we made a profit
We took a 6m hit on Pavlyuchenko, but were lucky to get as much back as we did - similiar loss with Palacios (but he certainly did his part while at the club)
 
It's been a while since this discussion last came up but there's been plenty of dodgy transfer fees paid over recent years...

Having been reminded in the Villa OMT that City signed James Milner for 26m it made me think what worse ones have there been?

I'll start with Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson... 50mill tinkled right up the wall!

Any better ones?

Not sure what's the cumulative fees spent on Keano. Most of them, bar the one Coventry paid for him and the first time we paid for him, could be considered a waste of money to some degree.
 
Not sure what's the cumulative fees spent on Keano. Most of them, bar the one Coventry paid for him and the first time we paid for him, could be considered a waste of money to some degree.

I would not be surprised if Keane returning to us ended up being one of the top 5 most expensive signings we've ever made when you factor in (the lack of) sell on fee and wages.
 
That Ibrahimovic transfer to Barcelona. Cost them €49m and Samuel Eto'o. They got €24m back when they sold him, pretty much a loss of 50m.

Since this thread seems to have revived ... total no contest .. this one wins ... everyone else can argue about fudging second place.

Will always be the worst transfer in history of football.
 
Can't see why Keane should be on such a list. He was one of very few highlights during the dreadfully mediocre yearly 2000s. Obviously he's no Messi, but at times the teammates he had, made him look like one.

We never should have bailed out Liverpool after they broke the bank for him, though. That one I agree on. But apart from that, buying Keane was money well spent.

EDIT: Just re-read the Keane posts, and realised it was the re-signing people were talking about...my bad..

Raziak, on the other hand...Jesus wept. I could have done a better job, and I'm brick.
 
We bought Rasiak for £2.2m and sold him quickly at £2m.
Not a big financial loss, just clearly not good enough for us.
 
Ruel Fox. ?ú5m I think. Jeez....
Dean Richards ?ú8.25m.
Rebrov ?ú11m
Postiga ?ú8m+
Bentley don't even want to think!
Pav ?ú14m

How much was Ramon Vega?
How much was John Scales?

And did Rasiak cost anything? We were raped if he did.

We only bought him so that West Stand Supporters had their own ugly pole to sit behind
 
How about £24m for Balotelli? Even if there were a world class talent in there somewhere (there isn't) it's fudging impossible to extract
 
How about £24m for Balotelli? Even if there were a world class talent in there somewhere (there isn't) it's fudging impossible to extract

City have done a lot worse.

He scored quite a few goals last season, quite a few of them were important too. Might not have won the league without him.
 
Just googled the largest fees and found this on Wiki... Andy Carroll is the joint 14th most expensive signing ever, behind players like Ronaldo, Zidane, Kaka, Figo etc :ross:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_(association_football)

Kaka at €65 (£56) must be considered a bit of a waste given his less than major role.

Gilberto must be one of our worst. He didn't cost much money but he played twice and created the winner for our opponent twice (or so it feels, I know he played a bit more).
 
Kaka at €65 (£56) must be considered a bit of a waste given his less than major role.

Gilberto must be one of our worst. He didn't cost much money but he played twice and created the winner for our opponent twice (or so it feels, I know he played a bit more).

Scored against West Ham though :mickey:
 
Tbf to Kaka he has been cursed with injuries whilst at Madrid, and when he has been fit he has not been selected. Carroll's transfer to Liverpool bricks over every other bad transfer ever.
 
Kaka was unlucky with injuries, talent wise he was one of the best.

There is a player in Wimmer, had he worn a shirt with Verts number on the back for the three months he covered for him nobody would have noticed it was a different player.
 
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