What next for big money flops?

Lamela. Tottenham's record £30m signing yet was nowhere to be seen. If Spurs were to sell, they would be lucky to get half of that, so I don't think they will. Is he going to come good next season?

Soldado. The figures do the talking: £26m, 6 PL goals, 4 of them penalties. Harry Kane has scored more open-play goals. Adebayor has been in good form since Sherwood started playing him and whoever is going to be their manager next season, I don't think they can drop Ade for Robbie. A return to La Liga on the cards in a cut-price deal? Costa replacement? Would sound pretty good to me for all parties.

Osvaldo. Joined Southampton in a £13m deal, scored a couple of nice goals, but had trouble fitting in. Engaged in training ground fisticuffs with Fonte and was shipped out to Juventus on loan, who apparently have the option to sign Osvaldo for €9m by the end of this month if they want to. Do they want to? If I found up-to-date stats, he has nine appearances for Juventus in Serie A and no goals. If Juve don't want him, has he got any future at Southampton or will there be a cut-price deal in which the player returns to Serie A (or why not elsewhere)?

Fellaini. £27m and nearly every United fan seems to want the guy out of the door. I think there's little chance of that happening, but if United's new manager really doesn't fancy Fellaini, at what price should United be ready to sell?

Bonus: Jozy Altidore. At £6m not a big money flop, but has some comedy value nevertheless. Hard to imagine he's going to be playing in the Prem next season.


Add your own if you've got any (from any leagues).

How come you haven't included Aspas  

Think Lamela might do an Osvaldo and go on loan in Italy, probably join one of Roma, Napoli, Fiorentina, Inter on loan. All depends if the next manager rates him or prefers the likes of Towsend over him.

In my perfect world coco will return to Roma (same as Marcos as PSG going through sanction) in the price that Roma can afford. But unfortunately what i want doesnt matter and its harsh to call Lamela a flop IMO, he just had to deal with injury after just struggling to adapt and then manager situation didnt help him either as AVB team wasn't the best performing team for whatever reason, new players that had to adapt then AVB mistakes and etc .

-how did i forget about borinho, add him to the perfect world thingi

EL Patron wrote:How come you haven't included Aspas  

Think Lamela might do an Osvaldo and go on loan in Italy, probably join one of Roma, Napoli, Fiorentina, Inter on loan. All depends if the next manager rates him or prefers the likes of Towsend over him.

Because his fate is already sealed.

Neymar: cost 100 billion, scored 9 goals in the league after millionbillion wasted chances and 4 times in the cl, 3 of which in the dead rubber match. Ultimately he was too weak for Europe, which is why he dived and fell every which way.

Needs to up his finishing and needs more muscle to his puny brazilian developed zamba body.

Give us Neymar brah

Bale for neymar and 90M?   

Harmonica wrote:Neymar: cost 100 billion, scored 9 goals in the league after millionbillion wasted chances and 4 times in the cl, 3 of which in the dead rubber match. Ultimately he was too weak for Europe, which is why he dived and fell every which way.

Needs to up his finishing and needs more muscle to his puny brazilian developed zamba body.

needs to come to Australia after the WC and train with chest brah for a month or 2

Harmonica wrote:Bale for neymar and 90M?   

Isco for Neymar and 30M.

Cristiano-Neymar-Bale

best attacking line ever.   

Guardiola?

Valkyrja wrote:

Harmonica wrote:Bale for neymar and 90M?   

Isco for Neymar and 30M.

Cristiano-Neymar-Bale

best attacking line ever.   

keep it

Maybe best chanche waste attack ever, needs best midfield in universe to greate those chances.

Bale for Neymar Xavi Song?

VivaStPauli wrote:Guardiola?

Thiago?

Harmonica wrote:
Thiago?

Not exactly big money, and not a flop, though he did negatively impact the team by being played when there were better players, but that's hardly his fault.

Lucas Moura? Not bought this season but he is going nowhere at PSG.

Matri for 13m. Not enormous money compared to Lamela, but still. Out on loan to Fio and will almost certainly be sold on somewhere else, because Milan don't want him.

Also, not sure that I'd classify Marquinhos to PSG for 31.5m as a flop considering that he's got future potential, but seriously - 31.5m for a 19 y.o. bench-warming CB. Like I said, this could turn out to be a great buy in the future, but just take a moment to recognise that Thiago Silva (arguably the world's best CB) only cost PSG about 10m more. The question is, what happens after another 4 years and his contract is up just when he is approaching prime age. Technically, he could just walk out of there.

VivaStPauli wrote:

Harmonica wrote:
Thiago?

Not exactly big money, and not a flop, though he did negatively impact the team by being played when there were better players, but that's hardly his fault.

Completely fact-free.

First he was injured for a long spell, so the 'better players' played anyway. When he started featuring in November and December we arguably played some of our best football of the season.

Since the beginning of this year, when we were starting to show signs of saturation, he was instrumental in keeping our winning streak going, as with his late winner against Stuttgart or his game changing substitution against Wolfsburg where he came on after an hour and game went from 1:1 to 1:6.
Fantastic performances in the 5:0 against Frankfurt, the 5:1 against Schalke, and the 0:4 at Hannover.

When he got injured early against Hoffenheim, we had 77 points out of possible 81 in 27 games, no defeat.

We drew the game against Hoffenheim and lost the next two games, so its 10 points out of 18 in 6 games since he's injured.
Not to mention the fantastic performances of the 'better players' against Real and Man United.

Of course his injury coincided with us winning the league in March, which is surely the main factor in our drop at that point.
But especially in a situation where our treble winners start to turn off a new player like Thiago would have been essential.


That's why if we're talking about a flop it should be Götze.
But that would be kneejerk as well since Götze is 21 years old.
btw Neymar and Lamela are only a couple of months older. They will have weaker spells, it's just natural, or will have to adjust to changing teams/countries/managers.

Also Götze's opener away at Dortmund just let's me cut him a lot of slack for this season.

Maybe Stevan Jovetic should be included here? £22 million for seven goals in all competitions, and a lot of time on the injured list & the bench.

Before anyone says I'm being too harsh on a guy who was out injured a lot ... let me say that I like Jovetic as a player a lot (I wanted Arsenal to sign him last summer), and I was mainly just thinking of the controversy the guy caused even at his own club, because for a while the physios weren't convinced he was injured, and he effectively put himself on the injured list. I know that aroused some anger and resentment.

But I did peek over at Blue Moon to see what the consensus was there now, at least, and without digging too deep, it seemed to me that Man City fans were optimistic for him next year. So maybe not a total flop.

Lamela – I never expected this to be such a significant flop. I expected there to be a bedding-in period, but nothing like this. Now, in his defense, it’s hardly been a stable environment. Moreover, he may never have been wanted by AVB in the first place. I still think he could be a quality player in the Premier League, but I doubt he will get the opportunity after such a high-profile transfer and subsequent disappearance. His only chance is if Spurs recruit a progressive and open-minded manager that can revive his career and cater to his strengths.

Soldado – Arts shout of “Costa Replacement” is an interesting one. Spurs will certainly be looking to cash in on at least one striker this summer. Soldado is unlikely to garner the fee spurs would want from another English club. However, his reputation in Spain is still very good. Atletico Madrid will likely be looking for a new, line-leading striker to replace Costa. There’s a fair amount of speculation here, but the concept is interesting.

Osvaldo – One would have to think that Osvaldo would be headed away from the Premier League after such a high-profile fallout with Southampton. He certainly has no future at Southampton. That said, there are plenty of clubs across Europe that would be interested in his services (if not his eccentricities…). While I believe I read something recently that implied Juve would not pick up his contract (nor should they), I can’t imagine that he would be too hard up for suitors if Southampton are looking to get rid.

Fellaini – This is going to be an interesting story to watch this summer. Should Van Gaal be appointed, I can’t see Fellaini being used. However, I can’t guess where he would end up, either. This one’s a bit of a mystery. Ultimately, I think this will come down to how big of a loss United is willing to accept on him.

Bonus: Jozy Altidore – This one was particularly hard for me to watch. He’s been so good for the USMNT, but simply never found his feet in the Premier League. Everything points to the league being a perfect match for Jozy’s style. He’s strong, physical, capable in the air, and can be clinical in front of goal (all evidence from the previous club season aside). I have no explanation for his utter howler of a season. I think he could find a home at one of the other, lower-table clubs. However, I hope for his sake that he moves to a different league. Perhaps a move back to the Eredivisie or a new challenge in the Bundesliga would be just the thing to reignite his career.

Coco will stay at Spurs. That much I know. It would behoove the next manager, especially if he comes from anywhere other than the EPL to integrate him properly in the team. A guy like Allegri would do just that. Not so much if they end up with Moyes.

Ditto for Soldado

Fellaini is as good as gone with van Gaal coming in. He ain't got no time for projects.

Simba will continue his status as journeyman extraordinaire and he's got no one to blame but himself. If he had behaved, the chances are Roma would've been less inclined to sell him as that was based on his behavior and less on his performances.

I still believe in Jozy, even after such a woeful season. I also still contend that he never should've left AZ so quickly after finding his scoring touch. Though he physically fits the bill for the EPL, I still don't think this is the right league for him. He needs to try and get to the Bundesliga, which I think would be absolutely ideal for him. Get him in at a club like Mainz, Schalke or Wolfsburg and he might just find some redemption.

I don't think Lamela will be loaned out. Levy is first and foremost a businessman and from a business point of view it would not make sense to loan out your £30m record signing to take a year out of his contract. Not only it wouldn't make sense, it would look a bit ridiculous, still from a business point of view, to invest so heavily in an asset only to discard it after a year. Levy doesn't appear to be a chairman who tells the manager what to do, but I can see him asking their new manager to give Lamela a chance.

Even if United's new manager won't fancy Fellaini and they'd be willing to sell cheap, I don't think there are such clubs in need of him who would be willing to match his United wages. I also don't think that Fellaini would happily accept a move to a clearly lower level club after just a season at United.

Jovetic was an interesting shout, but what I saw of him in 2014 didn't look too bad. Scored a couple of goals, too. Sure it was a difficult first season for him, but I wouldn't call him a flop, I'm actually afraid that he'll have a good season next season. Although if all four - Aguero, Dzeko, Negredo and Jovetic - stay at City, I think one of them is bound to have a poor season next season simply because lack of game time.

Why would Lamela be loaned out? It's not like he played and flopped, it's just that he didn't play. Sherwood keeps alleging to some 'back injuries'. And there seems to be some bad blood between Sherwood and him as well - Lamela's brother regularly calls him 'Dimwood' on twitter

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Why would Lamela be loaned out? It's not like he played and flopped, it's just that he didn't play. Sherwood keeps alleging to some 'back injuries'. And there seems to be some bad blood between Sherwood and him as well - Lamela's brother regularly calls him 'Dimwood' on twitter

I don't think he would be loaned out. If he's going, he's going on a permanent transfer.

Now, if Van Gaal had ended up at Spurs, I could see him persuading Lamela to stay and using him to great effect. However, with the managerial succession yet to be established, I could see Lamela wanting out of England. He's barely had a chance at Spurs, he's worked under several managers that didn't necessarily want him, and he's not featured in a system that accentuates his talents... Why not return to a league that understands and appreciates you?

It's somewhat harsh on Lamela to call him a flop, but he simply didn't offer enough return for the money. We can use all the managerial turmoil, injuries, and ill-fitting system excuses we want. The fact is he simply didn't offer much this season.