During the late 90’s the Premier League was awash with a new influx of foreign players, money was good and the Premier League was seen as the Holy Grail by players from all over Europe. Who can forget Harry’s influx of Romanians at West Ham and the sudden appearance of players from Czech Republic, Croatia and Scandinavia after Euro 96? Sport.co.uk decided to put together a top ten European flops chart, just to remind fans at home and abroad that managers and even some players really do get it very, very wrong sometimes.
1) Juan Sebastian Veron
It had to be really didn’t it? Fergie doesn’t get it wrong very often but he did with this Argentine midfielder. So graceful in Italy for Lazio, the shaven headed Veron was signed on a five-year-deal for £28 million. He wasted further time at Chelsea, hardly playing before going back to Italy to win titles for Inter Milan.
2) Andrei Shevchenko
Touted as the world’s best striker at the time of his move to Chelsea in 2006 from AC Milan for over £30 million. He never gelled with English football or his manager Jose Mourinho and was rumoured to be a choice of Roman Abramovich rather than Mourinho who preferred plenty of other strikers to Andrei. Awesome for AC Milan before his English trip, he is now back where he started at Dynamo Kiev.
3) Sergei Rebrov
Another Ukrainian who played alongside Shevchenko for Kiev and helped them become a major force in UEFA Champions League football. He signed for Tottenham Hotspur in 2000 at a cost of £11 million. Poor form and few goals saw him on loan after George Graham left the club and new manager Glenn Hoddle was appointed. He scored 10 goals for Spurs in four years.
4 Thomas Brolin
The talented Swede was snapped up by Leeds United in 1995. He was a highly creative player for his then club Parma and especially the Swedish national side who at the time were considered one of the best in Europe. His price was £4.5 million, fairly high at the time, but he never got on with UK football or manager Howard Wilkinson. His fitness was a constant problem and 19 appearances in two years is why he is high on this list.
5 Winston Bogarde
Possibly the most ruthless man in football, who was happy to take money for nothing. A stalwart of the successful Ajax 1990’s side and a regular for Barcelona, he signed for Chelsea in 2000 and was instantly up for transfer by Claudio Ranieri. Ranieri dropped the player to the bench and the reserves in an effort to force him out, but there Bogarde stayed on his alleged £40,000 a week salary until his contract expired in 2004. He made nine appearances!
6 Jon Dahl Tomasson
Newcastle signed the Dane from Heerenveen in Holland for £2.2 million in 1997. Again not a huge price tag but a massive waste of money when you consider he returned 3 goals in 23 appearances. Surprisingly, he went on to become a first rate striker in Italy and all other clubs he has played for while returning a 50% strike rate for Denmark. Must have been the Newcastle Brown up there methinks.
7 Diego Forlan
A little harsh to call Forlan a flop but his goal-scoring record at Manchester United was poor for a man who has a one goal in two games record for all the clubs he has played for in Argentina and Spain. He cost United £7.5 million and though not prolific, was a player who scored important goals. But a return of 10 from 63 starts is not good value in the Premier League
8 Ibrahim Bakayoko
Everton fans will not thank us for remembering this striker. He was bought in from French club Montpellier for £4.4 million and netted only 4 times in 23 appearances for the Toffee’s. He was unaffectionately known as ‘Baka“joke”o’. Fair play to the Merseysiders though they got most of their money back after selling him to Marseille.
9 Djibril Cisse
Staying with Merseyside, this time with Liverpool, the Frenchman was signed for £14 million after many years scoring goals for Auxerre. Though not a total flop, he did not live up to his potential and was sold soon afterwards to Marseille where he was far happier. Good hair though.
10 Helder Postiga
Another barmy Tottenham Hotspur signing by Hoddle, this Portuguese striker cost the London club just under £6 million and scored only once in 19 appearances. Spurs fans will be delighted to know that he has never really recovered and is a frequent loan player at his home club Porto.