The January transfer window is approaching its climax with deadline day set to bring drama and last-minute deals to the fore as it does every single year. But as history proves, clubs are tempted to hit the panic button and gamble on transfers that can often end up being unmitigated disasters.
Chelsea may be at risk of repeating their past mistakes after spending over £150million in the transfer window on no less than seven new signings. Time will tell if Todd Boehly will live to regret his dealings as Roman Abramovich perhaps did with Fernando Torres some 12 years ago, with £88m signing Myhkaylo Mudryk the big-name arrival this year.
But the Blues are not the only team to have delved in some questionable business in the past, with several of their Premier League rivals guilty of some high-profile transfer mistakes. Liverpool, Fulham and QPR also have some deals that quickly went awry that they may want to eliminate from the history books.
With only a few days left of the transfer window and plenty of deals still up in the air, Express Sport looks back on those transfers that followed an unexpected path with catastrophic results.
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Fernando Torres
Chelsea chased the Spaniard for the entirety of the January transfer window and Liverpool finally caved on deadline day, selling their fan favourite striker for a British record £50m fee in 2011. What followed was arguably the biggest disappointment in Premier League history as a floundering Torres failed to recapture his best form.
At 27, he should have enjoyed his peak years at the club, but Torres managed only 20 league goals in 110 appearances and when he left on a free transfer four years later, his exit was barely mentioned. He left with a Champions League winner’s medal, but it was little consolation for his four-year nightmare in west London.
Juan Cuadrado
Jose Mourinho must have thought he had pulled off a coup when signing Cuadrado ahead of Real Madrid and Juventus from Fiorentina for £26m in 2015. Instead, the Portuguese was left scratching his head at how it all went so wrong for the Colombian.
Cuadrado never got going in the Premier League as he struggled to break into Mourinho’s starting XI, making just four appearances in the Premier League in his five-month spell in England. That following summer he was carted back off to Italy in a loan deal with Juventus and has remained there ever since after sealing a £16m move back in 2017.
Andy Carroll
The expedited nature of Fernando Torres’ transfer to Chelsea means that Liverpool broke their transfer record twice in a few hours on deadline day in January 2011. But both strikers, Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez, went down different paths at Anfield.
Injury issues blighted Carroll in his 18 months spent on Merseyside and he struggled to replicate his form at Newcastle, with only 11 goals in 58 games for the Reds. He was quickly offloaded to West Ham on loan before making a permanent £15m move to east London, which at least allowed Liverpool to recoup some of the expensive fee they spent to sign him.
Christopher Samba
Harry Redknapp was delighted when he finally captured Christopher Samba after many years spent chasing the centre-back. His move from Anzhi Makhachkala was expensive, however, costing a club-record £12.5m fee and £100,000-a-week in wages which proved to be the beginning of a costly mistake.
The 31-year-old looked nothing like the defender who had made his name at Blackburn and struggled to find form in a leaky QPR backline which kept only one clean sheet in his 10 appearances at the club. It was not long before he was back at Anzhi after falling out with the club’s supporters due to criticism over his form.
Afonso Alves
Alves had gained notoriety in the Netherlands for once scoring seven goals in a single game while at Heerenveen, prompting Middlesbrough to spend £14m on the Brazilian in 2007. But in England, he proved to have a tougher time with just 13 goals in 49 games.
Their huge investment failed to bear fruit and when Alves scored only four goals in the entirety of the 2008-09 season, it was inevitable that the North East outfit would be going down to the Championship, with Alves jumping ship to join Al-Sadd in the Middle East.
Kostas Mitroglou
The Greek striker decided to swap playing in the Champions League knockout stages with Olympiacos for a relegation fight with Fulham when he made an £11m record switch in 2014. It is safe to say that a decision all three parties regret, as Mitroglou was soon packing his bags for the airport again come the end of the season.
Mitroglou arrived with a reputation for scoring goals, having found the net 14 times in as many games. But the poacher failed to have much an impact in west London and left after just three appearances, with Fulham dropping down to the Championship after relegation. He was soon back in Greece – and Fulham fans will be grateful they now have another ‘Mitro’ who has no trouble in finding the net.
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