This thread is to find out which players have been the biggest waste of cash, and to construct a team out of them. The only criteria is that the team has to have blown a comparatively large fee for little gain. My team is: GK: Massimo Taibi (Man Utd, £4.5m) LB: Seth Johnson (Leeds, was it about £6m ?) CB: Christian Dailly (Blackburn, 5.5m) CB: Tomas Repka (West Ham, about £5m) RB: Ulysses De La Cruz* (Villa, £2.5m) CM: Dennis Wise (Leicester, £1.5-2.5m) CM: Christian Karembeau (M'boro, £3-4m) CM: Paul Okon (Leeds, £2.5m) STR: Bosko Balaban (Villa, £6m) STR: Kevin Davies (Blackburn, £7.5m) STR: Peter Crouch (Villa, £5m) There are many other players, mainly strikers, who could get in. For example, Blackburn alone could put forward Martin Dahlin (£2.5m), Nathan Blake (£4.5m) and Ashley Ward (£3.5m). Could anyone improve on this team that offers terrible value for money ?. *=I can't remember if Ulysses plays at left or right back, which highlights his impact I suppose.
Got to have Winston Bogarde in there, simply for total mickey-taking. Chelsea signed him (may have been on a free) in the summer of 2000 (I think), but since then he's made all of 3 starts for them. He's on £40k a week, happily sat with his feet up. And that was before they were showered with roubles. And don't forget Man U managed to lose c£14m (paid £28m, sold for £14m), not including wages (total c£5m), for the benefits of two seasons of Veron's incisive skills. Hahahaha.
Completely forgot about Winston, as many others have done. I'd swap him for De La Cruz in my team, and Veron for Karembeau, who had slightly more effect for his fee.
Good 'ol Winston came for nowt. 40,000 quid pw for nowt as well. Panucci. Came for nowt. 35,000 pw for inept performances. First thing Ranieri did was get rid of the waster. Theres yer left back and center half for ya. Chris Sutton. 10 fucking million quid transfer. One season. Three goals. Theres a starting striker for ya. Bollocks, i could fill out your list with just Chels rejects...........i'm gonna quit i'm getting depressed... Oh wait....a partner for Sutton...Casaraghi, though he was just unlucky, still no return for money spent.... ...really getting depressed now,it's no wonder bates was hiding all the financial records....
I wouldn`t include Ulyses, he`s been an ok squad player, filling in different positions down the right flank. Bosko Balaban, though, with wages will ultimately cost £10m, for a couple of minutes football. Rio Frdinand at £30m was expensive. Utd could have got an equally good defender for a tenth of that.
Updated team GK: Massimo Taibi (Man Utd, £4.5m) LB: Seth Johnson (Leeds, was it about £6m ?) CB: Christian Dailly (Blackburn, 5.5m) CB: Tomas Repka (West Ham, about £5m) RB: Winston Bogarde (Chelsea, free, £40,000 p/w) CM: Dennis Wise (Leicester, £1.5-2.5m) CM: Juan Veron (Man Utd, £15-18m) CM: Paul Okon (Leeds, free) STR: Bosko Balaban (Villa, £6m) STR: Kevin Davies (Blackburn, £7.5m) STR: Chris Sutton (Chelsea, £10m) Total cost: approximately £60-70m (give or take a few £m). Rio has just avoided getting a place because he has not been too hopeless when compared to the other players. Over priced, but it was a case of buying just before the market collapsed.
Wow .... I saw this thread title and clicked on it. At that precise moment, I would have bet every one of my worldly goods on the certainty that a Liverpool player was in the XI. Thank God I'm surfing Bigsoccer alone. Otherwise someone would be trying to take this computer off me now. Comments on first 11 - you can't really have Seth Johson as a LB, but he is a certainty for a place in midfield. Not just for his £9m fee (NINE MILLION!!!!) but also for thwe £37,000 a week he earns. I'm sure we've all heard the story of his agent's negotiations with Leeds. Also ... bizarre as it seems, but I don't think many West Ham fans would agree with the inclusion of Repka. He was appalling when he first arrived, but all the Hammers I know consider him a bit of a cult hero now. Which means he can't really qualify as a waste of money in the big scheme of things. And Veron's transfer to United was an even more collosal comedy than the listed price of £15m - £18m. He cost £28.1m. My 11 Taibi (it really is hard to see past him without going back MANY years) Marcelino (£6m .... out for 18 months with a dislocated thumb) Dailly (how can one disagree?) Ramon Vega (£4.5m to Spurs at a time when the likes of Alan Shearer could still be had for about £8m) Bogarde (a classic of the genre) Johnson Veron Bruno Cheyrou (only £3.75m - but 'the new Zidane' apparently. Must be Maribelle Zidane, the lesser-known cousin of the great man whose principal achievement in life is that she once had a photo she took of a puppy published in her local paper.) Brolin (Leeds, £4.5m, tubby disaster from day one) Sutton (the Chelsea iteration, of course) Davies (The average price of a Premier League match ticket is £28. This hopeless tosspot drives a Ferrari ... ) Honorouble mention in the striking department to Ade Akinbye. Leicester paid a whopping £4.5m for a player who is arguably the worst striker ever to have played in the Premiership. And yes, that include 'Mad' Erik Meijer's brief tenure at Liverpool. In total, Ade has prompted a collection of managers from every level of English football to part with a combined sum of FIFTEEN MILLION POUNDS for his services. See Ferrari, Davies for further causes of incandescant rage. Also - just so someone else doesn't get there first (amazed they haven't already to be honest) I shall commit the words 'Emile' and 'Heskey' to this debate. His Liverpool record actually puts him on the fringes of this category of players, by virtue of the truly abysmal failures that make up the core pool of a side such as this. A goal every four games is poor, but we've all seen worse. And he was pretty awesome in the 2001 season, so whilst it's all very amusing to mention him, I think he avoids selection by the skin of teeth. Even at £11m.
To be fair, Johnson's not actively bad, just overpaid. He's also been constantly injured, and not with a dislocated thumb. Rebrov's name MUST be there. Did he actually ever score in the premiership?
I seem to remember Sean Dundee having less impact than a feather thrown at your head, Phil Babb sucked pretty bad at times, as did Rigobert Song, Gary Breen was complete shite at West Ham (Parma intrested after the world cup? My Arse), Grabbi is a massive waste as is Macarone but ill give him a bit longer to prove him self. Helder Postiga might soon be able to qualify for the Wasters XI as. Cant believe Carl Cort has not been mentioned. 7 frickin million on him is just crazy.
Grabbi, Cort and Maccarone are all good shouts, yeah. Dundee, to be fair to him (although I don't see why I should, to be honest) was only £1.2m. So whilst he was technically a waste of money (paying his bus fare over here would have been hard to justify on subsequent showing) I don't think he gets a starting spot on the Waste of Money XI.
Maccarone is not a waste of money, he's a very good player and I'm sure there are lots of Serie A sides that would pay decent money to take him back. The only problem with him has been that he's at Boro. I've seen him play for Italy and for their U-21 team, he always looked superb.
Ah, but is that relevant? We all know Veron is a very good player and we have all seen him play for Lazio and Argentina when he has been superb. And yet there he is, starting in more or less everyone's 'Waste of Money XI'. Context. Maccarone had a bright start at Boro and then tailed away. He cost £8m and has not offered anything like a proper return on that investment. So he definitely qualifies as relevant to this little team.
oh, yeah. he put in a dozen or so for spurs in his first season at the lane (including cups) under george graham. not a world-beater, perhaps, and not worth his price; but hardly worthless. and keep in mind that it was his first season in the prem, with strong prospects for improvements. the fact that rebrov was a colossal waste of cash is AT LEAST as attributable to glenn hoddle as it was to rebrov, himself. if graham had stayed (and i'm not arguing for it, mind) rebrov would likely never have qualified for this list. conversely, if, at the moment that hoddle decided that he had no use for rebrov, hod had put him on the market, spurs could have easily recouped a vast majority of their investment. but hoddle would bring him in every other week for - literally - the last two or three minutes of the match, and - here's a shocker - he didn't really produce. hoddle destroyed rebrov; and spurs fans, who looked on in amazement at what was happening to their record transfer, couldn't admit that hod was a thorough git - and they blamed rebrov. all through it, hoddle insisted that rebrov had a role at the club. why? month after month, year after year, spurs fans watched as his value dropped and dropped until the best we could hope for was to loan him off to unload his wages. his transfer fee ($14m, was it?) was a total loss. worse, still, a very promising career (he lead the champions' league in scoring at one point) was destroyed. thanks hod.
no dice. barca's already reported to be preparing a 6m pound offer for postiga. if spurs haven't the nerve to wait it out til he comes good (and i hope they do), they'll still be able to sell him on at not too great a loss. of course, selling him on at a loss of a quarter-million only for him to become a star in spain would be even more embarrassing than him flopping for us at 6.25m. note: postiga got his first goal for spurs today in a 3-1 carling cup win over man city. hopefully there'll be more to come now that he's opened his account.
robbie fowler is taking the piss at the moment with his massive wages ,lack of goals ,off field antics.. how much does he earn at the moment?? about 60,000 a week or something.
Think so, heard the number £62k pw quoted. Unbelievable. I'd swear Keegan's not happy unless he's lighting cigars with fifty pound notes. Robbie Fowler should get extra points in the "Waste of Money" stakes though, because Leeds were so eager to get him off their books they're still paying £500k a year of his salary. When he "plays" (well, you know what I mean) for Man City.