10 players whose transfer fee didn't match their talents

#5 Kepa Arrizabalaga - £71m (Athletic Bilbao to Chelsea, 2018)

Kepa Arrizabalaga has yet to justify his £71m fee

The world record transfer fee for a goalkeeper was broken twice in the summer of 2018 by Premier League clubs, but while Alisson Becker has practically repaid every penny of the £56m it cost Liverpool to bring him to Anfield from Roma, the same cannot be said for Kepa Arrizabalaga, who moved from Athletic Bilbao to Chelsea for a huge fee of £71m.

Despite his clear raw talents, the move was always a risk for the Blues given Kepa’s young age for a goalkeeper – just 23 at the time of his transfer – and the fact that with just two seasons of top flight football under his belt, he was seriously lacking in experience, having never even played in European competition for instance.

Had the Spanish international settled into life at Stamford Bridge and performed well, the move could be looked at as a risk that paid off, but unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case at all; Kepa’s form was mixed throughout his debut season and he gained notoriety when he refused to be substituted despite suffering an injury in the 2019 EFL Cup final.

This season has been even worse for him, too; recent games have seen him dropped in favour of backup keeper Willy Caballero after statistics showed that he had the worst save percentage in the Premier League, and while he might get back into Frank Lampard’s favour yet, there’s every chance Chelsea could sell him in the summer – likely making a major loss in the process after overspending on him to begin with.