5 clubs that splurged money and failed

It would be hard to convince a significant number of football fans that spending big doesn’t always guarantee success. Examples of Chelsea, Manchester City and PSG since the turn of the millennium are there for everyone to see.

Chelsea won the title soon enough but back then, there was no big 6, it was only the big 4. They also had to wait till 2012 to finally lift the UEFA Champions League. As for Manchester City, they had to wait till 2012 to lift the Premier League for the first time and are still waiting for their first Champions League trophy.

My point is, splurging doesn’t always guarantee success. It took years of continuous spending for Manchester City to finally get the right balance and quality on their side to become the top side they are today.

Despite this, many owners believe spending heavily in one summer can help build a top side which can go on to better the team’s performance in the preceding seasons. What eventually happens is that the manager loses his job and many of the players who were signed end up leaving the club one after the other.

These five clubs which splurged in one summer transfer window are perfect examples.

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#5 Valencia 2015/16

After Real Madrid and Barcelona, Valencia have always been a well-known club from the La Liga and have had their fair share of highs in football history.

However, after few seasons of obscurity in the 2010s, the club wanted to rise to the top of European football under new owner Peter Lim. Hence, the club went on a spending spree ahead of the 2015/16 season

Several players made their previous loan moves permanent in the summer and this list featured players like Andre Gomes, Joao Cancelo and Rodrigo all from Benfica and Alvaro Negredo from Manchester City.

In addition, current Brighton and Hove Albion goalkeeper, Mathew Ryan joined Valencia from Club Brugge, Santi Mina from Celta Vigo, promising teenager, Zakaria Bakkali, from PSV, Danilo and Aderlan Santos from Braga and finally Aymen Abdennour from AS Monaco.

This took their total spending to €131m!

The season was however, one of the worst in the club’s history as they finished an embarrassing 12th in the league, exited the Champions League in the group stage and crashed out of the Copa del Rey after losing 8-1 to Barcelona on aggregate.

Four different people managed the club during this turmoil including the infamous managerial career of Gary Neville. Neville was sacked after winning only 3 of the 16 league games he managed while also failing to keep a single clean sheet!

#4 Everton 2017/18

Everton currently find themselves in the relegation zone

In recent years, Everton have tried to be an ambitious Premier League club and have taken some massive steps forward to achieving it. The Toffees finishing 5th and narrowly missing out on the Champions League spot in 2014 and signing Romelu Lukaku are all examples of the positive steps the club took.

This summer, the club reached a state where it was no longer possible for them to keep Lukaku and match his ambitions. Eventually, he signed for Manchester United and Everton pocketed £75m from his sale.

Everton opted to use the money to build a squad and they signed 14 players over the summer of which at least eight are first team players.

The most significant arrivals include Wayne Rooney, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Michael Keane, Jordan Pickford, Davy Klaassen and Sandro Ramirez.

Many tipped Everton to have a strong season after their summer but what followed was a colossal disaster.

More than a quarter way into the season, Everton find themselves in the relegation zone with just eight points, bottom of their Europa League group with just one point in three games and also without a manager.

Ronaldo Koeman was sacked following the dismal start to the season and it remains to be seen if any new manager can make a team out of the newly signed group of individuals.

#3 AC Milan 2017/18

Milan are way behind in the title race already and will struggle to enter it

Like Everton, AC Milan also went on a splurge in the summer but it is difficult to decide which team has been the bigger failure owing to the vast difference in stature of both sides.

Milan’s extravagant spending under their new Chinese owners put all other similar splurges to shame.

The seven-time European Champions signed seven first-team players permanently and three more on loan with an obligation to buy. If you include the money to be paid for these loan deals, they spent a mind-boggling €240.8 million in the summer!

Milan’s summer signings feature Leonardo Bonucci, Andre Silva, Hakan Calhanoglu, Mateo Musacchio, Ricardo Rodriguez, Lucas Biglia, Andrea Conti, Franck Kessie, Fabio Borini and Nikola Kalinic.

If you also include Antonio Donnarumma, brother of Gianluigi Donnarumma, then Milan can field an XI using only players they signed in the summer!

Milan were expected to at least fight for a Champions League spot this season but instead, they are likely to finish 6th or below at this rate.

They are currently 8th in the table with just 16 points after 11 games and also at least 10 points behind the final Champions League spot or even worse depending on the result of Inter Milan’s game in hand.

Napoli, Juventus, Inter, Roma and Lazio are miles better than Milan as a team at the moment and the Milan manager, Vincenzo Montella, could soon be without a job.

#2 Liverpool 2014/15

Liverpool struggled to cope with the departure of Luis Suarez in 2014/15

What Everton did this summer, their archrivals Liverpool did in 2014 but the Reds didn’t crumble like the Toffees did right from the start of the season.

Liverpool came agonisingly close to winning the title in the previous season but lost their spearhead, Luis Suarez, in the summer. Replacing someone of Suarez’s calibre is no easy task and Liverpool proved that.

The Reds signed eight players permanently and one more on loan in the summer. Their summer arrivals featured Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren - all from Southampton, Emre Can from Bayer Leverkusen, Lazar Markovic from Benfica, Alberto Moreno from Sevilla, Divock Origi from Lille, Javier Manquillo on loan from Atletico Madrid and most famously, Mario Balotelli from AC Milan!

Their summer spending came to £117m but nearly £78m was recouped from sales owing to the £65m Barcelona paid for Suarez.

At the end of the season, Liverpool could only finish 6th and their season ended with a 6-1 defeat at the hands of Stoke City on the final day.

#1 Tottenham Hotspur 2013/14

Spurs signed 7 players from outside the Premier League after selling Gareth Bale

The way Spurs spent their money in the summer of 2013 and flopped was an example for other clubs hoping to assemble a top squad in just one summer. Despite which, Liverpool and Everton followed suit in the subsequent seasons.

Spurs sold Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for a then world record fee of £85m and spent the money on seven players.

They spent £109m on players in the summer but recovered more than that from sales. However, the £109m they spent was not spent wisely.

The seven incoming players were not bad players by any means but the fact that they all needed time to settle in because every single one of them was from outside the Premier League didn’t help. To make matters worse, the manager who signed them was also sacked.

Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches, Christian Eriksen and Erik Lamela were the players who were signed. Of these seven, Eriksen has had a flourishing career at Spurs and Lamela is still at the club albeit being injured half the time.

The others except for Soldado, have found their feet elsewhere.

Spurs finished the season in 6th but that doesn’t even tell the whole story. They had some embarrassing defeats at the hands of Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and even West Ham.