5 new signings likely to flop in the 2017/18 Premier League season

With another huge pair of transfers – Alvaro Morata to Chelsea and Danilo to Manchester City – being announced this weekend, it’s clear that the Premier League is almost certainly the main destination for the world’s top players right now. And it’s understandable, thanks to the huge amounts of money available from the league’s monstrous TV deals.

Naturally though, while some of this season’s big signings will go down like a house on fire and turn players into legends at their new clubs, some of the others are bound to flop. We’ve seen enough times that moves can turn into disasters for players – perhaps they’ll fall out with their manager, or just not fit in with their new team. Here are five of the players who I feel are destined to flop at their new clubs in 2017/18.

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#1 Kyle Walker

With Benjamin Mendy set to be signed by Manchester City from Monaco for £52m, England right-back Kyle Walker was, for a short while at least, the most expensive defender in the history of football after City paid £50m to bring him in from Tottenham Hotspur. The general consensus seems to be that we should trust that a manager the calibre of Pep Guardiola knows what he’s doing, but I think there are plenty of reasons to worry about Walker at the Etihad.

Firstly, he’s 27 years old, and so it’s probably safe to say he’s in his prime right now and isn’t really likely to improve dramatically with Guardiola’s influence – after all, his former boss at Tottenham, Mauricio Pochettino, already improved Walker’s game hugely and is recognised more as a defensive coach than Guardiola has ever been. So is Walker really a world-class talent? I’m not so sure.

Despite his tremendous pace and athleticism, both of which allow him to make marauding runs down the right side of the pitch as an attacking full-back, he isn’t the best crosser of the ball – for example, despite making 31 league appearances in 2016/17, he only assisted in 5 goals and didn’t score any himself. This could well be part of the reason Pochettino actually dropped him in favour of Kieran Trippier towards the end of the season – Trippier in comparison made 5 assists in just 6 league games.

Add in the fact that there are still questions over Walker’s defensive abilities, and a transfer fee that could become a millstone around his neck, and I think you’re looking at a likely flop this season.

#2 Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney's return to Everton may go painfully wrong yet

Wayne Rooney might not have cost Everton a penny in terms of a transfer fee, but given the huge wages he’s reported to be earning – 150k pounds a week or thereabouts – he could still turn out to be a huge waste of money for the club he initially broke through at. Question marks surround the move, from the position Rooney will end up playing, to how much exactly he has left in the tank anyway, and it seems the likelihood of the move paying off seems low for all parties.

To put it simply, Rooney’s ability to influence games has been on the wane for a long time now, arguably since around 2013. He was one of the better players at Man United under Louis Van Gaal, but 2016/17 was undoubtedly the nadir of his career, as despite Jose Mourinho showing some loyalty by leaving him as club captain, he only made 25 appearances in the league, scored just 5 goals, and lost his place in the England squad in the process.

Can he really be expected to rebuild his career at Everton? It’s doubtful; the explosive pace he once had as a younger player seems to be gone for good now as his lifestyle choices throughout his career have been somewhat questionable, his first touch seems to look worse every time he plays, and there’s also the confusion over his best position – is he still a striker, or would he be better off in the deep-lying midfield role that Roy Hodgson preferred him in during Euro 2016?

Add in the question over who exactly he’s going to be replacing – Ross Barkley maybe? Or the 20-goal a season Romelu Lukaku? – and I think there’s a recipe for disaster for the legendary player.

#3 Tiemoue Bakayoko

Tiemoue Bakayoko has been accused of attitude problems in the past

Chelsea’s second expensive transfer of the summer, following Antonio Rudiger and preceding Alvaro Morata – French midfielder Bakayoko cost the Blues around £40m to bring in from Monaco. He’s expected to replace the likely outgoing Nemanja Matic as he looks to move to Manchester United, partnering N’Golo Kante in Chelsea’s midfield as a largely defensive pair.

Sounds good, right? Perhaps not. While Bakayoko had an excellent season in 2016/17 – he made 51 appearances overall as Monaco made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League and also won Ligue 1, it’s easy to forget that it was actually his third season at the club. The first two saw him only make a total of 31 appearances, as he was plagued by injuries and accusations of attitude problems, as he fell out with Monaco’s manager Leonardo Jardim and was accused of slacking during training.

He since claims that working with the legendary Claude Makelele has put his career back on track, but can anyone be truly certain after one excellent season? We’ve seen on numerous occasions before that a player can be a one-season wonder. The other issue with Bakayoko’s move to Chelsea is the question as to whether the club actually needed the Frenchman, given they had England youth star Nathaniel Chalobah in their ranks.

Chalobah plays in the same position as Bakayoko, had been at Chelsea for his whole career and simply needed a chance to break out. Instead of giving him the opportunity though, the expensive Bakayoko has been brought in instead. Given the Chelsea fans were dying to see an academy graduate make the first team, the fact that Bakayoko appears to have pushed Chalobah out of the club to Watford may put added pressure on the Frenchman – making him more likely to flop.

#4 Alexandre Lacazette

Alexandre Lacazette may find the step up to the Premier League a difficult one

After a disappointing 2016/17 season and with Alexis Sanchez looking ever more likely to be on his way out, Arsenal are pinning almost all of their hopes this season on their new signing, French striker Alexandre Lacazette. The striker was a goal-machine at Lyon for the last four seasons, but there are plenty of reasons to worry about how he’ll fit in at the Emirates and whether he can really be the spark that the Gunners need.

The French league is a very different place to the Premier League and while it’s not an outright weak league, the step up in quality for Lacazette will be huge. Even the weaker Premier League teams have sturdy defences, especially with the TV money allowing smaller clubs to bring in better players. Many of Lacazette’s goals in France came against weaker sides, the likes of which he’ll basically no longer be playing against.

We’ve seen plenty of times that a player who can score goals for fun in one of Europe’s lesser leagues doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll score in England – see Vincent Janssen for instance – and the added pressure of being Arsenal’s marquee signing, the man who’s expected to help the club climb back up to the Champions League places, might well be too much to take for Lacazette.

With the possibility of Sanchez – and perhaps Olivier Giroud too – abandoning ship at the Gunners, even if he does settle in well, there’s no guarantee Lacazette will be a hit at the Emirates playing alongside lesser talents. I feel it’s more likely that he’ll struggle.

#5 Mohamed Salah

It's a little hard to see where Mohamed Salah will fit in at Liverpool

Moving from Roma for an initial £36m, Liverpool’s new record signing Mohamed Salah – eclipsing Andy Carroll, who moved for £35m in 2011 – is hoping that this time his career in the Premier League will really take off. After all, he’s been here before – he signed for Chelsea during the January transfer window in 2013/14 but flopped at the London club, making just 13 appearances before moving to Fiorentina and then Roma, initially on loan deals before making a permanent move at the start of last season.

It could be argued that his career at Chelsea was simply hampered by a lack of opportunities – the Blues signed him from under the nose of Liverpool back then, after he’d helped Basel to shoot them down – but although he played excellently during his time in Italy and rebuilt his damaged reputation, it may be much harder for him to succeed at Anfield than some people are expecting.

Firstly Serie A is a great league, but it’s much less physical than the Premier League and while Salah’s pace and dribbling skills are impressive, there are question marks over whether he can cope with the stronger tackles put in by Premier League defenders. Then there are the issues over where exactly he fits in – Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has preferred to use almost a diamond attacking formation, with Roberto Firmino at the tip, Philippe Coutinho on the left, Sadio Mane on the right, and Adam Lallana attacking from a deeper position.

Given those four players were phenomenal in 2016/17, it’s difficult to see who Salah will supplant; he seems best from the right, but Mane was fantastic in his first Liverpool season and will be hard to push out. Salah’s Egyptian countryman Mido has already predicted that the £36m man will flop due to the higher tempo and physicality of the Premier League, and he could well be proven right.