5 transfers that should never have happened in the Premier League

Any time a player transfers from one club to another, it’s somewhat of a risk. Obviously, most transfers tend to work out, at least to some extent, simply because the player is wanted by his new club and manager and so, of course, all parties will work hard to make it succeed. But sometimes that simply isn’t the case.

Whether it’s down to a change in manager, the player being signed without the club really need them, the player not truly wanting to move, or something else entirely, sometimes we’ve seen transfers go so wrong that you wonder why both parties went along with it to begin with. Here are five transfers that went wrong for both club and player.

#1 Fernando Torres to Chelsea

When Spanish striker Fernando Torres joined Liverpool in the summer of 2007 at the age of 23, he was already recognised as one of Football’s brightest prospects after coming through Atletico Madrid’s academy and scoring loads of goals for them in La Liga. And he lived up to that potential as he scored 24 Premier League goals in his first season at Anfield and then went on to score the winning goal at Euro 2008 in the summer.

By 2009/10, Torres was not only a Liverpool hero, but he was also recognised as one of the best strikers in the world. The only problem? He’d started to pick up some nasty injuries, largely to his knees. His 2009/10 season was cut short due to knee surgery and when he returned the following summer, he didn’t look anywhere near as sharp as he’d been before. He scored his first goal of the 2010/11 season in August but then went until October without scoring again. Basically, he just wasn’t the same player.

That made it stranger when Chelsea signed him for a then-British record of £50m in January 2011. Nothing felt right about the move from the start, as he was expected to hit the ground running at Stamford Bridge but only delivered one goal in 18 appearances for the rest of 2010/11.

His Chelsea career just never took off, as he didn’t score anywhere near as many goals as he had for Liverpool or Atletico and largely played a bit-part before being loaned out in 2014/15 and finally sold in the summer of 2016.

What went wrong? He’s since recaptured some of his form but basically, injuries caught up with him and he was never given a chance to truly change his style at Chelsea due to his price tag and reputation. In hindsight, he should never have moved.

Andy Carroll's transfer to Liverpool soon turned sour

#2 Andy Carroll to Liverpool

Part of the fallout of the Torres to Chelsea deal was that Liverpool suddenly had £50m to spend on a replacement but only hours to spend it in as the January window was about to close. They brought two strikers in the same transfer window that saw them sell Torres – one, Luis Suarez, worked out massively.

The other turned out to be one of the all-time great transfer flops, despite showing flashes of brilliance. He was Andy Carroll, signed for £35m from Newcastle.

Carroll had been a prolific striker for Newcastle in the Championship in 2009/10, and in his first proper Premier League season, he’d carried that form on, scoring 11 goals in 19 appearances for the Magpies. His physical style and excellent aerial skill had even earned him comparisons with the great Alan Shearer.

The move to Liverpool though felt odd from the start. The word was that Carroll – despite arriving at Anfield via helicopter – didn’t really want the move as he was a Newcastle kid, and he was also coming in with an existing injury. His 2010/11 season was practically a write-off as he only made seven appearances for his new club due to his injuries, but he was expected to kick on in 2011/12.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Despite hitting form towards the end of the season and scoring the winner in the FA Cup semi-final against Everton, he only scored four league goals; and nine in all competitions. When new manager Brendan Rodgers joined the club in the summer of 2012, Carroll clearly didn’t fit in and soon found himself moving to West Ham, first on loan and then permanently. Like Torres, he should never have moved in the first place.

By the time Chelsea signed him, Andriy Shevchenko was past his prime

#3 Andriy Shevchenko to Chelsea

The ultimate example of what can go wrong when a club chairman simply wields too much power. In his pomp, Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko was one of the best and most prolific forwards in the world - a player that any manager would’ve loved to have had in his squad. By the summer of 2006 though, at the age of 30, it was clear that Shevchenko’s best days were behind him.

Evidently, though, nobody told this to Chelsea chairman Roman Abramovich, who bought Shevchenko in May 2006 and handed him to manager Jose Mourinho like an overly expensive Christmas present. It seemed clear instantly that Mourinho didn’t really want Shevchenko, and didn’t need him either given he already had a prolific striker in Didier Drogba.

And so Shevchenko was used sparingly in the Premier League – just 22 starts – and his goal record was relatively poor too, as he only got four league goals, and 14 in all competitions. It was as if – shock horror – he was a player past his prime. Which of course he was, to anyone not named Abramovich.

Shevchenko lasted one more season at Chelsea and only played 17 league games, scoring even fewer goals too, a meagre total of five. He ended up going back to his old haunts of AC Milan – on loan - and Dynamo Kiev, where he ended his career in 2012. His Chelsea run remains a blip on a great career and he’ll go down as one of the Blues’ worst ever signings.

Wilfried Bony's move to Manchester City may have ruined his career

#4 Wilfried Bony to Manchester City

There are plenty of examples of players in the Premier League moving to a bigger club too soon and failing to get any game time, but Wilfried Bony stands out as one of the most jarring, largely because during his run at Swansea City, he did appear to be good enough for one of the title contenders. Quite what’s gone wrong for him since is anyone’s guess really.

Bony joined Swansea for the beginning of the 2013/14 season for a club record fee of £12m after a stunning goalscoring record in the Dutch league. And he didn’t slow down upon his arrival in Wales either, bagging 17 Premier League goals, an impressive return considering he was at a mid-table club at best. His good form continued into 2014/15, scoring nine goals in his first 20 league games, and it only seemed like a matter of time before one of the big boys came knocking.

Sure enough, Manchester City swooped in during the January 2015 transfer window and signed the Ivorian for a £25m fee. However, from there on, things went downhill. He scored twice in his first 10 league games for his new club, and then contracted malaria, which wrecked his 2015/16 pre-season. A shoddy return of four league goals in 26 games followed, and he ended up shipped out to Stoke on loan in time for 2016/17.

The worst part? The move hasn’t reignited his career at all, as he only scored two goals in 10 league games for the Potters and clashed with manager Mark Hughes on occasions too. Not only did Man City essentially waste £25m on someone who became a bit-part player, the move also seems to have ruined his career in the process.

The arrival of Faustino Asprilla disrupted the harmony of Newcastle's attack

#5 Faustino Asprilla to Newcastle United

In 1995/96, fuelled by the incredible attacking talents of the likes of Les Ferdinand, David Ginola, Peter Beardsley and Rob Lee, Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United went into mid-January with a twelve point lead at the top of the table over rivals Manchester United.

Their weak point, though, was a somewhat shaky defence, made shakier by Keegan’s gung-ho tactics. It probably made sense for them to sign a defender to shore up their back line to ensure the title win, but instead, February saw them spend £6.7m to bring in Colombian striker Faustino Asprilla from Italian side Parma.

The move was a popular one with Magpies fans, but the problem was that Asprilla just wasn’t what Newcastle needed. Although he showed the odd flash of greatness, he only scored three goals in his 14 league games and worse – admittedly by no fault of his own - his arrival appeared to disrupt the attacking harmony built earlier by the Ferdinand-Beardsley partnership. He was of no help to the worsening defence, and in the end, Newcastle’s title challenge collapsed under the pressure.

Asprilla spent another two seasons at Newcastle but his goal return wasn’t great; Keegan – the man who bought him – was gone just eleven months later, and Newcastle never again came close to the Premier League title. Despite a brilliant Champions League performance against Barcelona, Asprilla was sold back to Parma in January 1998 and goes down as one of the all-time greatest transfer errors.