Transfer Grades: Jovetic, Negredo, Hulk, Digne and Mannone

Hulk – Zenit St. Petersburg to Monaco (£52m)

What’s the deal? Not sure where to start with this. Having signed quality players like Falcao and James Rodriguez, Monaco have gone from ambitious to laughing stock. This is a disgraceful transfer.

Is the price right? Is the price right?! Hulk has only had one good season in his career, and has never done anything in the Champions League or one of the top five domestic European leagues. His power and ball striking possibly makes him worth about £8-12m at most because he can be a menace against moderate opposition. But this fee is a joke.

Why sign him? Because Monaco want to recreate Andre Villas-Boas’ Europe League winning Porto team, seemingly in it’s entirety. Oh and, because they can.

Why sell him? Zenit got mugged in to paying what’s believed to be over £40m for Hulk last summer. He had a bad year in Russia and they’ve somehow sold him for a profit.

Will it work? He can do a good job in the French league, maybe 10-12 goals if he gets rolling. That would be a really good contribution from a player they’d paid even up to £12m for. But he’s not as good as what future rivals PSG have and he’s not going to help them win anything in Europe. He can do a good job certainly, but not for anything even barely approaching the money.

Grade: Z- I was going to just use an A to F scale for these, but then this went down so I’ve got no choice but to go to Z-, the lowest I can possibly give.