Top 10 Ridiculously Overpriced British Players Of All Time
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Top 10 Ridiculously Overpriced British Players Of All Time
With James Milner seemingly on his way to Manchester City for an awfully inflated £30 million, Goal runs down a list of the 10 most overpriced transfers of British players…
Please note that the players below are not necessarily the worst or most expensive transfers, but the most ‘overpriced’…
10) BRYN JONES
Wolves to Arsenal - £14,000 (1938)
When Arsenal signed him in 1938 as the successor to the legendary Alex James, they paid Wolverhampton Wanderers a world record fee of £14,000 (about £7 million in today's terms). The fee prompted outraged MPs to question its appropriateness in the House of Commons. The burden of publicity overwhelmed the shy and retiring Jones, who struggled with his form in London. Then the outbreak of war in September 1939 interrupted his career, and though he played for Arsenal again when football resumed in 1946, he lost his place to Jimmy Logie in 1947-48, appearing only seven times as the Gunners won the league that season, and not qualilfying for a medal. When he retired in summer 1949 (from injuries received when a Brazilian policeman struck him over the head trying to quell a pitch invasion during a post-season tour match), he'd scored scored seven goals in 74 games for Arsenal, compared with 52 in 163 games for Wolves.
9) JUSTIN FASHANU
Norwich City to Nottingham Forest - £1 million (1981)
After making his name with Norwich he became Britain's first £1m black player when Brian Clough signed him to replace Trevor Francis at Nottingham Forest. His relationship with Clough was never good and his confidence evaporated, not helped by Clough discovering Fash was gay and banning him from training with the squad. Sixteen months later he was sold to Notts County for £150,000, having scored 3 goals in 32 appearances for Forest. Clough delivered the legendary line in one of Fashanu's first training sessions: "I didn't pay £1m for you to take corners, now get in the box". Clough later infamously blasted: "'Where do you go if you want a loaf of bread?' 'A baker's, I suppose.' 'Where do you go if you want a leg of lamb?' 'A butcher's.' 'So why do you keep going to that bloody poofs' club?"
8) PETER CROUCH
Portsmouth to Aston Villa - £5 million (2002)
Southampton to Liverpool - £7 million (2005)
Liverpool to Portsmouth - £11 million (2008)
Portsmouth to Tottenham Hotspur - £10 million (2009)
Crouch has only twice reached double figures (11 and 12 respectively) in his Premier League career, yet somehow he has managed to command four overpriced transfer sums. The recipient of the most annoying – and completely false - English cliché in history which says that ‘Crouch has a good touch for a big man’, the likeable 6ft 6in giant is really as gangly and ungainly as they come. He must have one hell of a PR team and agent.
7) KIERON DYER
Newcastle United to West Ham United - £6m (2007)
Dyer makes the list not just for his transfer fee, but more so for his sadistic wages. He joined West Ham from Newcastle on a four-year deal in August 2007 for £6m, but largely because of injuries has not exactly delivered value for money. In May 2010 the Daily Telegraph claimed that Dyer – who'd made only 22 appearances in three years and never completed a full 90 minutes for the Hammers – was the club's top earner on £83,000-a-week, and that his contract included £424,000-a-season for image rights and £100,000 in loyalty fees. When you have an injury record worse than Arjen Robben during the Ice Age, you don't fork out this kind of money on the player.
6) ADE AKINBIYI
Wolves to Leicester City - £5.5m (2000)
Dubbed by some Leicester fans as ‘Ade Akinbadbuyi’, the Hackney-born striker will be best remembered from his disastrous spell at Filbert Street for his crazy, eye-popping celebration after finally scoring his first goal for the club against Ipswich. The rest of his two year-spell was dominated by open goal misses, first touches longer than Michel Platini passes, and just 11 goals in 58 league appearances. The one-time Nigerian international was sold to Crystal Palace in 2002.
5) ANDY JOHNSON
Everton to Fulham - £10.5m (2008)
This author recalls watching Johnson playing local schoolboy football as a teenager, and would have choked if told he would command an eight-figure sum 15 years later. For a striker who had scored just 17 league goals in 61 games for Everton, and whose only real attribute seemed to be pace, this was a wildly overblown figure for a team like Fulham to pay. In two seasons at Craven Cottage, Johnson has scored just seven Premier League goals from 39 games, failing to hit the back of the net in an injury-hit 2009-10.
4) DAVID BENTLEY
Blackburn Rovers to Tottenham Hotspur - £15m (2008)
Fifteen million pounds for a player who can only kick a ball. That is the best way of describing Bentley’s transfer to Spurs in 2008. The 25-year-old strikes a nice connection, and whips in an inviting cross now and then, but what else can he do? He can’t dribble, he has limited pace, strength or physical attributes, he rarely scores, and he is mentally vulnerable. In two seasons at White Hart Lane, Bentley has made just 37 league appearances, many of them as substitute, with just three goals and four assists.
3) STEVE DALEY
Wolves to Manchester City - £1.5 million (1979)
In September 1979, Daley was transferred from Wolves to Man City for £1,437,500 — a British record fee. He was an unmitigated flop and 20 months later was transferred to Seattle Sounders for £300,00. The Observer in 2001 described him as "the biggest waste of money in football history". City manager Malcolm Allison and chairmain Peter Swales blamed each other for having inflated Daley's fee.
2) CHRIS SUTTON
Blackburn Rovers to Chelsea - £10 million (1999)
When Chelsea signed Sutton in 1999, they were renowned as the most continental-styled team in the Premier League. The Blues, through the likes of Gianfranco Zola, Roberto Di Matteo and Franck Lebouef played spellbinding football at times, but occasionally lacked some old-fashioned English grit. The solution? Sign target-man centre forward Chris Sutton. The 6ft 3in hitman was good in the air and swinging his elbows and unbeatable at swearing, but as awkward as they come with his feet. His forward partnership with Zola was perhaps the most incompatible in history. Sutton dreadfully failed to justify his £10m fee, scoring just one league goal all season – albeit a memorable header in a 5-0 thrashing of Manchester United – and was sold on to Celtic after just one campaign.
1) FRANCIS JEFFERS
Everton to Arsenal - £8 million (2001)
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Arsene Wenger has earned this infamous tag as someone who is very taut with his money. Perhaps this is not surprising when you consider his market failures from 2001 where he spent £16.5m on Francis Jeffers and Giovani van Bronckhorst. The former was undoubtedly the biggest transfer flop of Wenger’s Gunners reign. The skinny Scouser, 20 at the time, had only scored 18 goals in 49 games for Everton but somehow warranted an £8m fee despite non-existent technical and physical skills. He was tagged by some as the English version to Italy legend Pippo Inzaghi, a “fox in the box”, but was way out of his depth at Highbury. Hit the back of the net just four times in 22 appearances during two years before being loaned out and eventually sold. Has struggled with smaller teams ever since, and at 29 he is currently without a club. -
I would say both Adam Johnson & David Bentley are actually not that really bad..
Johnson's problem is his injuries while Bentley is not given a regular starting 11 place in Spurs line-up..
back to topic, as usual ENG players are always super overpriced..
often we can see many unknowns/very young players from lower leagues who played well there & the next moment, the media will put them in the limelight saying they are the "next potential who & who" and this thus markup its players' value..
and when this happens, the respective club will markup the players' value even more..
and when this transfer is successfully completed, this player will then have an extreme expectation on him(even if he has no top-flight experience)..
and then in no matter of time, he will soon be a bench-warmer(or worst case, been frozen out) & waiting for another transfer..
and if this transfer is again been made, for sure its transfer value will still be at its high-end, as this player has just joined his first top-flight club and for sure his contract will be like 4 or 5 years..
therefore, if another team were to hire him, they will have to pay that big sum of money again..
and the cycle will goes on and on and on..
