Clubs spent €2.6 billion in the summer of 2022, rising from €900 million to €3.5 billion in the winter. It was mainly due to Chelsea’s crazy shopping spree.
Before the summer transfer window, an overview of the most disastrous deals of the Premier League last season.
Paul Onuachu (Southampton, €18m)
Onuachu failed to save Southampton from relegation. Previously, he netted 17 times for Genk in the Belgian league, then moved on for €18m this winter and only managed to score once in the Premier League. Now for the championship.
Darwin Nunez (Liverpool, €80 million)
Nunes belongs to a rare species: players who have never shone in the big leagues cost 100 million euros and do not meet the expectations of their new club.
Coach Jurgen Klopp could have used the money better, like signing Jude Bellingham.
The Uruguayan scored nine goals in his debut season for Liverpool in the Premier League and often looked a bit clumsy.
Jorginho Rutter (Leeds, €28m)
Rutter is also a prime example of Premier League madness. At Hoffenheim, the Frenchman only scored two goals in the first half of the season. However, it cost Leeds €28m. In England, the striker is still waiting for his first goal. The only one who benefited from this transfer – “Hoffenheim”.
Gianluca Scamacca (West Ham, €36m)
The Italian was seen as one of those players any club would love to sign this summer. West Ham signed him for big money, but the transfer didn’t work out at all. Instead of Scamacca, team veteran Antonio played most of the time.
Scamacca’s season ended with a knee injury. This summer, he could still change clubs.
Anthony Gordon (Newcastle United, €45.6m)
Everywhere except the UK in January the question was asked: who is Anthony Gordon? If he wasn’t a Premier League-educated Englishman, Newcastle could have asked the same question and avoided spending €45.6m on him.
Four goals and zero assists is the end of the season. Newcastle already know this is a disgraceful transfer.
Gonzalo Guedes (Wolves, €32.6m)
The Portuguese striker’s tenure at Wolverhampton was so short that some might not even notice the move. After all, he only scored twice for the “wolves”.
But six months later, he moved to Benfica Lisbon.
Philippe Coutinho (Aston Villa, €20m)
In the first half of 2022, the Brazilian performed well at Aston Villa, prompting the club to sign him on a full contract.
But even in Birmingham he cannot regain his old form. Coutinho has scored just one goal in all competitions and has been out of action since late February with a muscle injury.
Yves Bissouma (Tottenham, €29.2m)
Bissumah was one of the most wanted Premier League players at Brighton, but he was unrecognizable at Tottenham.
A broken ankle ended his season. Interestingly, his former club Brighton, not Tottenham, will play in the Europa League next season.
Kalidou Koulibaly (Chelsea, €38m)
Koulibaly probably missed out on the only European title of his career last season as he left Napoli for Chelsea.
In London, Koulibaly performed poorly, many uncertain performances put his future at Stamford Bridge in question, and eventually Kalidou moved to Saudi Arabia and signed a contract with Al-Hilal.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Chelsea, €12m)
It was a terrible season for the Gabonese. Coach Thomas Tuchel wanted him, got him and left after a week. His successor, Graham Potter, dropped Aubameyang from the Champions League bid even though the Blues had no other trained striker at the time.
Frank Lampard was not counting on him either. During the season he scored three goals.
Arthur Melo (Liverpool, loan)
The Brazilian played exactly two games for Liverpool, who loaned him to Juventus for 4.5 million euros. Plagued by injuries, the midfielder almost never had a chance.
Anthony (Manchester United, 95 million euros)
We live in a time when Eredivisie wingers are promoted to the Premier League for 100 million euros. Anthony belongs to the same category as Nunez. Recall that just 10 and 14 years ago, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo cost as much as they gave for Anthony and Nunez. At the time, they were at least among the top five players in the world.
Ajax got big money for a player who showed nothing at Manchester United in his debut season. He managed to score a total of only eleven goals.
Jesse Lingard (Nottingham Forest, free agent)
When his contract with Manchester United expired, Lingard moved to newly promoted Nottingham Forrest. Lingard never found his form there, coach Steve Cooper didn’t trust him. At the same time, the club were spending £120,000 a week on wages.
Mikhail Mudrik (Chelsea, €70m)
The list of attacking players paid €100m by clubs outside the top 5 leagues is completed by Mudrik.
In January, Chelsea overtook Arsenal in the transfer race for the Ukrainian, paying 70 million euros and adding another 30 million in bonuses. And while Mudrik hasn’t shown anything in the Premier League.
Calvin Phillips (Manchester City, €49m)
Phillips’ whole transition was weird. Pep Guardiola even said Phillips was overweight.
A shoulder injury ruined his season and he never recovered. In total, Phillips has spent just under 300 minutes in the Premier League.
Marc Cucurella (Chelsea, €65.3m)
€65m for a defender is actually more than €100m for a striker. But the Spaniard is not even worth it. Many players succeed at Brighton but fail elsewhere, even when manager Graham Potter arrives.
His performances for Chelsea were simply poor, marred by numerous individual errors.
Richarlison (Tottenham, €58m)
Richarlison has scored exactly one Premier League goal, although his summer move initially seemed successful as the striker was a regular starter for Brazil at the Winter World Cup in Qatar and scored the best goal of the tournament.
At Tottenham, the forward was only remembered for further shirtless goal celebrations in the final minutes, which were called off due to offside. There was only 1 goal.
This makes Richarlison the Premier League’s worst signing for 2022/23.
Vyacheslav Gorbachev, Athletistic
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Source: Sport
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
