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Teenage
Flops of the season
TEEN sport
BY Michael Thompson Observer TEENage writer UWI
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Many big-name players arrived in the different leagues across Europe during the summer transfer window. These acquisitions brought some success stories while others were utter failures. With huge expectations and money invested in them, these players crumbled under the pressure and did not even show signs of their potential. They looked out of sorts, did not fit the tactical set or even make a decent first team impact. And the list goes:
12 Dave Kitson (Reading to Stoke - £5.5m)
Dave Kitson was signed by Stoke for a club record fee. He was supposed to be their bright spark to provide experience in front of goal to keep the Stoke in the top flight. He played 18 games without scoring a single goal. He's a good player but just not in the Stoke mould. He was later farmed out to his previous club in the winter transfer window.
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| Ricardo Quaresma's (euro) 20m transfer from FC Porto to Inter was for naught. |
11 Xisco (Deportivo La Coruna to Newcastle United - £5.7m)
Brought in during the power struggle on the Tyneside club between the owner Mike Ashley and the messiah Kevin Keegan. He was never given a much of a fair chance and has had to be content with being fifth choice striker. Definitely a flop.
10 Jo (CSKA Moscow to Manchester City - £19m)
Big money, bad business is the order of the day for Jo. He was hardly worth the £19 million spent on him and failed to deliver. He was loaned out to Everton where he is beginning to find his feet. But Everton is unable to buy the player so City will either be stuck with a player they don't want or suffer a loss when they sell him.
9 Deco (Barcelona to Chelsea - £8m)
Dubbed the missing piece for Chelsea especially for the first two or three games, Deco made a lively start to life in England. But gone are the days when Deco could do battle for an entire season so therefore the odds were against him for making it in the Premiership. The switch to Inter must now seem like the better decision.
8 David Bentley (Blackburn Rovers to Tottenham Hotspur - £15m)
Seen by many as Beckham's heir, he's a long way off from that and not even as good as an ageing "Becks." Moved to Tottenham with much hype and expectation, the only thing of worth he has done is scoring a wonder goal of the club who snubbed him as a youth and Tottenham's bitter rivals Arsenal.
7 Robbie Keane (Tottenham Hotspur to Liverpool - £19m)
Seen as a the potential dream partner partner for Fernando Torres, a player of proven Premier League ability, it still remains a mystery as to the reason Keane failed to make an impact at his dream club. They system deployed by Liverpool did not suit Robbie as it only allows for one striker, Torres with Gerrard operating behind him. Therefore Keane had to compete with "captain marvel" and we all know who won. He was eventually sold back to Spurs leaving Liverpool with a loss of about £6 or £8m.
6 Aliaksandr Hleb (Arsenal to Barcelona - £15m)
Hleb has proved to be a tremendously poor value for money in the Liga this season. Bought as a direct replacement for Ronaldinho it was never going to be easy to be easy but even during the occasions when he's on the pitch he has failed to impress. He has been linked with many moves away from the club but it still remains to be seen what will happen.
5 Julio Baptista (Real Madrid to Roma)
Despite scoring eight goals including the winner of the derby, it cannot be underestimated just how costly Baptista has been to Roma's season. Baptista has had his excellent moments, including a couple of wonder strikes but these have been rare. 'The Beast' almost single-handedly cost the Roma qualification into the quarter finals of the Champions League by missing a sitter against Arsenal.
4 Andriy Shevchenko (Chelsea to Milan)
It is said signings like this that leads to Serie A being tagged as a 'retirement home'. Shevchenko had proven during two seasons at Chelsea that he was a shadow of his former self. It did not take Milan long to realise that it was a mistake loaning the Ukrainian, who has made just two league starts and failing to score. Unlikely to make his move permanent, it is still to be seen what's next on the horizon for 'Sheva'.
3 Christian Poulsen (Sevilla to Juventus)
The Juventus hierarchy had spent the first half of 2008 promising a world class centre midfielder to bring the Scudetto back to Turin but betrayed their supporters when they signed Poulsen. Fans launched angry protests and erected a huge banner that read: "Ridiculous, you've signed another rubbish player". The Dane has certainly matched this description - nervous, wasteful in possession, and making very few of the no-nonsense tackles he was supposedly infamous for.
2 Amantino Mancini (Roma to Inter)
Mancini has been just as much of a catastrophe as Inter teammate Quaresma. Mancini has made 16 appearances, nine of them starts and scoring no goals. One of the reasons why Mourinho's favoured 4-3-3 formation was scrapped was because of the sub-standard Mancini and Quaresma. The ex-Roma man will surely be offloaded at the end of this season.
1 Ricardo Quaresma (FC Porto to Inter)
Will go down as one of the most expensive flops in the history of Italian football. Signed from Porto for just under euro 20m after a summer-long soap saga, it soon became apparent that Jose Mourinho had made a big mistake. When Quaresma did receive the ball, he lost it virtually every time. His confidence shot to pieces and he was loaned out to Chelsea in January where he has continued to disappoint. It is still to be seen what will become of his future.
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