A cautionary tale for Manchester City’s stellar signing: from Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Dani Osvaldo to Fernando Torres and Ángel Di María, the Premier League is awash with stories of rich talent unfulfilled
The pressure is on Raheem Sterling. The pressure to perform week in, week out. The pressure to live up to the expectations of the fans. And most of all, the pressure to live up to the fee that Manchester City have paid for his services.
That fee is £49m, making him just £4m more expensive than Carlos Tevez, City’s previous record purchase, and £11m more than they paid for Sergio Agüero, a fellow attacker. Whereas it would be easier to locate the world’s smallest needle in the world’s largest haystack than find someone who would argue that Agüero was not worth what he cost, the same cannot be said of his fellow Argentinian.
Tevez’s record of 73 goals in 148 games meant he was scoring nearly a goal every other game for City – a stat for any sore-eyed manager – but his success was undercut by the tantrums and the transfer requests. He was by no means a failure but, with the exception of Wilfried Bony at Swansea, it is startling to see how many record purchases by other Premier League clubs have not been successful.
Take Norwich City for a start. Ricky van Wolfswinkel cost £8.5m and it would be no exaggeration to say that it might be the worst £8.5m spent by any side in England’s top division. He came to England with a decent reputation having scored 35 goals in his previous two seasons. “He has an excellent goalscoring pedigree and he is very keen to continue his personal progression and play in England,” said Chris Hughton at the time.
Van Wolfswinkel’s start looked to have proved Hughton right. On the opening day of the 2013-14 season, he impressed and a well-taken header earned his side a draw against Everton. That, however, was the high point of his career with the Canaries. He would never score again for them and last season he was sent out on loan to St Etienne without Norwich stopping to think it over.
The Dutch striker could make the point that it takes time to adapt to a new nation, a new league and a new way of playing but Andy Carroll can have no such quarrels. The former Newcastle United forward has been the record signing for two clubs – Liverpool and West Ham – and he has hardly been a success at either of them. At the former he scored a mere 11 goals in 58 appearances; while at the latter he has 14 in 54. Hardly the sort of figures expected from a striker who has cost £50m in total.
Coincidentally, £50m is the same amount that Chelsea paid for the man who Carroll replaced, Fernando Torres. At times in a Liverpool jersey, the Spaniard would, like a punch in the gut, take your breath away. However, by the time he togged out in blue, he looked as sure-footed as a deer at a roller disco. After 20 goals in 110 league appearances, he was eventually farmed out to Milan and Atlético Madrid.
Like van Wolfswinkel, Dani Osvaldo was dropped into a new climate whenSouthampton paid around £15m for his services. But 166 days and a training-ground scuffle with José Fonte later, he was sent off to Juventus on loan. The Italian would have his contract terminated two years early. The chart goes on: Aston Villa paid £18m (later rising to an eye-watering £24m) for Darren Bent; Sunderland spent an incredible £12m on Steven Fletcher; and a reluctant and eventually uninspiring Michael Owen cost Newcastle £16m. For other clubs, however, the subject of a record signing and their success is not so black and white.
Mesut Özil is one such example. The German is a sublimely talented and intelligent player whose passing game could almost convince the most stonewall of psychic sceptics that seeing into the future is possible. However, Arsenal fans complain that too often he fails to bend the game to his will, to impose himself in the way that is expected of player who cost £42.5m.
Ángel Di María is another non-clear-cut, clearly talented example. Coming off the back of brilliant campaign with Real Madrid that saw him put in a man-of-the-match performance in their Champions League final win, Los Merengues earned almost £60m from his sale but there was almost universal agreement that when they agreed to let him go they were so far off their rocker that the rocker was a mere dot in the distance. Early in the season, those thoughts seemed to be confirmed as Di María’s form continued. However, since before Christmas kicked in and Di María’s hamstring kicked out, the Argentinian attacker has looked leaden footed and his play predictable.
Only with another season or two under his boots will we be able to tell whether Madrid were right to take the money and run and the same applies to the players such as Érik Lamela at Tottenham and Romelu Lukaku at Everton. Both are blessed with gifts that some would gladly part with their soul for, but both have failed to apply those skills on a regular basis once that tag of record transfer hangs around their neck.
More than being dropped into an alien league, that tag must be one of the prime reasons why so many of the Premier League’s record transfers have failed. With it comes increased responsibilty for the side and the club and increased pressure from the fans and the media. Some players have the mental strength to cope with that. Others, it would seem, do not.
All Premier League clubs’ record signings
Arsenal Player: Mesut Özil. Bought from: Real Madrid. Date: September 2013. Fee: £42.5m
Aston Villa Darren Bent, Sunderland, January 2011, £18m (rising to £24m)
Bournemouth Tyrone Mings, Ipswich Town, June 2015, £8m
Chelsea Fernando Torres, Liverpool, January 2011, £50m
Crystal Palace Yohan Cabaye, Paris St-Germain, July 2015, £10m (rising to £12.5m)
Everton Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea, July 2014, £28m
Leicester City Andrej Kramaric, HNK Rijeka, January 2015, £9.7m
Liverpool Andy Carroll, Newcastle, January 2011, £35m
Manchester City Raheem Sterling, Liverpool, July 2015, £49m
Manchester United Ángel Di María, Real Madrid, August 2014, £59.7m
Newcastle United Michael Owen, Real Madrid, August 2005, £16m
Norwich City Ricky van Wolfswinkel, Sporting Lisbon, July 2013, £8.5m
Southampton Dani Osvaldo, Roma, August 2013, £15m
Stoke City Peter Crouch, Tottenham Hotspur, August 2011, £10m
Sunderland Steven Fletcher, Wolverhampton Wanderers, August 2012, £12m
Swansea City Wilfried Bony, Vitesse Arnhem, July 2013, £12m
Tottenham Hotspur Erik Lamela, Roma, August 2013, £25.8m
Watford Étienne Capoue, Tottenham Hotspur, July 2015, £6.3m
West Bromwich Albion Brown Ideye, Dynamo Kiev, July 2014, £10m
West Ham United Andy Carroll, Liverpool, July 2013, £15m
Chelsea’s José Mourinho will leave the big spending to Manchester
The Chelsea manager believes is squad does not need major surgery but has told his players they will have to perform even better than they did while winning the Premier League last season
The transfer merry-go-round is in full swing yet José Mourinho is not jumping on board. While Louis van Gaal and his friend from across Manchester, Manuel Pellegrini, are flexing their financial muscles, the man they are trying to catch is fine-tuning a squad which was the strongest and, ultimately, the best in the Premier League last season.
Yes, United have rapidly brought in quality at a cost. City’s £49m purchase of Raheem Sterling is a stark indicator of how serious their domestic ambitions remain. Oh, and naturally Petr Cech, a bedrock in the Portuguese’s first two English titles, will become invaluable to Arsenal.
Yet as Mourinho sits in Chelsea’s Montreal base dressed in club blue, glint firmly in eye, there are no pangs of panic. Instead, bullish talk comes of his champions being given the chance to prove themselves even more accomplished this time around. After all, Manchester’s mammoth spend is their prerogative. The only new faces at Chelsea have been like-for-like purchases – Radamel Falcao, who will join up with the squad in New York on Tuesday following an extended break after the Copa América, for Didier Drogba and Amir Begovic for Cech.
Mourinho, like every other manager in world football, is an admirer of the Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba. He is confident of landing Everton’s John Stones, who will be the target of a renewed offer this coming week. Yet Mourinho will not be hamstrung if Stones, Pogba or anyone else for that matter who does not fancy a move to Stamford Bridge. He is happy with his lot.
“To go for somebody it’s because I lose somebody,” he says. “It’s because somebody wants to leave and because somebody brings the perfect offer forChelsea to accept. I think the market is inflated. I only have to look at what is happening in my own country. [Portugal] is a country in trouble generally – socially, politically, economically. It’s a country in trouble, people are suffering a lot, there have been a lot of cuts, old people have trouble with their pensions, tax is higher, salaries, jobs, everything.
“This season Porto pay €20m for Imbula, they give Casillas an amazing salary, Sporting are paying millions for coaches and players. Football breaks every situation. This season we are saying: ‘Oh, look at this amount for Sterling.’ But it will be worse next season. Next season someone will pay £60m. Football is like this – one season is financial fair play, the next is a way to dribble [past] the financial fair play. It doesn’t upset me. I’m happy with the way that we are doing things I am happy with the challenge of fighting against this power. I told the players that we are the same team and the others are not the same team. I cannot stop opponents to make an assault to the banks and spend millions and millions. I cannot stop that. I cannot stop [that] the others have a feeling that we are playing against the champions.
“The others are spending. The others are buying a lot to try to be better than us and the fact that we are the same – we are changing a goalkeeper for another one, a striker for another one.”
Strengthening from a position of superiority is often the way, though Mourinho believes looking within and moving forward without spending needlessly is a steadfast way of ensuring a dynasty is created at Stamford Bridge. Roman Abramovich, believe it or not, has been relatively frugal in the past – following title victories in 2005 and 2010, tweaks in the squad followed rather than wholesale changes. That caused friction with Mourinho and his successor Carlo Ancelotti.
This time, however, Mourinho feels it is different. “It’s a big challenge. To be better with the same people, the players have to be better individually than they were last year. So when they think: ‘Oh last season I did great,’ this season it is not enough,” he added.
“John Terry – great season. This season it is not enough. Must be better. Fàbregas – I don’t know how many assists last year. Fantastic. It’s not enough. Because the others are going to improve with the players they are bringing and we have to improve by ourselves with our work.”
The young France midfielder Pogba remains on every club’s wishlist yet his midfield talents would only enhance Mourinho’s crop. Wonderful to get someone of his calibre in; not a disaster, however, if nothing materialises. “Pogba is not to put pressure on people,” Mourinho says. “Pogba is one of the top players in the world. Pogba goes to any team and improves that team automatically. If he stays at Juventus, Juventus will be very strong again. If he goes somewhere else he will improve immediately a team. This is not our case. We are changing Cech for Begovic, we are changing Didier for Falcao and we are changing kids by other kids. I think everybody has an interest in Pogba. But there are things you can do and things you cannot do. I love the Eiffel Tower but I can’t have the Eiffel Tower in my garden. I can’t even have the Eiffel Tower of Las Vegas.”
What Mourinho should be able to stand back and enjoy will involve Stones wearing Chelsea blue in time for the Premier League opener against Swansea on 8 August. Everton face an almighty task to stop the 21-year-old’s head from turning. Speaking to the Portuguese, although predictably keen to keep his counsel for now, makes one believe this deal will happen sooner, rather than never. With the 34-year-old Terry entering the final phase of his career, Stones, with four England caps, has been identified as the heir apparent in the Chelsea manager’s attempt to create a new spine, in which Thibaut Courtois has already replaced Cech.
A fee that would eclipse the £30m, a record for an English defender, Manchester United paid Leeds for Rio Ferdinand in 2002 is not a problem for Mourinho. “We have three [central defenders] plus Ivanovic, so that is four. We have two who are more than 30 years old. We would like to have two less than 25 years old, which would give us the next 10 years. But as you can imagine it’s no something urgent, it is not something we are desperate for it.
“I think 10 years ago or five years ago every Chelsea supporters would say: ‘I can’t see Chelsea win a title without Frank Lampard.’ And Chelsea won the title without one of the three best players of the last 10 years and we did it. No one is irreplaceable. Difficult to replace, yes. To replace one by one is very difficult, very difficult. To replace by good time, a good structure, a good dynamic, good options, it’s possible.
“One day when he stops, and I don’t think it will be next season, we have created already a situation for John to be replaced. I always think in this direction, I always did imagine now for the first time in my career my perspective is to stay in the club for more time than before.
“I had this thing in my mind to go to different countries and try to win different leagues. I will be here for the next 10 years if the club doesn’t sack me.”
It is tough to see Falcao still running the channels in 2025, yet for the 29-year-old Colombian, the here and now is vital. A dispiriting spell at Old Trafford that yielded just four goals in 26 appearances was not enough for Van Gaal to extend his stay. Mourinho however, who shares the same agent – Jorge Mendes – has no fears about Falcao’s suitability.
“When a players is injured or has bad consequences of a big injury there is sometimes nothing you can do. We made ourselves sure that was not the case with Falcao because if that was the case he would not be with us,” he says.
“He didn’t perform [at United] for many reasons. Some players don’t perform with me, some players don’t perform with Chelsea, they go to other clubs and they perform. This can happen. So we know that Falcao is in good conditions related to the surgery he had before he went to Man United.
“We believe that he can with us and to replace a big player like Didier we wanted to go with another big player with experience, ready, so these three strikers for us – Falcao, Rémy and Diego. We are very happy.”
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