In every market the big clubs spend indecent amounts of money to reinforce their squads, but spending more money is not always synonymous with success and over the years we have seen very expensive players who landed in their new club as big stars and ended up in the bench.
Let’s take a look at players for whom a large investment was made but gave poor results and ended up being substitutes.
Luka Jovic arrived at Real Madrid in 2019 as a bet for the future after his scoring explosion at Eintracht, a replacement for Benzema. But his time at Real Madrid is being less than anecdotal. In a season and a half, plus the ones we have from the current one, the Serbian has participated in 45 games in which he has scored three goals and started 12.
In 2009 Cristiano, Kaká and Benzema landed at Santiago Bernabéu, among other players, and who would have thought that of the three the Brazilian would be the one with the worst performance and by far. Kaka did not live up to expectations and never got to show the version we saw in Milan. Between injuries and poor performance, he spent more time on the bench and in the stands than on the grass.
Real Madrid paid 75 million for James in 2014 after his great performance at the World Cup in Brazil. His first season was good but his performance began to decline and other players took him out of the eleven to the point of leaving on loan. In his last season with Zidane he was in the most absolute ostracism playing little relevant minutes.
The exchange with Barça between Arthur and Pjanic did not go well for Juventus. The Brazilian has not been able to win a place in the eleven, in two seasons he has started 23 games and is not part of Allegri’s plans. Juve is already looking for a way out.
The arrival of Edouard Mendy condemned Kepa to the Chelsea bench. The most expensive goalkeeper in the world has been left in the background and only plays the FA Cup, EFL Cup, Europa League or Super Cup matches. His role as a substitute and his performance also caused him to fall from the calls of the Spanish team.
In 2019 Nicolas Pépé became the most expensive signing in the history of Arsenal and in his third season his adventure with the Gunners is showing a deficit. His last season was the best, but in the current one he has only participated in 9 games in the Premier and 3 in the EFL Cup and has scored 2 goals. With that performance it does not seem that he is going to be an indisputable headline.
Jadon Sancho landed this summer at Old Trafford and although it is still too early to judge him, at United more was expected of him. The winger is not being the leader he should be. At the moment his coaches are taking him into account although he has remained on the bench more than once due to a technical decision.
Real Madrid spent 100 million on what was to be the next Ballon d’Or. Bale has missed almost half of Madrid’s games due to injury, but his first seasons scoring important goals gave him credit. For a few years his relationship with Real Madrid has been broken, he did not count for Zidane, he was loaned to Tottenham and tamoco enters Ancelotti’s plans. Madrid expects him to arrive on June 30 so that his contract ends and he leaves the club.
Large investments are not always the ones that give the best result, but rather that they tell Real Madrid, which accounts for half of this list. The fifth white player who was paid a large amount and is on the bench is Eden Hazard. In his case, injuries have weighed down since he arrived at the Bernabéu and fewer and fewer trust him to recover the Chelsea version.
The most expensive signing in the history of FC Barcelona has not given good results either. The Catalans signed the Brazilian in January 2018 after a tough fight with Livepool and the investment has been disastrous. His performance was never up to par, he was loaned out to Bayern and on his return to Camp Nou he became a regular substitute until Barça found a new loan to Aston Villa.
Don’t forget to also follow us on our Instagram account, 90min_en, and our Twitter account, @ 90minespanol!
#expensive #substitute #footballers #history