Ten flop of the season contenders features Matthijs de Ligt and a Chelsea trio
Nowhere near as many flop of the season contenders this summer compared to last, when we were treated to £2.36bn-worth of candidates – a significant portion of those courtesy of Todd Boehly and his Chelsea brain trust.
The Blues have been far more circumspect in terms of spending, but just as scattergun in their approach, and therefore still find three of their arrivals in this top ten.
Amadou Onana (Aston Villa)
Frankly, we just don’t really get it. He’s big, gets about the pitch well enough and puts himself about; but is that a £50m midfielder?
What we will admit is that he’s in a very good position to prove us wrong, under one of the very best coaches who has improved the vast majority of players he’s coached at Villa Park. But Onana will have to really go some to match Douglas Luiz – who was excellent off the ball and a huge creative influence for Villa – if we’re right in assuming that’s what the Belgian was bought for.
Matthijs de Ligt (Manchester United)
The hope for Manchester United fans will be that he can recapture the form he showed at Ajax under the manager who coached him to perform so brilliantly, and that is entirely reasonable. But sceptics will look at two European giants in Juventus and Bayern Munich not particularly fancying him and question whether he has the permanence of class.
Paul Scholes is worried by Eric Dier playing ahead of him for Bayern last term and the difference in Rio Ferdinand’s stance on him joining compared to Leny Yoro was stark.
“Leny, Leny, Leny… you’ve got all the tools man,” was the legendary defender’s take on the teenager, having presumably watched the very same YouTube compilations as the rest of us. But De Ligt “is not the answer”. Yikes.
Dominic Solanke (Tottenham)
We love Solanke, and having been snubbed by Chelsea and Liverpool without really getting a look-in, it feels as though he deserves a proper shot at a Big Six club more than almost anyone. Big ol’ boots to fill, though.
It’s a matter of expectation, really. If any Spurs fan reckons Solanke will be as prolific as Harry Kane they’re surely wrong, but that won’t stop pundits and the goddamn media comparing one England international with another, which is never going to go well.
Fingers crossed he can block out all the nonsense and if he gets 19 Premier League goals as he did with Bournemouth last season, that will be a perfectly decent return for a striker that’s not Kane.
Niclas Fullkrug (West Ham)
From one striker we’re fond of to one we’re close to starting a stan account for. A Proper Centre-forward and they’re a dying breed. It takes some bottle to try and be that guy for West Ham though, with The London Stadium a place where goalscorers either perish or take career breaks. Gianluca Scamacca and Sebastian Haller are excellent examples of the latter.
Despite well over £400m spent in the last five seasons, Michail Antonio has beaten off all comers to maintain his place as their foremost striker. And while we don’t mean to throw shade at the guy, he certainly felt like the odd one out in a front four with Jarrod Bowen, Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta last term. Fullkrug was a necessary signing, but strikers of similar repute have arrived and really struggled.
Pedro Neto (Chelsea)
Had he gone to any of the other clubs supposedly interested in his services – Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool – we would be congratulating them on signing a very fine footballer. But the poor sod’s gone to Chelsea.
Only one of the ten forwards signed in the Todd Boehly-Clearlake era has been undoubted success. But after Cole Palmer we’re quickly into something-about-them territory with your Nico Jacksons and Noni Maduekes, via the vast majority who either haven’t or have barely played, all the way down to Mykhaylo Mudryk.
Neto has a better chance than most of being a success as he’s a proven Premier League player, but we’re at the point now with Chelsea where it’s a surprise if a new signing is half-decent.
MORE CHELSEA COVERAGE ON F365
👉 Ranking Todd Boehly mistakes at Chelsea: Selling Conor Gallagher makes top five
👉 Samu Omorodion for Conor Gallagher should be the final straw for Chelsea fans
👉 Chelsea are ‘trillion-pound bottlejobs’ and Man Utd fans copying what they ‘mocked’ Liverpool about
Tosin Adarabioyo (Chelsea)
He’ll do well (badly) to be the flop of the season having joined on a free, and the lack of a transfer fee grants Enzo Maresca scope to drop Tosin at the merest sign of him not being up to the task (which looks pretty likely given what we saw in pre-season), at which point the Chelsea boss can replace him with one of the other mediocre centre-back options he has to choose from.
Dean Huijsen (Bournemouth)
Daniele De Rossi, who coached the centre-back at Roma last season, is convinced Huijsen can “become one of the best players in the world” and anyone that’s seen the 19-year-old play will understand why, with his ability on the ball quite extraordinary.
And we would caveat our thought that he could flop in his first season in the Premier League with a prediction that thereafter he really could be very special indeed. Bournemouth is likely a stepping stone.
As De Rossi says, and this is what’s got us worried in the short-term, he’s a tad too confident at times: “He knows what he is doing. But sometimes a little too well. (Huijsen) is good with the ball at his feet, but sometimes a little too calm.”
Joshua Zirkzee (Manchester United)
Rasmus Hojlund missed out on the accolade last season by the skin of his teeth with two goals in his last two Premier League games of the season, and we would question the logic of the new Manchester United recruitment team in bringing a similarly inexperienced striker with a worse goal record to ease the burden on the Denmark international.
Scholes is too, despite “never seeing Zirkzee play”. He’s not alone there and we were hoping to see more of Zirkzee during Euro 2024 but Red Devils legends Memphis Depay and Wout Weghorst were Ronald Koeman’s preferred options.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (Chelsea)
The fans will take some convincing after he got relegated from the Premier League with Leicester and earned his move to the 2021 Champions of Europe (we know, mad to think) through his displays in the second tier of English football.
It’s a very similar case to that of his manager of course, and our primary concern for Dewsbury-Hall is that a poor performance or two will undoubtedly lead to teacher’s pet claims if he remains in the team. Having to prove yourself to sceptics week in, week out can be very tiring indeed and that’s what he will have to do with more expensive midfielders set to be watching him from the bench.
Iliman Ndiaye (Everton)
They shouldn’t bother signing strikers and just accept that Dominic Calvert-Lewin will get six or seven and the rest of the team will score just enough to keep them in the Premier League.
Their last six striker signings – Moise Kean, Salomon Rondon, Josh King, Neal Maupay, Beto and Chermiti – have scored a total of 13 goals in 170 Everton appearances. Incredible. And we’re not entirely sure why the powers that be have deemed Ndiaye to be the answer.
The former Sheffield United star got three goals in 30 Ligue 1 appearances last season – one every 541 minutes – and just five assists. So as Everton strikers go he’s perfect. But we assume Sean Dyche wants to move away from that distressing norm.
