• Alexis Sanchez: Big expense, little impact. The Chilean is on his way out of Old Trafford after a disappointing spell at Manchester United. Reuters
    Alexis Sanchez: Big expense, little impact. The Chilean is on his way out of Old Trafford after a disappointing spell at Manchester United. Reuters
  • Fernando Torres: The Spaniard was an elite striker – until he signed for Chelsea for £50m in January 2011. At Liverpool he was a thoroughbred with the perfect mixture of pace, guile and instinct. The transformation was remarkable once he turned out in the blue of Chelsea. He scored once in 18 games in his first season and looked totally lost and devoid of the speed that used to take him beyond defences. He managed 22 goals across one season but his Premier League record overall was bad – 20 goals in 110 appearances. Remember that open goal miss against Manchester United? Ouch. Getty Images
    Fernando Torres: The Spaniard was an elite striker – until he signed for Chelsea for £50m in January 2011. At Liverpool he was a thoroughbred with the perfect mixture of pace, guile and instinct. The transformation was remarkable once he turned out in the blue of Chelsea. He scored once in 18 games in his first season and looked totally lost and devoid of the speed that used to take him beyond defences. He managed 22 goals across one season but his Premier League record overall was bad – 20 goals in 110 appearances. Remember that open goal miss against Manchester United? Ouch. Getty Images
  • El Hadji Diouf: Cost Liverpool £10m from Lens ahead of the 2002 World Cup and impressed for Senegal during the tournament. Just three goals, a questionable attitude and a ban for spitting at a fan followed before he left for Bolton Wanderers on loan and then permanently in 2005. Getty Images
    El Hadji Diouf: Cost Liverpool £10m from Lens ahead of the 2002 World Cup and impressed for Senegal during the tournament. Just three goals, a questionable attitude and a ban for spitting at a fan followed before he left for Bolton Wanderers on loan and then permanently in 2005. Getty Images
  • Fred: There’s still time for the Brazilian to come good at Manchester United but when that time may come is anyone’s guess because a year after joining for more than £50m from Shakhtar Donetsk, he has shown little sign of being anything other than average. For that kind of money he should be ripping up the Premier League week-in, week-out. Getty Images
    Fred: There’s still time for the Brazilian to come good at Manchester United but when that time may come is anyone’s guess because a year after joining for more than £50m from Shakhtar Donetsk, he has shown little sign of being anything other than average. For that kind of money he should be ripping up the Premier League week-in, week-out. Getty Images
  • Falcao: To be an expensive flop once is bad, but to do so twice takes some doing. Much was expected of the Colombian striker when he joined Manchester United from Monaco on loan in 2014 for a substantial loan fee plus wages reportedly in the region of £265,000 a week. He scored just four goals as he struggled for form and fitness and then managed just one goal the following season which was spent at Chelsea. He returned to Monaco and straight away started banging in the goals again. Getty Images
    Falcao: To be an expensive flop once is bad, but to do so twice takes some doing. Much was expected of the Colombian striker when he joined Manchester United from Monaco on loan in 2014 for a substantial loan fee plus wages reportedly in the region of £265,000 a week. He scored just four goals as he struggled for form and fitness and then managed just one goal the following season which was spent at Chelsea. He returned to Monaco and straight away started banging in the goals again. Getty Images
  • Roberto Soldado: One of the deadliest strikers in Spain across half a decade before joining Tottenham for £26m in 2013. He netted on his Premier League debut but managed only seven league goals across two seasons before heading back to Spain with Villarreal. Getty Images
    Roberto Soldado: One of the deadliest strikers in Spain across half a decade before joining Tottenham for £26m in 2013. He netted on his Premier League debut but managed only seven league goals across two seasons before heading back to Spain with Villarreal. Getty Images
  • Andy Carroll: To put his Liverpool career in perspective, he cost £35m in 2011, whereas Luis Suarez cost £23m at the same time. The most costly British player ever at the time scored just six league goals before joining West Ham in 2013 with Liverpool making a £20m loss on the target man. Getty Images
    Andy Carroll: To put his Liverpool career in perspective, he cost £35m in 2011, whereas Luis Suarez cost £23m at the same time. The most costly British player ever at the time scored just six league goals before joining West Ham in 2013 with Liverpool making a £20m loss on the target man. Getty Images
  • Jo: The 21-year-old was a club record buy for Manchester City from CSKA Moscow in July 2008 for a fee of about £19m. However, the talk of great potential failed to materialise into match-winning performances and he made just 21 Premier League appearances for City, scoring once. Getty Images
    Jo: The 21-year-old was a club record buy for Manchester City from CSKA Moscow in July 2008 for a fee of about £19m. However, the talk of great potential failed to materialise into match-winning performances and he made just 21 Premier League appearances for City, scoring once. Getty Images
  • Kostas Mitroglou: In terms of cost per appearances, it doesn’t get much worse than the Greek’s time at Fulham as the club slid towards relegation. He was an expensive last throw of the dice during the January transfer window of 2014, as Fulham spent around £12m on the striker from Olympiacos. He featured just three times and then joined Benfica where he scored almost every week for the next two seasons. PA Images via Getty Images
    Kostas Mitroglou: In terms of cost per appearances, it doesn’t get much worse than the Greek’s time at Fulham as the club slid towards relegation. He was an expensive last throw of the dice during the January transfer window of 2014, as Fulham spent around £12m on the striker from Olympiacos. He featured just three times and then joined Benfica where he scored almost every week for the next two seasons. PA Images via Getty Images
  • Ricky van Wolfswinkel: Norwich City were seeking some extra firepower in 2013 in a bid to retain their Premier League status for another year. Instead, they signed the Dutchman from Portuguese side Sporting for £8.5m, he scored once all season (on his debut), and they were relegated. Like many other flops, he started scoring again for his future clubs, Vitesse and Basel. Getty Images
    Ricky van Wolfswinkel: Norwich City were seeking some extra firepower in 2013 in a bid to retain their Premier League status for another year. Instead, they signed the Dutchman from Portuguese side Sporting for £8.5m, he scored once all season (on his debut), and they were relegated. Like many other flops, he started scoring again for his future clubs, Vitesse and Basel. Getty Images
  • Angel Di Maria: Mighty impressive at Real Madrid, mighty impressive these days at PSG. But in the middle there’s that spell at Manchester United, for whom he cost £59m. He started brightly and scored a lovely chipped goal against Leicester City before fading out of the picture under Louis van Gaal and left after one season. Getty Images
    Angel Di Maria: Mighty impressive at Real Madrid, mighty impressive these days at PSG. But in the middle there’s that spell at Manchester United, for whom he cost £59m. He started brightly and scored a lovely chipped goal against Leicester City before fading out of the picture under Louis van Gaal and left after one season. Getty Images

Football

Alexis Sanchez and 10 of the most expensive Premier League flops

The Chilean follows other star names who turned out to be poor value for money

Ian Oxborrow
Ian Oxborrow

August 28, 2019

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Most transfers make sense at the time – even those which turn out to be an expensive disaster.

Fernando Torres was a goal machine – before he joined Chelsea from Liverpool. And more recently there's been the case of Alexis Sanchez.

The Chilean is reportedly on the cusp of joining Inter Milan on loan after a desperately disappointing spell at Manchester United.

He joined United from Arsenal in January 2018 as part of a swap deal for Henrikh Mkhitaryan and is understood to be the top earner at the club, but little has gone right for him since, as he's scored just five goals in 45 appearances.

He has yet to feature for United this season having suffered a hamstring injury while playing for Chile in the Copa America, but appears set to join up with former teammate Romelu Lukaku in Italy.

To read about 11 of the most expensive Premier League flops, see the slideshow at the top.

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