Year-Ender 2017: Biggest Hits and Misses From The 2017 Football Transfer Market

While there were some world record deals worth every penny, some turned out to be just wastage of money.

New Delhi: The footballing world witnessed one of the craziest transfer windows in 2017 as clubs in the top 5 European leagues completed deals worth £3.98 billion. While there were some world record deals worth every penny, some turned out to be just wastage of money. So, let’s take a look at biggest hits and flops of 2017.

Let’s start with three biggest hits:

Mohamed Salah to Liverpool: Salah, who is often termed as ‘Egyptian Messi’, live upto all the hype by performing outstandingly in Liverpool. The 25-year old winger was signed by The Reds for 39m euro (£34m) on a five-year deal. Salah proved his worth by scoring 15 English Premier league goals and 5 Champions league goals this season. He is also the second top scorer in EPL after Tottenham’s Harry Kane.

Neymar (Barcelona to PSG): This was the transfer which many believed that won’t even take place, but it happened and shook the footballing world as Neymar left Barcelona and joined French club Paris Saint Germain on a five-year deal after PSG triggered his 222 million euros ($263 million, Rs 17 Billion) release clause. However, the pressure was on Brazilian to deliver and justify the price tag and he did exactly the same. In his 14 Ligue 1 appearances, Neymar has scored 11 goals and assisted 9 till now. The 25-year old forward also netted 6 UCL goals to help his team top the Group B ahead of German champions Bayern Munich.

Alvaro Morata (Real Madrid to Chelsea): After losing Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United in the transfer market, EPL defending champions Chelsea desperately needed to sign a striker and that’s where Morata came in. The Blues signed the 25-year old forward for £70m on a five-year deal from Real Madrid. Morata took his time to settle, but once he got used to the English conditions, Morata proved his worth and shut his critics. He provided some vital wins to Chelsea and the biggest one of them was against Manchester United by scoring a solitary goal which lead Antoine Conte’s side to 1-0 victory at home. The Spaniard has scored 10 league goals, 1 UCL goal and 1 League Cup goal.

Now, let’s take a look at top three flop signings:

Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon to Arsenal): After the rumours of Alexis Sanchez leaving Arsenal, Arsene Wenger was in a desperate need of striker and that’s when he signed Lacazette, who was a goal-machine at Lyon for the last four seasons. However, the 26-year old, who was signed for club record fee of £52.7m, failed to impress at Emirates and his performance till now has been below expectations. The French striker has managed to score just 8 PL goals this season.

Danny Drinkwater (Leicester to Chelsea): Drinkwater can be considered as the result of Chelsea’s rash decision in the desperate times as the club applied for a two-hour extension to the transfer deadline to complete the signing of midfielder after the Blues lost out on Fernando Llorente to Tottenham and had Ross Barkley reject a switch to Stamford Bridge despite agreeing on a fee with Everton. Chelsea signed Drinkwater for £35M, which is way too much money for the Englishman. Moreover, Drinkwater might not get many games to play considering that N’Golo Kante and Tiemoue Bakayoko are Conte’s default starters, while Cesc Fabregas is the attacking variation from the bench.

Kyle Walker (Tottenham to Manchester City): England right-back Walker become one of the most expensive defenders in the history of football after Manchester City sign him for £50m from Tottenham Hotspur. Given that Kyle is 27-years old, it won’t be wrong to say that he is at the top of his game at present and there are almost no chances that his game will get better in future. Thus, he is the old horse who will be out of the race soon. Moreover, Walker isn’t the best crosser of the ball as despite making 31 league appearances in 2016/17, he only assisted in 5 goals and didn’t score any himself. On the contrary, Walker got pace and athleticism, but that is not enough to justify the price tag of £50m. Maybe, Kyle isn’t that bad, but that huge price tag will definitely put him under scrutiny.