Five Premier League transfer flops this season so far

FT Desk

• 29 Dec 2021 13:42 GMT
• 5 min read

In the summer of 2021, the Premier League was once again the biggest spending league in the world on new players.

While smaller leagues, and other top leagues, struggled through the financial impact of the pandemic, England's elite splashed the cash again, with some clubs even breaking their transfer record.

Both Manchester City and Chelsea broke their transfer record, with the former breaking the record for the most expensive British deal of all time when they signed Jack Grealish from Aston Villa.

Whether it be failing to live up to expectations due to a high fee, or performances levels simply not being good enough, several massive deals haven't actually worked out for the best so far in the first six months of the 2021/22 campaign.

PREMIER LEAGUE'S MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS

Jack Grealish - Aston Villa to Manchester City (€118m)

A hero at Aston Villa, Jack Grealish left his boyhood club in the summer, joining Pep Guardiola's Manchester City for a British record fee.

He was sensational as captain for Villa, and last campaign his final third productivity finally improved to a level which gave Man City the confidence they needed to splash the cash on 'Super Jack.'

However, his start to life at the Etihad hasn't quite gone to plan. It's worth noting that it's a hard task to settle into Guardiola's City side immediately, Rodri and Joao Cancelo can testify to that, but Grealish hasn't played like a £100m signing as of yet.

With just two goals and two assists in 12 Premier League starts, he's failed to inspire, even if his creative underlying numbers still read impressively.

Grealish was also recently dropped for the Man City squad for disciplinary reasons.

Jadon Sancho - Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United (€85m)

Much like Grealish, Jadon Sancho hasn't enjoyed a fruitful start to life in Manchester. The former Man City academy player arrived at Old Trafford with a glowing reputation from Germany, following an immense spell at Borussia Dortmund.

But, that attacking flair and end product hasn't translated across to the Premier League. Sancho scored eight and assisted 11 in just 24 Bundesliga starts last season, and that was considered a down-year given his form previously.

However, the English winger has managed just one goal and no assists in the English top flight so far this season. His early performance against Wolves summed up life at Man Utd so far - zero shots, zero key passes, and zero dribbles completed; the worrying thing is that these performances have been frequent in Manchester.

There's still plenty of time for this move to work out, but so far, Sancho has struggled.

Bryan Gil - Sevilla to Tottenham (€22m + Erik Lamela)

After starring for Sevilla B, Bryan Gil made his first-team debut for Los Nervionenses in January of 2019 in a league match against Atletico Madrid when he came on as a substitute for Wissam Ben Yedder.

To aid his development, he was sent out on loan to Eibar for the duration of the 2020/21 season, and has impressed for the Basque side.

Though there is undoubted talent there which can be seen in his performances, his numbers could be better, as he only has six goals and four assists in his entire La Liga career.

Tottenham took the punt on his expected talent in the summer, but it hasn't worked out so far as he has made just two starts in all competitions - none of which have came in the Premier League.

Spurs are clearly being careful with his transition from Spain to England, but this has been a damp squib of a move considering the excitement that was generated from his arrival.

Saul Niguez - Atletico Madrid to Chelsea (Loan)

Saul Niguez had been slowly declining for a couple of seasons at Atletico Madrid, which is why Diego Simeone wanted to offload Saul this summer, and bring in Rodrigo De Paul instead.

Chelsea decided to take a chance on him, hoping to reignite his former glory, but Thomas Tuchel will have been sorely disappointed by his summer loan signing.

His debut against Aston Villa set the tone for things to come, and while he's impressed in the last few games, it's been a poor spell in West London so far. Against Villa, Saul didn't make a tackle or an interception, had a pass accuracy of just 81%, was run ragged by John McGinn, and was hooked at half-time.

The pace of the game looked far too much for him, and his performance against Watford was much of the same.

Against Wolves and Brentford just before Christmas Saul looked to have found his feet, but it's been a complete disaster up until now.

Nikola Vlasic - CSKA Moscow to West Ham (€30m)

This transfer went slightly under the radar over the summer, but West Ham signed Croatian attacking midfielder Nikola Vlasic, formerly of Everton, from CSKA Moscow for €30m (£26.8m).

He only netted his first goal for the Hammers against Watford on 28 December, and for such a large fee, he's massively disappointed.

Vlasic has played just eight times in the Premier League, and is truly behind the likes of Said Benrahma, Jarrod Bowen and Pablo Fornals in the pecking order at The London Stadium.

It's been a huge waste of money that could've been used on a striker.