10 Amazing Strikers Who Flopped In The Premier League

FourFourTwo

Why do so many of the world's best goalscorers unravel in the Premier League?

Transcript

00:00 Much to the chagrin, excellent word of fans of other divisions, the question "but can

00:08 he do it in the Premier League" remains a pertinent one.

00:11 While some of the game's greatest names have arrived in the division and thrived,

00:15 I'm thinking like Makaleli, Zlatan and… I did have another one… Ivan Kampo, he'll

00:21 do plenty other giants of world football have had an absolute nightmare here.

00:25 And of course, in no position is that more costly or indeed more funny than up front.

00:31 I'm Adam Cleary, this is 442 and these are 10 amazing strikers who completely flopped

00:37 in the Premier League.

00:38 10.

00:39 Jared Borghetti, Bolton For a player whose name sounds like a car,

00:42 Jared Borghetti was the proverbial Rolls Royce of a footballer.

00:46 He pitched up a Bolton in the twilight of a career that had made him a bigger Mexican

00:50 institution than those enormous hats you get with the nice little lace patterns on them.

00:54 He had scored absolutely loads of goals in his home country for Santos Laguna and became

00:59 one of the most feared strikers in all of South America.

01:02 However, under Sam Allardyce, he managed just two goals in 19 Premier League games, one

01:07 against Man City and the other against Charlton.

01:10 He was a lot better in the Cups, yes, but that's not what this list is about, is it?

01:14 Rules are rules.

01:15 9.

01:16 Roberto Saldardo, Tottenham Now, I'm sorry but I'm not having any comments

01:19 here for referring to Saldardo as a great striker, the lad had just barred 30 goals

01:24 in 46 appearances the previous season at Valencia and was genuinely being talked about as one

01:30 of the hottest commodities in Europe.

01:32 Now, you might not believe that, I might not even believe that, but it did happen, I was

01:36 there, people were saying it, and as well, in his defence, Spurs were a little bit all

01:40 over the place when he arrived, having just splurged all the Gareth Bale money on no less

01:44 than seven, count 'em, seven, highly rated new players.

01:48 So, seven Premier League goals in 52 games is, well, crap.

01:54 8.

01:55 Diego Forlan, Manchester United It tells you absolutely everything about what

01:58 a footballing monster truck Mourinho's Chelsea were that Man United had both Van Nistelrooy

02:04 and Forlan on their books for those first two Premier League wins and could not get

02:08 anywhere near them.

02:09 Unlike his Dutch team-mate, though, the Uruguayan's time in the Premier League was a famous damn

02:13 squib.

02:14 17 goals in 98 appearances, the first not coming until his 34th game, did little to

02:20 suggest that he would go on to, and let me just double check my notes here, ah yes, become

02:25 one of the most feared goal scorers in all of Europe.

02:29 155 goals in just seven years in La Liga, that is not the Diego Forlan you saw in the

02:35 Premier League.

02:36 Regardless, though, Man United fans still seem to love him on account of his two very

02:40 memorable strikes against Liverpool.

02:42 Proof once more that banter remains undefeated as the true measure of footballing success.

02:47 7.

02:51 Sergei Rebrov, Tottenham The £11m Ukrainian, then 25, had been one

02:56 half of what was arguably Europe's most devastating strike partnership.

03:00 Alongside Andrey Shevchenko and ho-ho-ho, more on him later, the duo had scored almost

03:06 200 goals between them in five seasons at Dynamo Kiev.

03:09 Recruited to become the prolific goal scorer that Spurs lacked, Rebrov ultimately struggled

03:14 to perform at anywhere near the same level, and was even overlooked for the 2002 League

03:18 Cup Final.

03:19 Don't get me wrong, there's no shame to getting benched behind Teddy Sheringham and

03:22 Les Ferdinand, they're two great players, but they had a combined age at the time of

03:27 70.

03:28 But you know, score 10 goals in two seasons and that's what you're gonna get.

03:32 6.

03:33 Gonzalo Higuaín, Chelsea Genuinely a sporting anomaly how so many strikers

03:36 can bang in goals for fun in almost any other league in the world, and then get to England

03:41 and look like some beige middle management type who's won a play on the pitch prize

03:45 in a company raffle.

03:47 Gonzalo Higuaín, par exemple, was almost one goal every two games at Real Madrid and

03:53 Juventus, one goal every game and a half at Napoli, and then got to Chelsea and looked

03:58 about as much use as tits on a kipper.

04:00 Five goals, the sum total of his loan spell in London, where afterwards he defended his

04:04 record by pointing out the club did win the Europa League while he was there.

04:08 And again, just let me check my notes here, ah yes, he played a grand total of 24 minutes

04:12 in that competition and did not even get off the bench in the final.

04:16 Worth a try.

04:18 5.

04:19 Claudio Pizarro, Chelsea Yeah, I'll just level with you now, the rest

04:22 of this list is mostly Chelsea.

04:24 The Peruvian all-star hit 100 goals for Bayern Munich to establish a reputation as one of

04:29 Germany and Europe's top marksmen, and his arrival at Chelsea on a free transfer no less

04:34 looked like a genius piece of business.

04:36 He started by missing a penalty in the Community Shield shootout against Manchester United

04:40 on his debut, and things did not improve much thereafter.

04:45 Pizarro notched just two goals in 21 matches before departing after one season.

04:50 A stint so short in fact that we as a fanbase didn't ever quite decide if it was Pizarro

04:56 or Pitzaro.

04:57 You'd think Piz, as there's only one Z so it's not like Pizza with two.

05:03 Right?

05:04 Pizarro?

05:05 Pizarro?

05:06 Pitharro?

05:07 What was I talking about?

05:10 4.

05:11 Radamel Falcao, Manchester United Easily, without question, one of the most

05:14 complete centre-forwards in world football while at both Porto and Atletico Madrid, Falcao

05:20 made cheese strings out of his anterior cruciate ligaments at Monaco, but his £6m loan to

05:25 Man United still felt like really good business.

05:28 Nope, just four goals all season for Louis van Gaal's men and that was the end of his

05:33 time in England.

05:35 Except wait, no it wasn't, because…

05:37 4.

05:38 Again, Radamel Falcao, Chelsea Never a team you can accuse of letting their

05:42 rivals hog the money-wasting spotlight, Chelsea seemingly took it as a personal challenge

05:48 to somehow out-farce this farce and brought him in the following season.

05:52 One goal in all competitions.

05:55 Round of applause for everyone involved, please.

05:57 3.

05:58 Crespo, you guessed it, Chelsea Now yes, ok, a glance at Crespo's goals

06:02 per game record in the Premier League suggests that maybe the flop tag is somewhat harsh

06:06 in this case, he did net 20 times in 49 games, but according to the three Chelsea fans I

06:12 know and I swear have asked, the former Parma, Lazio and Inter Sharpshooter just never really

06:18 convinced at Stamford Bridge.

06:19 10 goals in both seasons just felt like a massive letdown given how good he clearly

06:24 was and could have been, and neither Ranieri nor Mourinho ever quite managed to extract

06:29 a proper tune out of him.

06:30 2.

06:31 Fernando Morientes, Chelsea Oh no, it's Liverpool.

06:33 Oh, you know what, this one broke my heart.

06:35 Liverpool appeared to have snared one of the deals of the century when they got Morientes

06:39 still only 28 for 6.3 million.

06:43 He wasn't getting minutes at Madrid, but being behind Ronaldo, Raul and Michael Owen

06:47 in the pecking order hardly made that a red flag.

06:49 But not only was it a red flag, it was a Reds flag.

06:53 Because they're the Reds.

06:55 It does, that joke does sort of work.

06:58 The three-time Champions League winner showed flashes of his talent at Anfield but ultimately

07:01 found neither form nor fitness.

07:04 A meagre 12 goals in 60 appearances followed and the Reds loaned him back out to Valencia

07:09 after just 18 months.

07:10 Anyway, here's a pitch for any HBO types watching, get a biopic in the works and have

07:14 Pedro Pascal play him.

07:15 Look at them side by sides.

07:17 You can see it, can't you?

07:18 1.

07:19 Shevchenko Chelsea For a while, Shevchenko was basically the

07:23 Michael Jordan of football.

07:25 But at Chelsea though, he was the Michael Jordan of expensive footballing misadventure.

07:31 A then British record fee of £30.8 million in 2006 yielded a meagre 9 Premier League

07:37 goals in his three years at the club.

07:40 The problem was he was less a shrewd bit of transfer business and more… how can I put

07:45 this without winding up on some sort of hit list?

07:47 A gift, a lovely, generous goal scoring gift from Roman Abramovich to Jose Mourinho despite

07:56 Chelsea having no issue scoring goals and them just coming off the back of consecutive

08:01 Premier League title wins.

08:03 If you think about it, it's sort of like buying somebody a really nice expensive beard

08:07 trimmer for Christmas after they've already accidentally cut their own head off with their

08:11 Gillette Mach 3.

08:13 So it like, it fits their interests.

08:15 Yes, just not their circumstances.

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