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 [MUSIC]

00:04 Much to the chagrin, excellent word of fans of other divisions,

00:07 the question, but can 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,

00:20 Ivan Campo, he'll do plenty of the 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 ten amazing strikers who completely flopped in the Premier League.

00:38 Number ten, Jared Borghetti, Bolton.

00:40 For a player whose name sounds like a car, 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 institution

00:51 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

00:59 and became 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,

01:07 one 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 Number nine, Roberto Saldado, Tottenham.

01:17 Now, I'm just, I'm sorry, but I'm not having any comments here for referring to Saldado as a great striker.

01:22 The lad had just barred 30 goals in 46 appearances the previous season at Valencia

01:28 and was genuinely being talked about as one of the hottest commodities in Europe.

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

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

01:41 when he arrived, having just splurged all the Gareth Bale money on no less than seven,

01:46 count of seven, highly rated new players.

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

01:54 Number eight, Diego Forlan, Manchester United.

01:57 It tells you absolutely everything about what a footballing monster truck Mourinho's Chelsea were

02:02 that Man United had both Van Nistelrooy and Forlan on their books for those first two Premier League wins

02:07 and could not get anywhere near them.

02:09 Unlike his Dutch teammate though, the Uruguayans' time in the Premier League was a famous damn squib.

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

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

02:24 ah yes, become one of the most feared goal scorers in all of Europe.

02:28 155 goals in just seven years in La Liga, that is not the Diego Forlan you saw in the Premier League.

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

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

02:46 [Laughs]

02:47 This is great banter. It really is.

02:51 Number seven, Sergei Rebrov, Tottenham.

02:53 The £11 million Ukrainian, then 25, had been one half of what was arguably Europe's most devastating strike partnership.

03:00 Alongside Andrey Shevchenko and ho-ho-ho, more on him later,

03:04 the duo had scored almost 200 goals between them in five seasons at Dynamo Kiev.

03:10 Recruited to become the prolific goal scorer that Spurs lacked,

03:12 Rebrov ultimately struggled to perform at anywhere near the same level,

03:16 and was even overlooked for the 2002 League Cup Final.

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

03:23 they're two great players, but they had a combined age at the time of 70.

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

03:32 Number six, Gonzalo Higuaín, Chelsea.

03:34 Genuinely a sporting anomaly how so many strikers can bang in goals for fun in almost any other league in the world,

03:40 and then get to England and look like some beige middle management type

03:44 who's won a play on the pitch prize in a company raffle.

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

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

03:57 and looked 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 record

04:04 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 in that competition

04:13 and did not even get off the bench in the final.

04:17 Worth a try.

04:18 Number five, Claudio Pizarro, Chelsea.

04:20 Yeah, I'll just, I'll level with you now, the rest of this list is mostly Chelsea.

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

04:28 as one of Germany and Europe's top marksmen,

04:31 and his arrival at Chelsea on a free transfer no less, looked like a genius piece of business.

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

04:41 and things did not improve much thereafter.

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

04:51 A stint so short in fact that we as a fanbase didn't ever quite decide if it was Pizarro or Pitzarro.

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

05:03 Right? Pizarro? Pitzarro? Pitharro? What was I talking about?

05:09 Number four, Radomil Falcao, Manchester United.

05:12 Easily, without question, one of the most complete centre-forwards in world football

05:17 while at both Porto and Atletico Madrid, Falcao made cheese strings out of his anterior cruciate ligaments at Monaco,

05:24 but his six million loan to 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 time in England.

05:35 Except wait, no it wasn't, because number four, again, Radomil Falcao, Chelsea.

05:40 Never a team you can accuse of letting their rivals hog the money-wasting spotlight,

05:45 Chelsea seemingly took it as a personal challenge to somehow out-farce this farce and brought him in the following season.

05:52 One goal in all competitions, a round of applause for everyone involved, please.

05:57 Number three, Hernan Crespo, you guessed it, Chelsea.

06:01 Now yes, okay, a glance at Crespo's goals per game record in the Premier League suggests that maybe the flop tag is somewhat harsh in this case,

06:07 he did net 20 times in 49 games, but according to the three Chelsea fans I know and I swear have asked,

06:14 the former Parma, Lazio and Inter Sharpshooter just never really convinced at Stamford Bridge.

06:20 Ten goals in both seasons just felt like a massive letdown given how good he clearly was and could have been,

06:25 and neither Ranieri nor Mourinho ever quite managed to extract a proper tune out of him.

06:30 Number two, Fernando Morientes, Chelsea.

06:33 Oh no, it's Liverpool. Oh, do 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, still only 28, for 6.3 million.

06:43 He wasn't getting minutes at Madrid, but being behind Ronaldo, Raul and Michael Owen in the pecking order hardly made that a red flag.

06:50 But not only was it a red flag, it was a Reds flag.

06:54 Because they're the Reds.

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

06:58 The three-time Champions League winner showed flashes of his talent at Anfield but ultimately found neither form nor fitness.

07:04 A meagre 12 goals in 60 appearances followed and the Reds loaned him back out to Valencia after just 18 months.

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

07:15 Look at them side by sides. You can see it, can't you?

07:18 Number 1, Andriy Shevchenko, Chelsea.

07:21 For a while, Shevchenko was basically the 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 goals in his three years at the club.

07:40 The problem was he was less a shrewd bit of transfer business and more...

07:44 How can I put this without winding up on some sort of hit list?

07:48 A gift. A lovely, generous goal scoring gift from Roman Abramovich to Jose Mourinho,

07:56 despite Chelsea having no issue scoring goals and them just coming off the back of consecutive Premier League title wins.

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

08:09 after they've already accidentally cut their own head off with their Gillette Mach 3.

08:13 So it fits their interests, yes, just not their circumstances.

08:17 And that's it, that's the video. Thank you so very much for watching and making it all the way till the end.

08:22 Somebody's keen.

08:23 While you're here, please do consider subscribing to the 442 YouTube channel.

08:26 We've got loads of awesome football content dropping all through the week,

08:29 as well as an amazing library of documentaries, player interviews and performance guides as well.

08:34 Until next time though, thank you once again for watching.

08:36 I do hope you enjoyed yourself and I'll see you soon.

08:39 Goodbye.

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