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10 Amazing Strikers Who Flopped In The Premier League
FourFourTwo
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11/02/2025
Why do so many of the world's best goalscorers unravel in the Premier League?
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Sports
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00:00
Much to the chagrin, excellent word, of fans of other divisions, the question, but can
00:09
he do it in the Premier League, remains a pertinent one.
00:12
While some of the game's greatest names have arrived in the division and thrived,
00:15
I'm thinking like Makalele, Zlatan, and, I did have another one, Ivan Campo, he'll
00:21
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 10 amazing strikers who completely flopped
00:37
in the Premier League.
00:38
Number 10, Jared Borghetti, Bolton.
00:40
For a player whose name sounds like a car, Jared Borghetti was the proverbial Rolls Royce
00:45
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
Number nine, Roberto Saldardo, Tottenham.
01:17
Now, I'm sorry, but I'm not having any comments here for referring to Saldardo as
01:21
a great striker.
01:22
The lad had just barred 30 goals in 46 appearances the previous season at Valencia and was genuinely
01:30
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.
01:37
People were saying it.
01:38
And as well, in his defence, Spurs were a little bit all over the place when he arrived,
01:42
having just splurged all the Gareth Bale money on no less than seven, count them, seven highly
01:47
rated new players.
01:49
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
02:02
were that Man United had both Van Nistelrooy and Forlan on their books for those first
02:06
two Premier League wins 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
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 memorable
02:40
strikes against Liverpool.
02:42
Proof once more that banter remains undefeated as the true measure of footballing success.
02:48
Number seven, Sergei Rebrov, Tottenham.
02:53
The £11 million Ukrainian, then 25, had been one half of what was arguably Europe's most
02:58
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.
03:10
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
Now don't get me wrong, there's no shame to getting benched behind Teddy Sheringham
03:22
and 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
Number six, Gonzalo Higuain, Chelsea.
03:34
Genuinely a sporting anomaly how so many strikers can bang in goals for fun in almost any other
03:39
league in the world, and then get to England and look like some beige middle management
03:43
type who's won a play on the pitch prize in a company raffle.
03:47
Gonzalo Higuain, par exemple, was almost one goal every two games at Real Madrid and Juventus,
03:54
one goal every game and a half at Napoli, and then got to Chelsea and looked about as
03:58
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
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 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.
04:51
A stint so short in fact that we as a fanbase didn't ever quite decide if it was Pizarro
04:56
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?
05:04
Pizarro?
05:05
Pizarro.
05:06
Pizarro?
05:07
What was I talking about?
05:09
Number four, Radamel Falcao, Manchester United.
05:13
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
05:23
ligaments at Monaco, but his six million loan to Man United still felt like really good
05:28
business.
05:29
Nope, just four goals all season for Louis van Gaal's men, and that was the end of his
05:33
time in England.
05:34
Except, wait, no it wasn't, because…
05:37
Number four, again, Radamel Falcao, Chelsea.
05:41
Never a team you can accuse of letting their rivals hog the money-wasting spotlight, Chelsea
05:45
seemingly took it as a personal challenge to somehow out-farce this farce and brought
05:51
him in the following season.
05:53
One goal in all competitions.
05:55
Round of applause for everyone involved, please.
05:57
Number three, Hernan Crespo.
05:59
You guessed it, Chelsea.
06:00
Now, yes, okay, a glance at Crespo's goals per game record in the Premier League suggests
06:04
that maybe the flop tag is somewhat harsh in this case, he did net 20 times in 49 games,
06:10
but according to the three Chelsea fans I know and I swear have asked, the former Parma,
06:15
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
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
Number two, Fernando Morientes, Chelsea.
06:31
Oh, no, it's Liverpool.
06:32
Oh, do you know what?
06:34
This one broke my heart.
06:35
Liverpool appeared to have snared one of the deals of the century when they got Morientes
06:40
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
06:47
pecking order hardly made that a red flag.
06:50
But not only was it a red flag, it was a Reds flag, because they're the Reds.
06:56
That joke does sort of work.
06:58
The three-time Champions League winner showed flashes of his talent at Anfield, but ultimately
07:02
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.
07:13
Get a biopic in the works and have Pedro Pascal play him.
07:15
Look at them side-by-sides.
07:16
You can see it, can't you?
07:18
Number one, Andriy Shevchenko, Chelsea.
07:21
For a while, Shevchenko was basically the Michael Jordan of football.
07:25
For 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 nine 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
07:45
put this without winding up on some sort of hit list?
07:48
A gift.
07:49
A lovely, generous goalscoring gift from Roman Abramovich to Jose Mourinho, despite Chelsea
07:56
having no issue scoring goals and them just coming off the back of consecutive Premier
08:02
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
08:12
Gillette Mach 3.
08:13
So, like, it fits their interests, yes, just not their circumstances.
08:17
And that's it.
08:18
That's the video.
08:19
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, as well as
08:29
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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