Brazilian to be shaven from City squad?

It’s a miracle! Manchester City are putting three players up for sale – players who evidently have no future in Roberto Mancini’s title challenge season. Perhaps the most widely expected name on his list is Robinho, the £32m flop from Real Madrid, who spurned Chelsea for the riches of Eastlands in 2008.

His first season wasn’t half bad, although his home and away form was like …

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Won't get a look in

Luis Filipe Vieira, President of Portuguese Liga team S.L. Benfica, has sent out the most resounding message of his club’s ambitions to date, by slapping a €40m (£32.9m) price tag on 23 year old Brazilian defender David Luiz. Earlier, Vieira stated:

“We would only begin talks over an offer of about €40million. It would be impossible to consider any offer less than that because it would be bad …

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First you had Gianluca Vialli, then you had Gianfranco Zola; Italians coming to England were having a great time and in 2001 Blackburn Rovers decided to get in on the act, signing Corrado Grabbi from Ternana for a fee of £6.75 million, 2 goals in 30 matches were all he could muster during his time in England, that’s £3.38m per goal.

Somewhat of a journeyman player, he began his career in the Juventus youth side and on his debut for the first team against Lazio, he scored, one of his total two appearances in the 1994-1995 season. Despite a great start he failed to cement a place in the squad as was loaned from Juventus to Lucchese and then Chievo, despite a poor goal scoring record Modena took him off Juve’s hands in 1996 where he found his goal scoring prowess.
Ternana were quick to snap up Grabbi but he couldn’t replicate his Modena form and was loaned to Ravenna after only one season, 13 goals in 29 games for Ravenna was a decent return and he was duly welcomed back to Ternana with open arms.

Back at Ternana he was again a regular scorer, with 91 goals in 84 games and became idol for the local supporters, who still remember him as the best player to ever have played for Ternana.

This amazing form alerted the likes of AC Milan and Juventus, however it was the lure of Premier League football that swayed Grabbi and he joined Blackburn Rovers for £6.75 million. Injury and personal problems blighted his Rovers career, 2 goals later he was on his way back to Italy on loan with Messina. Failure to reignite his career upon return to England resulted in a permanent transfer to Ancona.

In an interview with an Italian TV Station, Grabbi stated that he was finding it hard to acclimatise himself to the British weather and game, and also said that he was finding it hard to fit in with the team. The team was accused of singling him out, and not being friendly to him, which also accounted for Blackburn’s slump in form.

In the same interview, Grabbi stated that the only person who he became friends with in this time was Tugay Kerimoğlu.

After 7 games with Ancona and a year out the game he signed with Genoa in the third tier of the Italian league system, scoring 9 goals in Genoa’s promotion campaign. After promotion Grabbi considered retirement after a number of injury concerns, but was persuaded to stay on by fellow players and the Genoa fans, but he was sold during the transfer window in 2006 to Arezzo. A half season with them and he moved for the final time in his career to Swiss second division side AC Bellinzona.

As any Newcastle United fan will tell you, The Toon army have made an art of wasting large amounts of cash on overpriced foreign players who arrive with big reputations only to leave with their tails between their legs, reputations destroyed and in some cases careers in tatters. The names Hugo Viana and Albert Luque are just two complete wastes of money that spring to mind. Yet surely Marcelino has to …

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£11.5m for the new Thierry Henry? It sounded like a deal and a half in July 2007. Ryan Babel, Ajax’s young winger and prodigous talent, would be making a big money move across the North Sea to Liverpool, where he would seemingly go on to prove himself as one of the best young players in the world and propel Liverpool on towards League and Champions League glory…

…Or so the script went ideally.

The reality was very different.

As a youngster Babel was always outstanding amongst his peers. Coming through the much vaunted Ajax youth system, he made his first team debut just a month after his 17th birthday. In his time with Ajax, his talent was undeniable. Marco Van Basten, then manager of the Dutch National team, quickly added Babel to his squad and gave him his debut as an 18 year old. However even for Ajax, Babel’s form was inconsistent at times and he would often spend periods on the bench or out of the team. As a youngster, this is of course, to be expected and it was thought, given his excellent performances as captain for Holland U21 in the 2007 European Championships, that he would go on to mature as a player, become more consistent in his performances at a higher level and from then on thrive at Anfield.

His first season saw Babel show flashes of brilliance at times but once again his consistency was a tad lacking. Many experts put this down to Babel just getting used to life in England and the pace of the English game. Many pundits felt that his second season would be much improved. Andy Gray notably selected Babel as being a player to watch in season 2008-2009 as he had the ability to develop his game and his talents into becoming a real force in the Premier League throughout the season.

Despite Liverpool’s improved season in 2008-2009, Babel was often only used from the substitutes bench and his performances never seemed to warrant, in the eye of manager Rafa Benitez at least, a consistent run in the team. While some games Babel would come on and turn the game in Liverpool’s favour, such as when he scored the winner against Manchester United at Anfield, or set up Fernando Torres for the winner at West Ham, he would often look out of sorts and fans were critical of his seeming lack of effort, poor touch and seeming unwillingness to match the workrate and endeavours of his team mates.

In his third season in England, the lack of opportunities at Anfield began to irk Babel. A loan move back to Ajax was mooted earlier in the season, with the player apparently suggesting that he’d be keen on a move. His relationship with Benitez and the fact that he seldom played from the start and was being used less and less frequently as a substitute saw him make his discontent at the club public in a Dutch magazine article, much to the ire of Benitez. The relationship reached breaking point around Christmas 2009 when Babel twittered his displeasure at being left out of the matchday squad for the trip to Stoke. Since then Babel has cut an isolated figure at Anfield and a move from the club during the transfer window seems certain, with talk of potential deals with Birmingham, Sunderland, Galatasaray and Arsenal almost daily in the press.

I have some sympathy with Babel, who seems to be a player who needs a run of games and perhaps some kind words from the manager, to restore his confidence and find his best form. For whatever reason, Rafa Benitez has chosen not to give Babel that chance, certainly over the past two years. Babel’s attitude hasn’t helped his situation and his seeming lack of application in games, similar to accusations levelled at Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov, haven’t endeared him to the Liverpool faithful.

This is a great shame, because Babel does have the potential to be a great player. He’s lacked the opportunities to prove that and the application to earn the right to those very opportunities.

Babel will bounce back, but it will be at another club. Babel’s move was destined to failure because Benitez and he never saw eye to eye on the key issues between them. In such circumstances, there is usually only ever one winner.

That’s why Benitez is staying and Babel will be going.

Hernan Crespo has always been a very talented footballer but for one reason or another, his move to Chelsea did not work out. Crespo started out life in his native Argentina with River Plate. After excelling in his first season with the Bueno Aires club, scoring 13 goals mostly from substitute appearances, he became a regular in the side for the next two seasons helping the team to two Argentinean Apertura Championships and a Copa Libertadores, where he scored twice in the first leg at home in the final.

A move abroad was not long in coming and he arrived in Italian football with Parma in 1996. In 4 seasons at the club he scored 61 league goals and helped the side to runners up spot in his first season at the club, and helped the team to Italian Cup and a UEFA Cup success in 1999, where he scored a goal in the 3-0 victory over Marseille in the final. Such performances attracted interest from other Serie A clubs who saw the Argentinean striker as one of the top strikers in the league.

Big spending Lazio won Crespo’s signature in 2000 for a then world record of £35million. He rewarded the Rome club with 26 goals in his first season and was named top goalscorer in Serie A at the end of the 2000/2001 season. The club however began to have financial problems and Crespo was seen as a very saleable asset. He was sold to Inter Milan for €20million plus young striker Bernardo Corradi in 2002 but his time at Internazionale was short. Signed as a replacement for Ronaldo who had moved to Real Madrid, Crespo struggled to settle in at the San Siro. Despite scoring seven goals, he was limited to eighteen league appearances as he was injured for several months in early 2003.

Then came his move to Chelsea for £17million. With Roman Abramovich’s millions, Claudio Ranieri picked Crespo to lead his forward line but he only started 19 league games in his first season in England, scoring twelve goals in the process. The then 28 year old Argentinean striker found it hard to adjust to the English lifestyle and when new manager Jose Mourinho brought in Didier Drogba, the Portuguese coach loaned the player back to Italy with AC Milan.

He had a good spell in Milan scoring ten league goals and also contributed greatly to Carlo Ancelotti side’s run to the Champions League final, scoring two goals in the final as they lost to Liverpool on penalties in 2005. Crespo wished to stay in Milan but with Mourinho unable to find backup for Didier Drogba, Crespo spent the 2005/06 season with Chelsea. It was a rewarding season with the club as he won his first and only European league title, but he still wished to return to Italy. Inter Milan took him on a two year loan deal and he contributed a fair amount of goals during Roberto Mancini’s successful title defences in 2007 and 2008. He was released from Chelsea at the end of the 2007/2008 season for nothing and was signed up by Inter on a one year deal. Under Jose Mourinho once again though, he only started two Serie A games and was omitted from the Champions League squad. To have a chance of getting into the Argentina World Cup squad place this season, Crespo moved to Genoa after his contract expired with Inter to seek more first team football.

His relative failure at Chelsea was surprising considering his fantastic goalscoring record but it was clear, he was not happy during his time in England and his heart always lay playing in Serie A.

If Liverpool fans are looking for a transfer that can act as an effective comparison for this dreadful season, then the signing of Fernando Morientes could well be the perfect example. Before he played a game much was expected and great fanfare was given for what could be achieved and in the end, despite the occasional moment of class, it ended in bitter disappointment all around.

To be fair to Rafa Benitez, in January 2005, there were not many better strikers around available for £6.3m. This was a player who averaged nearly a goal a game for Spanish giants Real Madrid, despite being forced to play as a substitute in many games due to Real signing Brazilian striker Ronaldo. On loan at Monaco the previous season, the Spaniard had netted 10 goals in 28 games and had terrorised Chelsea’s defence in the semi final, scoring home and away to send Monaco through to the final (where they would eventually lose to Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto side). Very few people at the time thought that this deal could be anything less than a success and certainly everyone had high hopes of the transfer being one of the best of Benitez new reign at Anfield.

Sadly for Morientes and Benitez it never worked out that way. Although Liverpool fans were given glimpses of the quality that Morientes possessed, such as his brace against Middlesbrough at Anfield in a 2-0 victory, Morientes form at Anfield was never consistent. Too often he was on the fringes of game and seldom involved. His confidence seemed to be at a low ebb and he struggled to convince the Anfield crowd, so desperate for him to be a success, that he could take on the goalscoring mantle at the club. More worryingly, he was not convincing his manager either, despite being given plenty of playing time. 18 months after signign, Morientes had played a grand total of 61 games for Liverpool, but only scored 12 goals and his form was so poor that Rafa Benitez deemed him surplus to requirements, letting the striker leave the club for an undisclosed fee (believed to be less than half what the club paid for him) to go back to Spain and join up with Benitez’s former charges Valencia.

It is difficult to ascertain why Morientes wasn’t a success at Anfield. He certainly had all the attributes to be as much of a success at the club as any striker Liverpool have had in recent times, including Fernando Torres. His lack of pace is sometimes cited as a reason for his failure in England, but that is perhaps an unfair judgement as his lack of pace never influence his performances for Real Madrid or Monaco. Morientes seems to have been the victim of a clash of cultures more than anything else. His languid, loose, fluid style of play is perhaps more typical of someone like Dimitar Berbatov, another player who has had his struggles, and a player like that needs a team to play a certain way to bring the best out of them. Like United and Berbatov, Liverpool and Morientes didn’t quite suit each other and as the Spaniard’s confidence deserted him, the problem just compounded itself.

So don’t believe the hype, Morientes transfer wasn’t the worst in the world by any means. It made perfect sense at the time and he was a fantastic player. It just didn’t work out for a variety of reasons and factors which is a great shame as he could well have been the perfect predecessor before Liverpool signed Fernando Torres.

It wasn’t so long ago that Jermaine Pennant was being touted as the next big thing in English football. It was his big money move from Birmingham to Liverpool that was supposed to reignite his career, this never happened and he came another transfer flop as we will soon discover.

Jermaine Pennant was signed by Arsenal as a trainee at the age of 15 for £2 million, at the time …

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Over the years the Dutch league has been home to some of the great Premier League flops. The Netherlands national side is one of the best in the world and has been for several years, yet the club football in Holland is not of a similar standard and Dutch clubs often take a backseat to the European giants from Spain, Italy and of course England. There have been several names that have excelled in the Eredivisie but have not been able to cut it in the Premier League. You just have to look at Ryan Babel and Dirk Kuyt to see that those who experience goal scoring success in Holland do not always do so in the Premier League. And then there is the best example of all; Mateja Kezman.

Kezman was one of the first names to join the Chelsea revolution and was going to usher the west London club into a new age, taking them to the heights of European football. That was the plan when the Serbian striker joined the Blues from PSV Eindhoven fir £5.3 million in the summer of 2004; however Kezman failed, and failed emphatically.

Having scored an outrageous 105 league goals in 122 appearances for the Dutch outfit, Chelsea fans were understandably optimistic about the impact that the Serb would have at Stamford Bridge. Kezman faced competition from new arrivals Didier Drogba as well as fan favourite Eidur Gudjohnsen but surely he would get his chances considering his phenomenal goal scoring record?

Kezman did get opportunities at Stamford Bridge however; his opportunities were limited due to his inability to make an impact. The man who had taken Holland by storm managed only 4 league goals in his only season with the Blues and gained a reputation amongst the Chelsea faithful for not being able to hit a barn door with a banjo. He symbolised the step up in quality between the leagues and his slow start in England got the better of him as he failed to live up to his reputation and crumbled under the pressure of the Premier League.

It is however worth noting that the Serbia international did bag a crucial extra time goal in a Carling Cup final against bitter rivals Liverpool however, the goal was hardly of the highest class as Kezman bundled the ball home from close range. Kezman failed to find the net on a regular basis and the hapless striker packed his bags and left Stamford Bridge at the end of the season as José Mourinho once again reached for the chequebook.

Since leaving west London Kezman has become somewhat of a journeyman. In the last five years he has played for Atlético Madrid, Fenerbahce, Paris Saint-Germain and Zenit St. Petersburg yet has failed to recreate the reputation that he crafted in Eindhoven. The man who could have achieved everything with Chelsea has no faded off the radar and vanished into obscurity.

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Francis Jeffers is the all-time leading goalscorer for the England Under 21s, joint on the list with Alan Shearer. On his only appearance for the senior England team, he scored in the 3-1 friendly defeat to Australia, and during his time at boyhood club Everton he scored 18 goals in 49 league appearances, making a very promising start to his professional career. His performances caught the eye of Arsene Wenger. Arsenal had always been said to have missed a ‘fox in the box’ who could put away the chances that they created, and Wenger believed that Jeffers could be the answer to the London club’s problems in the area, and he purchased the player for an initial £8million in the summer of 2001.

Jeffers was not only a goal poacher though. During his time at Everton, the young Everton striker also showed his build up play was of a very high standard, and it no doubt played a part in Wenger signing the player. He didn’t always rely on his pace to get himself out of trouble and to create chances for himself, and so he was a player that defenders found very unpredictable. He was a player with fantastic awareness of the play around him, and he was a nightmare for defender’s to mark because of his ability to find space. Such a knack sometimes made it impossible for opponents to anticipate his next move.

Such qualities brought him to Highbury on a wave of optimism for the start of 2001/2002 season. His time at Arsenal was however ravaged by injuries and he spent the best part of his three year stay in London on the physio table. His proneness to injury had been apparent during his time at Everton and he had already picked a series of injuries which had prevented him competing for starting places in nearly all of the three years he spent in Everton’s first team squad. During his spell at Arsenal he managed just 20 league matches in three years and scored only 4 goals during this time. Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Sylvain Wiltord were all ahead of him in the pecking order, and it was a struggle to get into the team even without his injuries. After spending so much money on the player, Wenger may have considered persisting with the player through his injury problems but there were other factors which may have affected Jeffers’s stay at Highbury.

Question marks over the young striker’s commitment to the game have been circling since his early days at Everton. At 16 years old, Jeffers already had a contract worth £1million and once he had got into the first team, Jeffers handed in a transfer request in August 1999 after a falling out with manager Walter Smith rumoured to be over the wages in his contract extension. He patched up his differences with Smith but once again fell out with his boss in March 2001 over a contract which would have made the striker the most well-paid player at the club. He left for Arsenal that summer but the decision to leave may have been a costly one.

Injuries no doubt hampered his development as a player, as well as his lack of desire, and he was loaned back to Everton in 2003, where he also fell out with manager David Moyes and only scored two goals in the FA Cup during his loan period. His torrid spell at Arsenal was finally over after a £2.6million move to Charlton in 2004. He has subsequently been on loan to Rangers, moved to Blackburn where he was again sent out on loan to Ipswich before he was finally sold to Sheffield Wednesday in 2007 for £700,000 where he currently plies his trade. Wednesday’s supporters have been on his back for his lack of effort but his injury problems continue as they have throughout his entire career.

A lack of confidence with no long run in the first team football have led Jeffers to becoming only a pale shadow of the player he once was and things got even worse for the now 28 year old striker when he was sent off against Port Vale in the Carling Cup in August. He apparently head-butted and punched Vale’s Captain Tommy Fraser during the match and was subsequently transfer listed by manager Brian Laws. He has been frozen out from first team action since making only two substitute appearances but after the departure of Laws, he was given his first start for over four months in the FA Cup tie against Crystal Palace over a week ago. Jeffers will be hoping for a fresh start under new Owls boss Alan Irvine.