Football has become accustomed to seeing astronomical sums of money thrown around in transfer sums, and so many of those fees have been wasted.
Bad cases for these players
Eden Hazard and Philippe Coutinho are two examples of big-money moves that haven’t worked out at Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, and neither player is showing any signs of turning things around. Both find themselves in very similar situations, having left England as two of the Premier League’s finest players only to flop in LaLiga Santander, and each set their respective clubs back over 100 million euros.
Cou’s and Eden’s bad luck in Spain
The Belgian arrived at Real Madrid as the great hope of their post-Cristiano Ronaldo era, with Los Blancos spending 100 million euros to get him out of the final year of his contract at Chelsea. But he’s had a lot of injury problems since landing in 2019, and he’s hardly featured under Carlo Ancelotti this season. His last two LaLiga Santander appearances accumulated for 12 minutes on the pitch, and he never set foot on the grass in El Clasico. His market value has fallen dramatically, with Transfermarkt now valuing him at just 25 million euros. Barcelona don’t escape accusatory fingers either, having spent 120 million euros and 40m more in variables to sign him as one of the Neymar replacements. When he arrived at the Camp Nou his market value was around 150 million euros, but it’s now as low as about 14m, as he has been largely anonymous since making that ill-fated move. Xavi Hernandez’s arrival at the Camp Nou doesn’t look to have done much for his chances, as he’s already had more than enough time to impress those at the club, from fans to members of the board. Experts believe that it’s not possible for these players anymore. It’s believed that they can’t play in La Liga any more. They may sign back to the Premier League.