Romelu Lukaku is set to leave Chelsea for the second time just one year after his £97.5m move to Stamford Bridge.
The Belgian was utterly woeful in his one season back in England. He looked a shell of his former self and he could barely get a kick of a football, nevermind score a goal.
Lukaku’s failed second stint at Chelsea has led to many labelling him as the worst Premier League signing in recent memory, and with that in mind, we’re going to have a go at building an XI of the worst transfers of the Premier League era.
GK – Kepa Arrizabalaga – Chelsea
The first, but by no means the last, Chelsea player in this team, Kepa Arrizabalaga has been a bit of a nightmare signing from start to finish.
A world-record fee was paid for a goalkeeper for Kepa, but within just two seasons he’d lost his place as Chelsea’s number one.
Kepa has made a string of high-profile errors for Chelsea, but perhaps his biggest sins have come in a pair of Carabao Cup finals where he made headlines for the wrong reasons in penalty shootouts on two occasions.
RB – Winston Bogarde – Chelsea
One of the only free transfers in this team, Bogarde somehow managed to be a massive waste of money while costing £0.
Bogarde was signed on a contract worth £40,000-a-week back in 2000, which was a lot of money back then, but he played just nine times for the Blues, refusing to leave or go out on loan unless his entire salary was covered.
After bleeding Chelsea dry, Bogarde retired, presumably living very comfortably through his Stamford Bridge earnings.
CB – Shkodran Mustafi – Arsenal
One of two World Cup winners in this team, Shkodran Mustafi looked more like a competition winner during his time at Arsenal.
Tactically inept, slow and rash, Mustafi put on a masterclass on how not to defend during his time at the Emirates Stadium.
£35m was a massive fee at the time, but Mustafi never looked like being worth even a fraction of that cost.
CB – Ben Gibson – Burnley
A club-record £15m fee was paid by Burnley to sign Ben Gibson from Middlesbrough, but the centre-back appeared to disappear off the face of the earth after joining the Clarets.
Gibson would play just one league game for Burnley, and funnily enough, he would score in that sole appearance, but for some reason, he’d never be selected by Sean Dyche again in the Premier League.
LB – Jamal Lewis – Newcastle
It may seem a little harsh to put a 24-year-old in this team, but, strangely, there haven’t been too many disaster stories when it comes to signing left-backs in the Premier League.
Andre Santos or Paul Konchesky could perhaps make this side from their time at Arsenal and Liverpool, but, in our view, Lewis is a worse signing.
A £15m player who couldn’t even make the Magpies’ 25-man squad last term, the Northern Irishman is unlikely to ever work his way back into the Newcastle side after their takeover.
RM – Nicolas Pepe – Arsenal
Arsenal’s club-record signing, Nicolas Pepe hasn’t come close to justifying the £72m fee that was spent on him.
The Ivorian didn’t hit the ground running at Arsenal and he was quickly usurped in the side by a teenage Bukayo Saka.
Pepe started just five Premier League games last term, and it looks for all the world like he’ll be leaving north London this summer.
CM – Paul Pogba – Manchester United
Paul Pogba may well be the best player in this team, but it’s hard to argue that he was a success at Manchester United.
A world-record fee was paid for Pogba to join the Red Devils in 2016 after departing on a free transfer in 2012, and here we are, six years later and Pogba has again left on a free.
Glimpses of brilliance simply aren’t enough to save Pogba from making this team.
CM – Danny Drinkwater – Chelsea
What were Chelsea thinking when signing Danny Drinkwater for £35m?
Yes, he’d won the Premier League with Leicester, but it was so obvious to so many that he wasn’t good enough to play for a club of the Blues’ stature.
Drinkwater himself admitted earlier this month that his time at Chelsea was a disaster, and it’s hard to disagree with him.
LM – Ali Dia – Southampton
We all know the story by now.
Someone calls up Graeme Souness pretending to be George Weah selling his cousin to the then Saints boss.
Souness takes the bait and that leads to Ali Dia’s one and only Premier League appearance.
Dia started up front that day, but he plays on the left in our team, and given that he wasn’t a professional footballer, we don’t think he’ll mind too much.
ST – Kostas Mitroglou – Fulham
Fulham’s then club-record transfer, Kostas Mitroglou’s time at Craven Cottage was utterly ridiculous.
Signed to help keep Fulham in the Premier League, the Greek played just three times for the Whites, failing to score a single goal.
The performances were poor, the pricetag was high, but the worst part about this whole saga is that Fulham could have signed Antoine Griezmann instead.
ST – Romelu Lukaku – Chelsea
The man who inspired this XI. Much like Paul Pogba, Lukaku returned to Chelsea after being let go only to disappoint and once again jump ship.
The Belgian was, quite simply, atrocious during his second-spell at Stamford Bridge, and he’ll be more than relieved to be re-joining Inter.
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