Here are six examples of a Premier League club delving into the transfer market to spend big on a player when they already had one of their own youth products available for no fee.
Emerson Thome (John Terry)
Brought to England in 1998 by Sheffield Wednesday boss Ron Atkinson, Thome spent a little less than two years at Hillsborough before landing a big move to Chelsea. The Blues decided to sign the Brazilian in the same season he conceded eight against Newcastle United and four against Manchester United, Liverpool and West Ham United. All while future captain, leader, legend, John Terry was coming through the ranks.
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Terry, who had made appearances under Gianluca Vialli in the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup by this juncture, was yet to fully establish himself as a first-team regular and Thome’s arrival only delayed his development.
Thome lasted a grand total of nine months at Stamford Bridge and his departure for Sunderland helped pave the way for a 20-year-old Terry, who was named Chelsea Player of the Year after making 22 top-flight appearances in 2000/01. The following season Terry was a first-choice centre-back for his boyhood club and was named captain when Jose Mourinho arrived in 2004, all while Thome was struggling to find a permanent home.
Following his retirement, Thome spent seven years as a scout at Everton, then three with West Ham. He has been a scout for RB Leipzig since July 2018.
Nicolas Pepe (Bukayo Saka)
After that nice little blast from the past, let’s fast-forward to 2019 when Arsenal paid a club-record £72million to sign Ivorian winger Nicolas Pepe from Lille. Pepe had just scored 22 goals and made 11 assists in a single Ligue campaign and joined with high expectations. It is safe to say he has not met those expectations during his time as a Gunner.
In fairness to Pepe, he definitely did not halt Bukayo Saka’s progress, but he did come in and steal his favoured right-wing position. Obviously, a £72m player is going to play in his preferred position, while Saka was just happy to be involved under Unai Emery and then Mikel Arteta, who elevated the Englishman’s game to another level.
Saka was mostly used as a left-back in 19/20, while occasionally playing a little further up the field. He didn’t get any minutes in Arsenal’s FA Cup semi-final and final victories, while Pepe actually played a huge part. That was as good as it got for Pepe, while Saka was only just getting started.
After playing 26 times in the Premier League the previous season, Saka would quickly establish himself as Arsenal’s best player, which was not that hard considering how rubbish they were in 20/21. As a teenager, he carried the Gunners on his back and remains their most important player now.
Roberto Soldado (Harry Kane)
Ah, the summer of 2013. One to forget for Tottenham, wasn’t it? The Gareth Bale money saw Daniel Levy and co. lose their minds, signing a load of flops after losing the most expensive player in the world.
One of the disappointments brought in was Spanish striker Roberto Soldado, who had just bagged 30 in 46 for Valencia. On the face of it, he looked the real deal. But unfortunately, football is played on a pitch, not ‘on the face of it’. He struggled to score from open play, leaving his teammates, coaches and owners baffled as to what happened to the player scoring for fun in his home country.
Thankfully for the Londoners, they had a young Arsenal fan in their ranks who could show Soldado how it was done. Young Harry Kane had spent time on loan at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City before getting a fair crack of the whip at White Hart Lane in April 2014. He scored and assisted in his first Premier League start and was rewarded by Tim Sherwood, who started the youngster in his side’s next, and final, five games of the season.
As they say: the rest is history. How did it take as many as three players for that to be said?
READ MORE: Chelsea’s track record of no. 9 flops feature in list of cursed Premier League numbers
Romelu Lukaku (Tammy Abraham)
Perhaps it is bold to say Tammy Abraham is a better player than Romelu Lukaku, but it is fair to say Chelsea would have been better off not spending £98m on the latter while the former was at the club.
Abraham was pretty underrated during his time at Stamford Bridge. In 20/21, he scored in five of his seven Premier League starts and was fairly reliable. Of course, Chelsea being Chelsea, they wanted a shiny new toy and splashed a ridiculous amount of money on former striker Lukaku five days before selling Abraham to AS Roma for £35m.
Since that fateful summer, Lukaku has helped obliterate his relationship with the Chelsea fans, lost his scoring touch, and is now probably off to Saudi Arabia. Abraham, meanwhile, has won a Europa Conference League in a season in which he scored 27 goals in 53 appearances for Roma.
Anthony Martial/Memphis Depay (Marcus Rashford)
15/16 was a season of players Breaking On To The Scene at Manchester United. Anthony Martial became the most expensive teenager in world football in the summer of 2014 and he was joined at Old Trafford by Memphis Depay. Both made the move to England with huge expectations but years on, it is safe to say neither have been worth the money.
Saying that, Martial did enjoy an electric start to life at Old Trafford, all while Memphis struggled massively. 11 goals in a debut Premier League campaign was impressive, but it was a match he missed through injury which helped bring through the man who would one day be United’s highest earner. Injured in the warm-up before kicking off against FC Midtjylland, Martial was replaced in the starting line-up by 18-year-old Marcus Rashford, who scored twice. The Frenchman was not fit for the weekend and Rashford started again, this time scoring a brace against Arsenal in the Premier League.
The Red Devils spent a combined €94m (Transfermarkt) to sign Memphis and Martial, yet it was youth product Rashford who would go on to become one of the best attackers in world football. He deserves it too. What a man.
Mathieu Debuchy (Hector Bellerin)
This feels more like a bonus inclusion as the £12m fee Arsenal paid to sign Debuchy from Newcastle United is pennies to Stan Kroenke. Well, the £105m they paid for Declan Rice probably is as well, but that’s not the point.
Debuchy was a handy right-back for the Magpies and made the move to Arsenal in 2014. Bellerin was playing at Premier League 2 level when the French international joined and was given a chance in the first team after Marko Arnautovic left one in on Debuchy, who went crashing into an advertising board and injured his shoulder.
Bellerin came in and quickly established himself as a top-class right-back. The speed he possessed in his younger years was simply terrifying. A couple of injuries really hindered his career and Bellerin is now playing for Real Betis having joined on a free transfer earlier this summer.
