Best bargains of recent years

Smithwicks Man

Couldn't find a thread for this but maybe there's one knocking about so lock away if there is!

What are the best bargains you've witnessed in recent years? Bosmans included, (although they're a bit different), what are the best value deals that you have seen clubs get?

This is for bargains in the sense of transfer deals which, at the time they went through, you thought they were a great deal. Not transfers you can look back on and say they were a bargain because the player succeeded.

So it's mainly for players who were bought for less that they were worth at the time and not players who were bought cheap and developed into great players.

Example - If United buy Thiago for €18m it is a bargain because he is worth much more than this at the minute. Regardless of whether he flops, it woud still be a bargain.

The bargain player does not have to have performed well since his transfer, but rather he should never have been sold for that price to begin with. Contract lengths etc. should be mentioned.

For me -

Pirlo (Milan to Juventus) - Free - Ridiculous bargain after his contract ran out. Would've walked into any team in the world.

Michu - (Rayo Vallecano to Swansea) - €3m - He was already an established player in Spain and this was an excellent piece of business by Swansea.

Van der Vaart - (Real Madrid to Spurs) - €10m - One of the 3 dutch maestros that Madrid let go. Was a revelation when he landed at spurs and he always had the ability to begin with.

Montolivo - (Fiorentina to Milan) - Free - Great bargain as well after his contract ran down. Is now the new club captain for next season.

Sneijder - (Real Madrid to Inter) - €15m - Fantastic player at a fantastic price. Went on to lead the team to glory in 2010 and was a great piece of business.

Vidal - (Bayer Leverkusen to Juventus) - €10.5m - He was an established player in Germany and many expected him to be sold fo a lot more that he was. Great buy both now, and at the time.

De Jong - (Man City to Milan) - €5m approx. - Worth much, much more than this at the time. Suffered a bad injury last season but even at that, it was well worth that fee. Unsure of his contract situation.

What recent bargains do you feel clubs didn't get enough praise for at the time?

.jacksparrow.

Kompany, cazorla.

SEPT 23 1989

Kompany 6m Hamburg to City

MagicMarker

Thiago - 18m. :pac:

Smithwicks Man

Cazorla's a good shout. I can't really remember, Was Kompany an established player when City bought him?

Corvo

Bargains were invented when Michu was bought don't you know :pac:

Giggsy11

Ozil - 10 Million to Madrid

Sahin around same amount to Madrid

Moutinho - 10 Million to Porto

Xavi6

Joe Hart

applehunter

Kevin Doyle for €110k + Shane Long for 15k from Cork City was a pretty good transfer swoop for Reading back in 2005 considering the superb talents they were getting.

With a helping hand from the jilted Pat Dolan.

Giggsy11

Also Gundogan to Dortmund for 5 Million.
Evra - 5 Million to ManUtd
Vidic - 7.5 Million to ManUtd.

Corvo

Edwin Van Der Sar (Fulham to Manchester United) - £2m

Established goalkeeper, great leader and organiser of the defensive line. Key part of United going on a serious winning streak from the time he joined.

homerjay2005

Javier Hernandez has to be up there also. cost feck all and his goals ratios for United and mexico are excellent.

Dr_Brian_Cocks

Xavi6 wrote: »

Joe Hart

Head and Shoulders above the rest of the ones mentioned.

Jax Teller

Barzagli £300000 not bad signing for that money .

billymitchell

Does Hyppia to Liverpool count as recent?

Yakult

Carroll To Liverpool for 3.5m

Pudders

Henrik Larsson on his moves to Celtic, Barca and Man U.

Smithwicks Man

Joe Hart is a good shout. How good was he when City bought him/ where you thinking it was a steal at the time?

homerjay2005 wrote: »

Javier Hernandez has to be up there also. cost feck all and his goals ratios for United and mexico are excellent.

Looking back now he was a bargain, he wasn't established at the time though ?

Corvo wrote: »

Bargains were invented when Michu was bought don't you know :pac:

The bargain that started them all :pac:

Giggsy11 wrote: »

Ozil - 10 Million to Madrid

Sahin around same amount to Madrid

Moutinho - 10 Million to Porto

Ozil was got at a very good price, which should have really shot up after showing what he could do on the international stage!

Rubber_Soul

Shinji Kagawa from Cerezo Osaka to Dortmund for €350,000. Sold 2 years later for an estimated €15m.

xtal191

Shinji Kagawa, Cerezo Osaka to Borussia Dortmund for €350,000

Xavi6

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

Joe Hart is a good shout. How good was he when City bought him/ where you thinking it was a steal at the time?

I didn't know anything about him or how good/bad he was. I wasn't the only one either!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/9093518/Manchester-Uniteds-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-regrets-not-signing-Joe-Hart-when-he-had-chance.html

"I could have bought Joe Hart for £100,000 so we all make mistakes," Ferguson said.

smileyj1987

Xabi Alonso from Real Sociedad to Liverpool for 10.5 Million , we all know of his quality and he would walk into alot of teams in the world .

Richard Hillman

Falcao to Porto 3.5 million

Smithwicks Man

smileyj1987 wrote: »

Xabi Alonso from Real Sociedad to Liverpool for 10.5 Million , we all know of his quality and he would walk into alot of teams in the world .

That's the kind of bargains I was talking about. Great call

intellectual dosser

Havent seen anyone mention:

Gareth Bale
Southampton to Tottenham - £7m.

Smithwicks Man

intellectual dosser wrote: »

Havent seen anyone mention:

Gareth Bale
Southampton to Tottenham - £7m.

But Bale was terrible at the time and Spurs went something like 24 games without a when when Bale featured?

The bargains I'm on about are more the kind of thing you're delighted with at the time because you've bought a successful, proven player and a price which is less than what he's worth.

Bale, Hart etc. only proved themselves after they were bought by Spurs and City. The same goes for Kagawa to Dortmund and Chicarito to United.

Ozil to Madrid was a good call as was VDS

Blatter

xtal191 wrote: »

Shinji Kagawa, Cerezo Osaka to Borussia Dortmund for €350,000

Kagawa to United for £12-17m was a bargain in itself.

Suarez and Coutinho were real bargains for Liverpool.

Oranage2

This thread was stupid from the get go, thiago a bargain at 18 million, thankfully the thread got significantly better from post 2 onwards.

Smithwicks Man

Blatter wrote: »

Kagawa to United for £12-17m was a bargain in itself.

Suarez and Coutinho were real bargains for Liverpool.

Coutinho yes - (Still don't know why Inter sold him )

Suarez cost £23m which would have been in or around his value at the time.

Kagawa was more of a bargain, even though he hasn't done near as well, because at the time he was Bundesliga player of the year and he should've cost United more

Blatter

Ozil to Real Madrid for £12.5m was a bargain too.

Smithwicks Man

Oranage2 wrote: »

This thread was stupid from the get go, thiago a bargain at 18 million, thankfully the thread got significantly better from post 2 onwards.

€18m for Thiago isn't a bargain?

GTR63

Borja Valero to Fiorentina €6/7m.
Thiago Silva to Milan was a bargain too €10m iirc.
Verratti to PSG was a snip too(€12m iirc).
Handanovic to Inter for €11m.
Oh and its a fairly old one but Kaka to milan for €8.5m was an unreal bargain.
I'd add Marco Reus for €18m last summer.

Leiva

Michu for £2m

MagicMarker

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

because at the time he was Bundesliga player of the year

No he wasn't.

Oranage2

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

€18m for Thiago isn't a bargain?

No!


Anyway sol campbell to arsenal on a free, one of the best defenders in the world at the time and moved from spurs which made it even sweeter.

LiamoSail

Giggsy11 wrote: »

Ozil - 10 Million to Madrid

Sahin around same amount to Madrid

Moutinho - 10 Million to Porto

I know he cost pittance, but what has sahin done at Madrid to justify their investment?

Smithwicks Man

MagicMarker wrote: »

No he wasn't.

I'm wrong on that one. It was the 2010-11 season

massdebater

Henry to Barcelona for 16 million was an absolute steal. Arguably, the best player in the world at the time.

Smithwicks Man

Oranage2 wrote: »

No!


Anyway sol campbell to arsenal on a free, one of the best defenders in the world at the time and moved from spurs which made it even sweeter.

But.. But... Am I the only one who thinks Thiago @ €18m is a bargain? :eek:

Campbell, good shout


Ashley Cole to Chelsea for €7m plus Gallas

Blatter

massdebater wrote: »

Henry to Barcelona for 16 million was an absolute steal. Arguably, the best player in the world at the time.

He was turning and coming off the back of an injury ravaged season. Think 16m was about right for him at the time.

Mr Whirly

Seamus Coleman for £150,000.

Giggsy11

LiamoSail wrote: »

I know he cost pittance, but what has sahin done at Madrid to justify their investment?

This was in OP. Also yes he was hardly given chance at Madrid but he was a steal at 10 Million.

This is for bargains in the sense of transfer deals which, at the time they went through, you thought they were a great deal. Not transfers you can look back on and say they were a bargain because the player succeeded.

So it's mainly for players who were bought for less that they were worth at the time and not players who were bought cheap and developed into great players

.

GLaDOS

Michael Owen looked like a great deal for Madrid at the time

Smithwicks Man

Yeah, Ozil is definitely in. It's not for players who had to prove themselves for you to be able to say they were a bargain.

I was more talking about the transfers you looked at, before the player kicked a ball for his new club, and thought "he should have cost more"

Ibrahimovic to Milan for €24m
Ibrahimovic to PSG for €23m

Dr_Brian_Cocks

Fabregas for 25m? Best midfielder in the PL at the time. Maybe should have stayed at Arsenal to be seen as one of the greats.

Xavi6

I don't see how anything over 10 million can be considered a "bargain"

Oat23

Adler to Hamburg (free)
Dante to Bayern (€4m)

Does Özil really count? He had a year left on his deal and cost €15m. Good deal for Bremen.

Smithwicks Man

Xavi6 wrote: »

I don't see how anything over 10 million can be considered a "bargain"

City bought Messi or Ronaldo right now for €30-40m

Would you not consider it a bargain?

For me, any player bought for less than 70% of their supposed worth would be a bargain.

massdebater

I'm a big Ibra fan but that Eto'o plus £39 million swap was insanity at the time.

Smithwicks Man

Oat23 wrote: »

Adler to Hamburg (free)
Dante to Bayern (€4m)

Does Özil really count? He had a year left on his deal and cost €15m. Good deal for Bremen.

Didn't know that

Smithwicks Man

massdebater wrote: »

I'm a big Ibra fan but that Eto'o plus £39 million swap was insanity at the time.

Agreed.

Inter got the better of that one by a long stretch. Not the first awful piece of transfer business by Barca in recent years.

If the Tevez deal goes through, I'd consider that a good deal for a player of his quality but, given the circumstances, City wouldn't have gotten much more


Balotelli to Milan for €20m ?