Manchester Metropolis have turn out to be one among the dominant forces in world soccer during the last decade or so – nevertheless it wasn’t at all times that means.
Metropolis have made some regrettable strikes within the switch market through the years – largely earlier than the period of Center Japanese cash and celebrity managers, however not fully.
From the completely underwhelming to the downright uncommon, these are the worst signings in Man Metropolis’s historical past.
33. Kalvin Phillips
Kalvin Phillips will not have complained about ending his first Manchester Metropolis season with a Premier League winners’ medal – however he in all probability would have needed to make greater than two begins…
A £42m arrival from Leeds United in the summertime of 2022, the midfielder stored his place within the England facet for that winter’s World Cup – solely to return from the event “chubby” within the eyes of Metropolis boss Pep Guardiola.
32. Claudio Bravo
When Pep Guardiola took over as Manchester Metropolis supervisor in July 2016, he inherited two-time Premier League champion Joe Hart – nevertheless it was instantly clear {that a} goalkeeper higher with their ft could be wanted.
So, Guardiola went and introduced in Claudio Bravo from former membership Barcelona – and the Chilean did swimsuit the nice Catalan tactician’s possession recreation, however he left rather a lot to be desired when it comes to goalkeeping fundamentals and was changed as primary by Ederson after a single season.
31. Emmanuel Adebayor
A £25m arrival from Arsenal in July 2009, Emmanuel Adebayor registered an honest return of 14 objectives in 26 Premier League appearances throughout his first season at Manchester Metropolis – together with that strike towards the Gunners on the Etihad Stadium, after which he incensed his outdated membership’s followers by operating the size of the pitch to have a good time in entrance of them.
The Togolese striker’s type went off a cliff in 2010/11, although: he netted simply 5 extra instances in all competitions as a Metropolis participant, falling means down the pecking order.
30. Maicon
Maicon featured simply 13 instances in all competitions throughout an injury-hit single-season stick with Manchester Metropolis in 2012/13.
As Metropolis did not retain the Premier League title, the Brazilian did not dislodge present right-back choices Pablo Zabaleta and Micah Richards from the beginning 11 frequently – and he was transfer on by new supervisor Manuel Pellegrini on the finish of the marketing campaign.
29. Lee Bradbury
Forward of the 1997/98 season, Manchester Metropolis paid a club-record £3m to signal striker Lee Bradbury from Portsmouth; by the top of it, that they had been relegated from the Premier League – with Bradbury discovering the online solely six instances (£500,000 a aim would not precisely equal nice worth…).
It might show to be the one top-flight marketing campaign of Bradbury’s profession, and he left Metropolis for Crystal Palace lower than 18 months after signing.
28. Fernando
“I am wanting ahead to many blissful years in Manchester,” Brazilian defensive midfielder Fernando said upon becoming a member of Manuel Pellegrini’s Manchester Metropolis from Porto in 2014.
Sadly for each events, whereas Fernando racked up 102 appearances for the membership, his time at Metropolis proved to be reasonably underwhelming – and he left for Galatasaray in 2017 after discovering alternatives exhausting to return by throughout Pep Guardiola’s first season in cost.
27. Bernardo Corradi
Manchester Metropolis had their fair proportion of goal-shy strikers throughout the 2000s, and Bernardo Corradi was no exception: the Italian discovered the online simply thrice in 29 outings for the membership in all competitions.
Signed from Valencia in the summertime of 2006, Corradi was launched by Metropolis 12 months earlier than his contract had been due expire – having already been loaned to Parma for the 2007/08 marketing campaign.
26. Glauber
Signed from German outfit Nurnberg, Brazilian centre-back Glauber was the last word benchwarmer: an unused substitute an unbelievable 20 instances, he lastly made his Manchester Metropolis debut within the 84th minute of the ultimate recreation of the 2008/09 season.
Cheered by Metropolis followers each time he touched the ball of their conflict towards Bolton Wanderers, Glauber – who left as a free agent after his one-year contract expired – is remembered as one thing of a cult hero on the Etihad Stadium.
25. Rolando Bianchi
Rolando Bianchi had caught the attention with some first rate type in entrance of aim for Italian outfit Reggina, and it was Manchester Metropolis who received the race to signal the striker in July 2007.
Bianchi’s Metropolis profession was short-lived, although: he left the next January, having did not settle in England – the place he publicly admitted he hated the meals and complained that referees had been too lenient.
“I wish to be a prime European striker,” he claimed. That did not occur.
24. Barry Conlon
Signed from QPR by then second-tier Manchester Metropolis in 1997, Barry Conlon made simply eight league appearances (seven of which got here from the bench) throughout his time at Maine Highway – and did not rating a single aim.
The Irish striker ended up being loaned out to Plymouth Argyle, earlier than leaving Metropolis completely to affix Southend United in 1998.
23. Stevan Jovetic
Having scored 27 Serie A objectives in his remaining two seasons for Fiorentina, Stevan Jovetic appeared a promising acquisition by Manchester Metropolis in the summertime of 2013.
Sadly for Metropolis, although, the Montegrin striker was by no means actually something greater than that: he managed solely 11 objectives in 44 outings in all competitions for Manuel Pellegrini’s facet (though he did choose up a 2013/14 Premier League winners medal) earlier than returning to Italy with Inter Milan.
22. Laurent Charvet
A £1m acquisition from Newcastle early within the 2000/01 season, Laurent Charvet penned a four-year contract with Manchester Metropolis – however the French right-back solely obtained midway by means of that deal earlier than leaving by mutual consent.
Following his departure, Charvet would play professionally for lower than a yr, retiring on the finish of the 2002/03 season on the age of simply 30 (though he did briefly come out of retirement with novice membership RC Grasse in 2008).
21. Nolito
Pep Guardiola would have recognized about Nolito throughout the winger’s time as a younger fringe participant at Barcelona – and he made the Spaniard one his first signings as Manchester Metropolis supervisor in July 2016.
Nolito would spend only one, ineffective season on the Etihad Stadium, although, along with his household not settling into life in England. He returned to La Liga with Sevilla simply 12 months after becoming a member of Metropolis.
20. Gerry Creaney
Having seen him rating for enjoyable at second-tier Portsmouth, Manchester Metropolis gave Scottish striker Gerry Creaney his likelihood within the English prime flight in 1995.
However Metropolis’s £500,000 signing could not lower it on the highest degree – regardless of discovering the online on his debut – and had a string of spells out on mortgage within the second and third tiers earlier than being launched in 1999.
Creaney hung up his boots in 2000, simply 5 years after becoming a member of Metropolis and aged solely 30.
19. Eric Garcia
Eric Garcia performed in Barcelona’s legendary La Masia academy throughout Pep Guardiola’s time in cost on the Camp Nou – and he joined Manchester Metropolis’s youth set-up the yr after Guardiola’s 2016 arrival on the membership.
On the finish of the 2019/20 season, Garcia – who made 36 appearances for Metropolis in all – was one among Guardiola’s first-choice centre-backs, however he turned down the supply of a brand new contract in Manchester and he left as a free agent in the summertime of 2021 – subsequently re-joining Barca.
18. Javi Garcia
Like his namesake and compatriot Eric after him, Javi Garcia grew to become a Premier League champion with Manchester Metropolis – however his time on the Etihad Stadium was reasonably much less profitable than that of the workforce…
A £15.8m signing from Benfica in August 2012, the defensive midfielder featured 80 instances for Metropolis however was by no means enormously convincing. He left for Zenit Saint Petersburg after simply two seasons in Manchester.
17. Stefan Savic
Stefan Savic went on to get pleasure from nice success with Atletico Madrid, however the Montenegrin centre-half’s brief and sloppy spell at Manchester Metropolis was a low level in his profession.
A £6m signing from Partizan Belgrade in July 2011, Savic ended the 2011/12 marketing campaign with a Premier League winners’ medal – however he was hardly instrumental to Metropolis’s success beneath Roberto Mancini that season, making simply 11 league appearances as he did not dislodge the likes of Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott on the again.
16. George Weah
With hindsight, it is in all probability apparent that George Weah was a good well past his finest when he joined newly promoted Manchester Metropolis on a free switch in 2000 – having spent the latter a part of the 1999/2000 season on mortgage at Chelsea from AC Milan.
4 objectives in 9 video games constitutes a much better return than loads of the opposite strikers on this checklist, nevertheless it’s exhausting to not label the Liberian legend’s two-and-a-half months at Metropolis an enormous disappointment.
15. Scott Sinclair
Scott Sinclair was one among Swansea Metropolis’s star males throughout the Welsh membership’s first season within the Premier League – and that earned him an enormous transfer to Manchester Metropolis on deadline day of the summer time 2012 switch window.
The winger did not make the grade on the Etihad Stadium, although, managing a mere two league begins in three years, and going out on mortgage to West Brom and Aston Villa – the latter of whom he left Metropolis to affix completely on the finish of the 2014/15 marketing campaign.
14. Christian Negouai
Finest remembered for being despatched off on his one and solely Premier League look, Christian Negouai’s Manchester Metropolis profession barely took off.
The midfielder joined Metropolis in 2001 from Belgian outfit Charleroi and helped Kevin Keegan’s facet win promotion again to the highest flight – however a severe damage requiring operations on each knees severely restricted his taking part in time, and he left in 2005 having seldom featured for the membership.
13. Valeri Bojinov
Eighteen objectives in three seasons for Fiorentina and Juventus did not precisely scream ‘prolific striker’ – however Manchester Metropolis noticed it match handy Valeri Bojinov a four-year contract in the summertime of 2007.
However the Bulgarian suffered severe accidents in the beginning of every of his first two seasons at Metropolis – for whom he did not rating his first (and solely) aim till the penultimate recreation of the 2008/09 marketing campaign.
Bojinov left Metropolis completely in 2010 – and proceeded to play for 13 golf equipment over the course of the next decade.
12. Robinho
Manchester Metropolis’s first actual celebrity signing of the trendy period, Robinho memorably accomplished a £32.5m transfer from Actual Madrid on deadline day of the 2008 Premier League summer time switch window – coinciding with Metropolis’s mega-money takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group.
And the Brazilian’s return of 14 objectives and 5 assists within the 2008/09 Premier League marketing campaign marked a robust first season in England.
However that was pretty much as good because it obtained for Robinho: he managed only one aim in 12 appearances in all competitions the next season, returning to boyhood membership Santos on mortgage in January 2010.
11. Matias Vuoso
Signing somebody who then by no means performs for you is just not splendid – however that is precisely what occurred with Manchester Metropolis and Mexico striker Matias Vuoso.
Introduced in from Argentine membership Independiente for £3.5m in the summertime of 2002, Vuoso was left baffled by his lack of involvement.
“I have not even spoken to him,” he said of supervisor Kevin Keegan. “I discover it unusual he would not play me.”
10. Jerome Boateng
One other participant who received loads of silverware after leaving Manchester Metropolis – with Bayern Munich – Jerome Boateng endured a massively disappointing time in England.
Fortuitously for each events, although, Boateng’s Metropolis spell was short-lived and Metropolis had been in a position to promote him for across the similar charge they paid to deliver him in from Hamburg within the first place.
The ex-Germany defender joined Bayern in 2011, spending a decade with the Bundesliga giants earlier than leaving for Lyon – the place he retired in 2023.
9. Georgios Samaras
Georgios Samaras grew to become the costliest Greek participant of all time when he made the £6m transfer from Heerenveen to Manchester Metropolis throughout the 2006 winter switch window.
The striker additionally went on to turn out to be one among Metropolis’s largest flops of all time, managing simply eight objectives in 54 Premier League appearances – and solely 12 in 64 outings in all competitions – earlier than shifting on to Celtic in 2008.
8. Roque Santa Cruz
Manchester Metropolis have had some unbelievable South American gamers through the years – however Paraguay legend Roque Santa Cruz was definitely not one among them.
Having made his mark on the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers, the previous Bayern Munich striker joined Metropolis for £17.5m in the summertime of 2009.
Reuniting with Mark Hughes – his boss at Blackburn – did not have the specified impact for Santa Cruz, nonetheless, and he did not characteristic for Metropolis after 2010, leaving two years later with a file of 4 objectives in 24 video games.
7. Martin Demichelis
Martin Demichelis was an everyday as Manchester Metropolis received the 2013/14 Premier League title beneath Manuel Pellegrini – who had managed him at Malaga – however there was at all times a way that Metropolis had been succeeding despite the Argentine centre-back, not due to him.
In the direction of the top of his time on the Etihad Stadium, Demichelis – who arrived from Atletico Madrid in September 2013 – was fined by the FA for breaching playing guidelines; he was launched by Metropolis in the summertime of 2016.
6. Benjamin Mendy
Signed from Monaco in July 2017 for £52m – a file charge for a defender on the time – Benjamin Mendy spent six years at Manchester Metropolis however by no means made greater than 19 Premier League appearances in a single season.
Mendy did not play for nearly two years on the finish of his Metropolis contract as a consequence of authorized points, and he was launched when his deal expired in the summertime of 2023.
5. Jo
Per letter, getting Jo’s identify on the again of your shirt would have been the most affordable attainable possibility – which was in all probability simply as effectively for any Manchester Metropolis followers who determined to take action: the beanpole Brazilian striker was an enormous flop.
Signed from CSKA Moscow in July 2008 for a reported £19m – a club-record charge on the time – Jo ended up costing Metropolis a contact over £3m per aim as he struck simply six instances in 42 video games in all competitions (he bagged seven objectives in two spells away on mortgage at Everton).
4. Benjani
Not like Jo, Benjani did no less than have a monitor file for scoring objectives within the Premier League when he joined Manchester Metropolis – 5 months earlier than the Brazilian – however similar to Jo, he did not appear to know the place the online was for his new membership.
The Zimbabwe worldwide had bagged 12 objectives in 23 Premier League objectives throughout his remaining marketing campaign at Portsmouth; he managed simply 4 in 23 in whole for Metropolis, leaving in 2010 and retiring 4 years later.
3. Jack Rodwell
Jack Rodwell obtained a Premier League winners’ medal with Manchester Metropolis in 2013/14, however the midfielder was solely a bit-part participant throughout his two-year spell on the Etihad Stadium.
A £12m arrival from Everton in the summertime of 2012, Rodwell by no means realised his potential and left Metropolis for Sunderland simply two years after becoming a member of.
By the age of 30, the previous England worldwide was taking part in his membership soccer within the Australian A-League – after stints with Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield United.
2. Wilfried Bony
Wilfired Bony’s £25m transfer to Manchester Metropolis in January 2014 was considerably eyebrow-raising: the stocky Ivorian striker had proven spectacular goalscoring type for Swansea Metropolis, however he did not seem to be the best match for Man Metropolis.
And so it proved, as Bony bagged simply six objectives in 36 Premier League video games (having notched 25 in 54 for his earlier membership) and returned to Swansea in 2017 (after a season-long mortgage at Stoke Metropolis) – for lower than half of what Metropolis had paid.
1. Eliaquim Mangala
Reported to have been signed for greater than £40m, French centre-back Eliaquim Mangala joined Manchester Metropolis from Porto in the summertime of 2014 – and he impressed on his Premier League debut towards Chelsea.
It was all downhill from there for Mangala, although, and he discovered himself despatched out on mortgage to Valencia simply two years after arriving on the Etihad Stadium.
That sort of charge was an infinite amount of cash for a centre-half in 2014 – even for a membership with money reserves as huge as Metropolis – and the mixture of monetary outlay and on-pitch efficiency nudges him into first place on the checklist.