Poll: Where does Tyrone Mings rank among overpriced footballers?
Published:
AFC Bournemouth have smashed their transfer record to bring in Ipswich defender Tyrone Mings for £8m.
With Aston Villa, Newcastle and West Brom also interested in the 22-year-old, Cherries boss Eddie Howe will feel the price tag is justified and if the Dean Court club remain in the Premier League he may just be proved right.
However, for a relatively inexperienced defender £8m is one hell of a gamble. While he might just become the next John Terry, he could also turn out to be the next Claude Davis!
Only time will tell but the fee got tongues wagging in the Ladbrokes News office and prompted today’s poll.
Which of our shortlist of players do you think is the most overpriced? Have a read and let us know by voting below.
[poll id=”209”]
Tyrone Mings – Ipswich to Bournemouth – £8m
When Ipswich missed out on promotion Tractor Boys boss Mick McCarthy knew the sharks would circle Mings but even he must be surprised by the fee he commanded for a man who cost just £10,000 from Chippenham Town in 2012.
Axed by Southampton as a youth Mings has earned his spot in the top flight through hard graft but with just 57 appearances as a professional is it all too much, too soon for the Cherries newboy?
Angel Di Maria – Real Madrid to Manchester United – £59.7m
Big things were expected of Di Maria when he arrived at Old Trafford and with three goals in his first five games it seemed the 27-year-old would deliver.
However, he managed just one more strike after that and struggled to hold down a first team spot. Talk is now rife of an exit to Bayern or Barcelona but if the Argentine does stay he still has it all to prove.
Roberto Soldado – Valencia to Tottenham Hotspur – £26m
Soldado’s hit-rate at Valencia – 59 goals in 101 games – was none-too-shabby but to say the Spaniard failed to take the move to England in his stride is an understatement.
A fee of £26m is hardly big league by today’s standard but it was a Spurs record at the time and so expectations were high. A return of just 16 goals in 76 games so far though has done little to give the appearance of value for money.
Andy Carroll – Newcastle to Liverpool – £35m
Andy Carroll has scored 34 Premier League goals. Not in one season but throughout his entire career. The fact that just six of them came during this three-year stay at Anfield means his £35m price tag looks like daylight robbery from Newcastle.
Rumours abound that at the start of the 2011 season Magpies owner Mike Ashely valued the striker at £1m and given his career path since leaving St James’ Park that might be a more accurate appraisal.
Ross McCormack – Leeds to Fulham – £11m
McCormack was arguably the Championship’s hottest striker in the 2013-14 campaign, netting 29 goals including a hat-trick against Huddersfield and four in one game against Charlton.
It makes sense then that Fulham put their promotion hopes in the Scot in 2014, but less so that they shelled out £11m for the privilege – more than Arsenal paid for Lukas Podolski or Mikel Arteta!
A stop-start first year at Craven Cottage saw McCormack struggle with life in London, with Fulham flirting with relegation to League One, however, a run of seven goals in the last seven games of the season hint at a soild season ahead.
Fernando Torres – Liverpool to Chelsea – £50m
The benefit of hindsight is a wonderful thing and Chelsea can be excused for spending £50m on a striker who smashed 81 goals in just 142 games for Liverpool.
That said, it was a risk that ultimately didn’t pay off, with the Spaniard a shell of his former self at Stamford Bridge, where he scored just 20 goals in 110 Premier League appearances before being sent out on loan.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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