To make the signing of Anelka even worse, Albion had the chance to resign Lukaku on loan that window but instead opted to sign Nicholas and the injury prone Victor Anichebe. Did not make sense at the time and it never will…

Bogarde may have been a terrible buy, but at least he was an excellent professional, dutifully turning up to training every day of his 4 year deal, even when faced with the embarrassment of training with the youth teams.

The only reason Owen went to Stoke was because no other PL side even looked at him and he didnt want to drop down and actually play a season in the Championship.

Arsene Wenger predicted that free transfers were going to become more and more frequent in one of his last seasons as Arsenal manager. People ridiculed him for it but it was yet another thing, concerning the future of football, that he was right about.

To be fair, Bogarde did nothing wrong. He did everything that was asked of him in the contact, otherwise he would've been sacked. He can't really help it, if he didn't fit in the new gaffer's plans. And then, Chelsea could have been creative with it. If they want him off their payroll, they could loan him out and subsidize his wages. Hell they could sell him and subsidize his wages. Either way, it softens the impact of a high earner sitting on the bench. If anything, I get the feeling this is more like a powerplay on the club's part.

Free Transfers are actually becoming more of a thing nowadays so part 2 should be on the way in No Time …. 🤷🏿‍♂️. ⚽️

1. 2:12 michael owen 2. 4:18 carlos sanchez 3. 6:25 aaron ramsey 4. 9:00 jose bosingwa 5. 11:43 mark bosnich 6. 13:42 nicolas anelka 7. 16:11 winston bogarde

All I remember of Bosingwa is a game against Liverpool when Benayoun was shielding the ball in the corner of the pitch, Bosingwa kung-fu kicking Benayoun in the back and a free kick being given in favour of Bosingwa.

I think its almost getting to the point where a ''What the hell is going on at Wolves'' is needed. The squad is getting smaller and smaller.

Initially surprised Alexis Sanchez didn’t make the 7, then I remembered he was a swap deal and not a free transfer

I genuinely have so much respect for bogarde

Fun fact #10:On the 15th of December 1995 the Bosman ruling was decided by the European Court of Justice.The decision banned restrictions on foreign EU players within national leagues and allowed players in the EU to move to another club at the end of a contract without a transfer fee being paid.

The fact that everyone has blamed Bogarde for the last 20 years only shows how messed up our society is; it's a reflection of the way we are, after all. An employer offers a man a ludicrous amount of money and the certainty of a four-year contract - he knows it's ludicrous, but for whatever reason they don't, he has the advantage, he snaps their hand off - more fool them, he thinks. Because they are the fools, and he is just a man who wants to earn a living. Most people would rightly choose to do the least amount of work possible in that time, but he remains professional - the opportunities to do his job just don't come his way. At the end of his contract, having proven himself both an honest man and a professional, he leaves. The media, and subsequently the public at large, then lambast the employee for doing what was best for himself and his family; they sympathise instead with the faceless corporation that employed him, and see the man as a villain of the lowest order. I mean, how absolutely fucked up is that?!

Other case of a bad free transfer was the signing of Lucas Lima to Palmeiras. Lima played for Santos, one of Palmeiras' biggest rivals, from 2014 - 2017, winning some titles, specially a Sao Paulo State Championship over Palmeiras, and becoming easily one of the best central attacking midfielders in South America. Bro even made it to the National Squad, in Brazil, that's impressive. But after 2016, when the club wanted to renovate his contract, he played hard, started to become lackadisical on the field, got into arguments with club supporters, and ultimately just chose to leave. In January 2018, he struck a deal with Palmeiras to be their main guy at midfield, winning almost R$1.000.000,00 on monthly wages. Problem is, he never played well again. He went to Palmeiras, with hopes of getting called up to the 2018 World Cup, but by the WC break, he was already a second unit player. In the end, he played 129 games for Palmeiras, scoring only 11 goals and dishing out 13 assists across all competitions, and in 2022, he was loaned for free to Fortaleza, where he got more minutes, but always coming off the bench. In Fortaleza, he scored 1 goal and made 5 assists. After that, he returned to Palmeiras, and his contract with Palmeiras was up for renegotiation, but Palmeiras didn't even cared, and he became a free agent. In sum, their stroke of genius free transfer from one of their biggest rivals, became one of the biggest jokes in recent history on Brazil's league, with him costing almost 20 million euros to Palmeiras over 5 years, for very minimal technical return on the pitch. In the beggining of the 2023 season, in a proof that time as a linear concept is flawed, he struck a deal to return to Santos on a free transfer, where he has returned to show flashes of his former performances, and even received a contract extension until 2025. So let's see how things turned out

This made me feel a lot better about Danny Rose at Watford this past season, that is until I remembered that he hasn't left yet lol. Thanks as always Alfie!

Day 3: A detailed look at the state of Crotone would be nice, going from Serie A in 20/21 with a 20 goal a season striker to Serie C by 22/23. Two relegations in a row, something surely has to be wrong at that club.

7 clubs with more domestic cups than league titles

Mr. Bogarde told no lies... And did no wrong. 👏 Smart, too, in my opinion... at least financially.

Had actually forgotten about Carlos Sanchez ever playing us until this video, thank you for bringing back fond memories of getting walloped by Oxford and him genuinely being the worst footballer I’ve ever seen Alfie. Patrice Evra on a free for us another honourable mention

I've only seen this suggestion on one of your latest videos' comments.. appreciate you delivered this one, channel of the people indeed ✊❤

Good mention of the young reserve player at Aston Villa at the end Alfie 😊

As a Chelsea fan it's gratifying to find a video where our name is mentioned so often... Perhaps next you could do one on crap number 9's, we've got soooo many....

Bosnich wasn't the only player who Fergie signed twice - he also signed Les Sealey twice.

Stoke Sunderland and West Ham really competed with each other on who could shit the bed the most in the transfer market in the mid 20-teens

AEK Athens be like: Observe

I was wondering why there wasn't at least an honourable mention for Liverpool signing Mario Bad-on-telly... I mean Balotelli. Then I checked again, and realised Liverpool actually paid money for that useless waste of space!!!

Ramsey was just pranked by a Juventus fan into signing a contract termination. The legality of the document is disputed though.

Great video. I can speculate that Agnielli was behind that insane Ramsey signing - the man is obsessed with Juve winning the CL - not that it did us any good :D. Hopefully we offload him somewhere else this summer. I cannot remember much of Anelka at Juve, but he had always had a problem with his temper. Good thing he was not with us when he completely lost it. That gesture explanation is just stupid. Bogarde would make an excellent poker player. Dude played his hand cool like a cucumber, cashed in and rode into the sunset with all the money. What a trooper.

Fenerbahce raised funds among their own fans to sign Mezut Ozil on a free and he nearly bankrupted the club while playing next to no football. Surely he should be on here Edit: He did play 31 times in the league and onc in the cup, so 'next to no football' is a bit of an overstatement, but still a catastrophic transfer

Comments section: " do a video on some obscure Mongolian side that nobody has ever heard of"

Maybe you guys have seen the video of a juve fan asking Ramsey for an autograph then showing the cameras that piece of paper was a mock "contract termination" document. That's how bad that signing was

Bogarde was a board signing, Vialli never wanted him and had actively targeted him as the weak link in Barcas defence when Chelsea met Barcelona the previous season. Bogarde rightfully refused to leave when asked to be transfer listed stating that he would never receive such lucrative wages elsewhere

Between Mark Bosnich and Adrian Mutu. Their 2 year binge funded a decade of drill music 😂😂

I remember thinking willian was such a bargain for arsenal. Oof

When players refuse to play/be on bench (Bosingwa), the clubs should be able to cancel the players contract.

Never had any issues with Anelka at Bolton, banged a bunch of goals, and even signed a massive contract just before he left so that we would get a bigger transfer fee

7:45 idk why I thought you said “that's a crazy amount of money and I say that as someone that read Ramsey's mind” and I can't unhear it

Alfie I could be wrong here but if memory serves me right Bogarde was brought in by Ken Bates without Vialli's knowledge. There's a story that the first Vialli knew of it was walking into a club dinner and seeing Bogarde sitting at a table.

John-Marc Bosman would be a fascinating video

Very bold to say Sanchez was the worst Hammer in ages when we all had to experience Roberto pushing the ball into the old net, solid video as always of course

Bogarde barely had 200 Games in his whole career lol, with 11 games over 4 years at Chelsea. But i can see his point, he was 30 at the point he signed for Chelsea, and in the early 2000s, that was the last good contract for most players, putting away their boots at 34,35. Nowadays most players will go till 37-38.

As a Derby fan, Ravanelli was tragic for us. Signed for £40k a week, massive money at the time, scored 14 goals in 2 seasons we got relegated and spent multiple years paying him off

I never understood why the English media was losing their shit over Ramsey moving to Juventus, they made it seem like Arsenal was losing this world class midfielder when in reality he'd been a solid but ultimately inconsistent, injury-prone midfielder who I knew was going to be more of the same in Turin, and lo and behold, that's exactly what happened with him.

As a Liverpool fan, I was fully expecting our signing of joe cole to appear 😂 sent off on his debut, always injured then loaned to France 😂

Carlos Sanchez at West Ham is surely a bit too low profile for this list? He was 32 at the time too.

Hi alfie, would you consider a worst loans of all time vid?

Yesterday out of the medicals some Juventus' fans asked Ramsey for an autograph but actually made him sign a fake contract termination

lmao bogarde took a steaming dump on everything that was holy to the chelsea managment and I can't blame him.

Joe Cole for Liverpool deserves a dishonourable mention.

not a Liverpool fan but Owen @ 17- 22years old was unbelievably good , think mbappe in a central position explosive and clinical .

Do an XI of players from Euro and World Cup winning teams. From a quick calculation I believe that's an 11 with 3 subs. Or do the same but Copa América instead of Euros, which would be an 11 with 1 sub (or manager...) (What I mean is, for example, one Brazilian player from any of their winning teams, one Argentine, one Italian, one from France, England, Spain, etc). The beauty of this if you did the Copa América suggestion is you'd have to pick a player from the 1963 Bolivia squad... take the challenge Alfie

bogarde was absolutely right. you can criticize him for wantiing more the money than the chance to play football regularly but tbh he already accomplished a LOT and he did nothing wrong to the deserve the treatment he got- at least not, to the best of my knowledge. he wanted to get paid, he was there,he was putting the work in....so yeah, i dont think he belongs here at all. The club basically sabotaged a guy who wont budge and gonna get his money no matter what. Good for him.

Albert Luque almost bankrupted Ajax with his salary, and only played 16 matches.

sometimes, choosing the free option up front can be the most expensive option in the bigger picture.

7 good players that were outshone by their successor. Since you mention Carlo Cudicini. He was a good #1 for Chelsea and someone who I think could’ve been in goal for the Mourinho titles. But he was outshone by Petr Cech.

My man, make a video about the barcelona situation

Can’t blame Bogarde at all, Chelsea gave him that deal so if they didn’t play him it’s on them.

Dani Alves at São Paulo deserves a spot here

Video idea Alfie: media portrayal of Eric Cantona in England v France

Haven't watched the entire video yet but since I'm quite sure it's not going to be in the vid, Mesut Özil to Fenerbahçe is a dishonorable mention. After around two years of speculation, his pr team churning out constant propaganda about how he's always supported the club, and promises of he'll bounce back from his "constant mistreatment" at Arsenal, he finally signed in January of the 20/21 season after terminating his remaining 6 month contract at North London. Even though he was said to have taken a significant pay cut to join his "childhood club", the deal was said to be worth anywhere from 2 to 3,5 million euros of yearly salary, as well as 4 million euros as a signing on fee to be spread across the 3,5 year contract offered to the World Cup winner. Having come in during a title push that season, when the team hadn't won the league in 6 years - and any trophy at all in 4 years - he along with other marquee signing Irfan Can Kahveci were hoped to be the pieces that finally push the team over the line. Mesut Ozil got injured almost instantly. He went on to miss out on a few weeks as Fenerbahçe for the second time in a row at home to their rivals Galatasaray. By the time he'd come back the title push was still on the cards, but nearly impossible unless he and the team pulled out a miracle. Heading into the last week he had absolutely no goal contributions. The push was all but dead, Besiktas and Galatasaray both being 2 points ahead at that point. Fenerbahçe would need to win their last game at Sivas as well as hope the other teams lose points for the title to be won. Needless to say, this didn't happen and Besiktas won the league. To rub salt into the wound, Sivas actually won their last game too, only then while 2-0 down did Mr. Ozil decide to make his first assist in the Süper Lig to make it a 2-1 loss in the 89th minute. Second season started with higher hopes, but through absolutely disgraceful management decisions that still hurt to think about and I don't want to write about cause it'd get too long, Mesut Özil was frozen out of the squad indefinitely with 2 more years to go on his contract. We continue to pay him one of the biggest salaries in the league.

I saw Ramsey in the thumbnail and knew you’d mention the Europa league final, I am now very sad.

Does my teams one not count as the worst? Graeme Souness signed Ali Día on a month contract for us at Southampton some time ago

As a Villa fan, I thought Bogarde sounded familiar 😂

Free transfers in the era of player power and running down contracts are likely to be even more expensive than final year contract transfers between clubs.

Obscure video request but could you do a 'what is going on at Durham City AFC' £150,000 in debt, no ground and can't keep hold of staff 😥

could be many of qpr's signing in their infamous season in the prem 10 years ago

thanks Alfie

Depending how he ends the season, Lingard to Forest could very well join this list

Do top 7 best transfers that went unnoticed

7 EPL players that couldn’t cope in Scotland.

Owen at Stoke? You're making that up, I never heard about it

It's more the ridiculous wages some of these players were paid by these clubs that's the most concerning bit tbh you are losing nothing by bringing them in for free but paying them such high wages for not performing on the pitch is day light robbery.

I have so much respect for Bogarde and am a Chelsea fan

The American equivalent is free agents and a lot of us call most of them "fools gold" because most of the time of the team they're on is willing to give them up then you are not seeing an underlying issue.

Malang Sarr to Chelsea is one of our worst free transfer so far

I think if you force a club sponsor to cancel their entire sponsorship due to your behavior that might take the cake.

Winston Bogarde getting his deserved shout out.

First one that came to mind was Kim Kallstrom for Arsenal

I'm 100% with Winston Bogarde. The club signed him to a 3 year contract & he simply wished to honour that.

Clubs with more European Cup/CL-titles during a notable time period. Example: Liverpool during the Premier League era and Real Madrid after the 2000s.

Owen was a great player and I didn’t ever find him strange he’s so normal it’s unreal!

When you say singed for Man U is very hhhmmm because a little thinking and Paul Scholes comes to mind … and Gordon Stracken. I may be wrong …. Defo spelling wrong . Good work as per but maybe not correct ish maybe !? If you get me .

Video idea: 7 Premier League footballers who need to step up in the 2022-23 season.

Wouldn't say Bogarde was the worst one. At least he was being honest about it all. 🤷‍♀️

To be fair you can't count your career as an absolute disaster until you've signed for Birmingham City

Respect to Bogarde 😂

As a palace fan i was fully expecting to see max meyer on here

"Only" 70 appearances in 2 and a half seasons is almost 30 games a season, that's not TOO bad really

surpised Alexis Sanchez to United didnt get a mention

Bit of a weird take to involve Winston's Bogarde cousins into this. Almost as if Alfie wants to throw out the not so subtle hint to Melayro and Lamare Bogarde's respective clubs to be careful with giving them contracts, or else it could become expensive mistakes. One has to give the benefit of the doubt by believing that wasn't the intention, but still...

I fully agree with almost all the respective inclusions except for Aaron Ramsey boss who perhaps earned that ridiculous money during his time at Juventus,he was not a poor player and won some titles with them before leaving for Rangers,good friends!!!🙏

Bogarde ain’t wrong. 40k a week is stupid cash that no one would say no to. The fact that he didn’t even down tools shows he was a professional through and through

At least we can appreciate Bogarde honesty.

It was the 2012/13 season where QPR finished bottom and the 2013/14 season where Atletico Madrid reached the champions league final…

I rate Bogarde. The employer offered him The money, he took it, the employer no longer favours him and wants him to leave, his team has a look and can’t see a deal suitable for him compared to what he is on and he stays and trains ready to be used but doesn’t. Modern hero

Lingard to forest has now got to be a contender for this list

Shocked no mention of Jody Morris to Leeds

Bogarde is absolutely right, its not his fault that the club gave him a 4 year deal and then decided he does not fit into their plans after a few months. That is why they actually sign contracts so both the club and the player have to honor it and cannot just back away from it anytime they want. If anything, it is the clubs fault for making poor decisions and not being able to think ahead and plan their future properly. Any person would do the same in his position, you would not just give up and throw away life changing amount of money because new coach decided he does not want to use you

Day 26 - The Fall and Rise of FK Velež Mostar From a Club that has beaten Borussia Dortmund, Twente, Derby County and many others to a club that was forced from their own stadium, reduced to nothing during the Bosnian War, becoming a mediocre top-level team in the 00s to nearly being forced into folding in 2016 to its amazing comeback to European competitions in 2021 seeing the early exit of Greek giants AEK Athens in a sensational win in Athens!

I love Winston Bogarde