7 underwhelming signings that turned out to be genius: De Bruyne, Salah, Palmer…

Big signings from Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United are among those to have initially looked underwhelming – before quickly turned out to be genius.

These transfers all raised eyebrows at the time, from the size of the fee to their appearance unsuitability to their new club.

As Noni Madueke looks set to join Arsenal under a barrage of double-takes, we’ve picked out seven signings who vastly outperformed expectations.

Kevin De Bruyne

“De Bruyne… my goodness, Jeff. The world is going mad, isn’t it?,” Paul Merson spluttered on Soccer Saturday after De Bruyne’s £55million move to Manchester City in 2015.

“The amount of money they’re paying for this boy is absolutely bonkers. He’s a good player, but is he a great player? Wolfsburg are a good team, but come on.

“I didn’t think he’d done it at Chelsea. There’s players you see and you think, ‘Yeah’ – I just don’t see this. I don’t see £50million-odd for this player. I really do not see it at all.”

Ridiculous as this seems now, Merson was only expressing what many observers and several City fans thought after signing a player who had flopped at Chelsea two years before.

City were widely perceived to have overpaid for De Bruyne, but the Belgium midfielder would eventually become one of the best midfielders in Premier League history.

Mohamed Salah

Salah was bought for £36.3million from Roma in 2017 and his arrival in England was met with vocal doubts from a section of Liverpool’s fanbase.

The Egyptian winger had impressed during his time in Italy, but many questioned whether he could replicate that form in the highly competitive Premier League.

Some questioned where Salah would fit in alongside Adam Lallana and Philippe Coutinho, while one fan boldly declared him inferior to Daniel Sturridge.

With 184 goals in 288 appearances, Salah has cemented himself as one of the best Premier League players of all time and probably better than Sturridge.

Didier Drogba

Easy to forget now, but Chelsea’s signing of Drogba back in 2004 was considered extortionate even by Roman Abramovich’s standards.

£24million was a king’s ransom in 2004, especially for a 26-year-old who wasn’t a household name and who’d cost Marseille only £3.3million a year earlier.

The French club didn’t want to sell Drogba, but you couldn’t really argue with a £20million year-on-year profit.

As well as the fee, which Abramovich paid at the insistence of Jose Mourinho, Drogba would be replacing the hugely popular and successful Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink at Stamford Bridge.

But Chelsea got a world-class forward who allowed Mourinho to dispense with a second striker. Drogba stayed for nine seasons and won them the Champions League.

And some people had expected Mateja Kezman to be the better signing. Ha.

Cole Palmer

Even though Palmer was one of the brightest talents in English football, there was much mirth when Chelsea paid £45million for the forward in 2023.

Partly because Pep Guardiola surely wouldn’t let a cast-iron talent leave Manchester City and partly because Chelsea had several thousand other forwards on their books.

Despite not having played much senior football before arriving at Stamford Bridge, Palmer was a revelation and won the PFA Young Player of the Year award in his first season.

Now seen as one of the best players in the Premier League and Europe, any doubts over Chelsea’s decision to sign Palmer have been well and truly silenced.

Jordan Henderson

Back in 2011, £20million was considered a huge amount of money. Enough to buy a match-winning midfielder, several defenders or a very handy striker.

So there was shock when Liverpool paid Sunderland that sum for Henderson, then little more than a promising midfielder.

The fee looked even more ridiculous during his initial struggles at Anfield and Brendan Rodgers seriously considered offloading Henderson to Fulham in 2012.

Happily, he eventually grew into life at Anfield and captained the superb Jurgen Klopp team that won both the Premier League and Champions League.

QUIZ: Can you name the Premier League-winning captain for every season?

Joelinton

For years, many Newcastle fans might have agreed Joelinton was a case of misused funds following his £40million move from Hoffenheim in 2019.

And former Magpies owner Mike Ashley once revealed Rafa Benitez was among the doubters when it came to agreeing to the transfer in the first place.

“He thought the £40million for Joelinton wasn’t worth it. It’s too much and the club shouldn’t spend it,” Ashley told the Daily Mail in 2019.

“Very occasionally, I get to be me in this world. So here’s the deal. I’ll pay £20m of it personally. Nothing to do with the club. Above and beyond the budget.

“Rafa valued him at £20million. So that’s what would come out of the club budget. The rest, £23million – I’ll pay. And he still didn’t sign it off.”

Fast forward to 2025 and Eddie Howe has repurposed the former forward to become a central midfielder and one of the most important cogs in the Newcastle machine.

Marouane Fellaini

We finish with a player who eventually won over Manchester United fans with his perseverance and eye for goal.

United were linked with Cesc Fabregas, Thiago Alcantara and Gareth Bale during David Moyes’ first summer as United boss but failed to land their top targets.

It looked like they weren’t going to sign anybody until Moyes hit the panic button on deadline day and brought Fellaini to Old Trafford.

United could have signed the midfielder for £23.5million earlier in the summer but allowed his release clause to expire and had to pay an extra £4million.

“Signing Marouane Fellaini so close to the deadline that August, the club’s only major deal in a summer when we needed two or three big names, suggested that things were not running smoothly,” Ryan Giggs wrote in the Daily Telegraph in 2016.

“United had signed players late in the window before – Dimitar Berbatov in 2008 springs to mind – but this time was different. This time it was more of a panic.”

Despite this, Fellaini won three trophies at Old Trafford and we guarantee United would take him in their squad today.

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