The Belgian's all-too-brief Stamford Bridge career is just one of many dire examples of clubs underappreciating potential stars
Have Manchester City made a massive mistake selling Cole Palmer to Chelsea? Pep Guardiola's side is so strong that maybe it doesn't even matter. But Chelsea will certainly think they've pulled off a long overdue transfer market masterstroke, given how well Palmer is performing since swapping the Etihad Stadium for Stamford Bridge during the summer.
Indeed, the Blues have become synonymous with letting players go too soon – and one of them will be lining up against them on Saturday, with Kevin De Bruyne back at his brilliant best for City after his recent injury lay-off.
Giving up on the Belgian was obviously a colossal mistake on Chelsea's part, but where does the Belgian's exit rank among the worst sales in Premier League history? GOAL runs through its list of undervalued and underappreciated players who were sold too soon, for too little – or both!
Getty 10Carlos Tevez (Man City to Juventus)
One can understand why Manchester City wanted rid of Carlos Tevez. The Argentine had caused uproar by allegedly refusing to come on as a substitute in a Champions League game at Bayern Munich – Tevez insisted he had merely misunderstood manager Roberto Mancini's instructions – while he was still carrying out community service for driving without a licence when eventually sold to Juventus in 2013.
However, this ranks as a massive mistake, because even though City were looking to save some money in terms of wages and bonuses, the £12m ($15m) fee was ludicrously low for a forward of such considerable talent who still had plenty left in the tank.
Indeed, Tevez was a revelation in Turin, the prolific striker that Antonio Conte had long been craving helped Juventus re-establish themselves as a major European force by reaching the Champions League final in 2015.
He left that summer, to return to his beloved Boca Juniors, but did so as one of the finest No.10s in the Bianconeri's history. As veteran defender Giorgio Chiellini enthused, "Carlos is a world-class champion!"
AdvertisementGetty Images9David Beckham (Man Utd to Real Madrid)
It's no secret that Sir Alex Ferguson never approved of David Beckham's high-profile relationship with Victoria 'Posh Spice' Adams. The former Manchester United manager has even stated that the ex-England international "was never a problem until he got married".
Ferguson argued that Beckham became more of a celebrity than a footballer, and that his performances on the pitch suffered as a result. Beckham strongly disagreed, and the growing tension between the pair culminated in a bitter fallout after Ferguson accidentally struck the player in the face with a football boot during a furious post-match ran on February 15, 2003.
Just four months later, United agreed to sell Beckham to Real Madrid for €37 million (£31m/$40m). Los Blancos marketing director Jose Angel Sanchez couldn't believe the fee, describing it as "peanuts" for one of the most talented and famous footballers on the planet.
Beckham says his leaving Old Trafford may have been for the best, given his subsequent success playing overseas, but he admitted again in a recent documentary that his dream all along had been to spend his entire career at United.
Getty8Xabi Alonso (Liverpool to Real Madrid)
Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez made no secret of his desire to sign Gareth Barry during the summer of 2008. "If we can do it before the end of the transfer window, we will continue to try," the Spaniard said. "We will always continue to improve our squad." Quite why Benitez felt that selling Xabi Alonso to bring in Barry would actually improve his squad remains a mystery, given the Spaniard was in a different league to the Englishman.
What we do know is that Alonso was bitterly upset by being used as a pawn in such a bizarre move. "I prefer not to think too much about how I was treated," the midfielder told after refusing to leave Anfield. "It was a new situation for me, something I had never experienced before… It is not always easy to detach yourself from things like that, but I accept it is part of football and the main thing is it was all resolved and I am now playing regularly. I was really pleased that I was able to continue my Liverpool career."
However, a clearly still annoyed Alonso handed in a transfer request the following summer and left for Real Madrid, leaving Steven Gerrard "devastated" and Benitez looking like a fool for upsetting a key player in the club's 2005 Champions League triumph.
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Getty 7Serge Gnabry (Arsenal to Werder Bremen)
Tony Pulis has admitted that he's tired of being singled out as the coach who failed to realise Serge Gnabry's potential during the winger's six-month spell at West Brom during the 2015-16 season. "I always get this thrown at me," he told the podcast, "and he's done fantastically well since, so you have to hold your hands up, but at the time he was nowhere near it.
"What people forget is that we had him on loan, Arsenal were his mother club, and Arsene Wenger was his manager and he sold him to Werder Bremen for £7 million ($9m). Wenger had him right from 14 all the way through, I only had him for a couple of months."
It's a fair point. It's clear that somebody messed up at Arsenal, but Wenger has insisted that he actually wanted to keep Gnabry, telling that he was "very sad" when the player decided to leave in pursuit of regular first-team football because he knew the versatile attacker would have "a great career".
It has certainly turned out that way, with Gnabry doing so well at Bremen that he earned a move to Bayern Munich after just one season, and subsequently scored 23 goals in all competitions during a 2019-20 campaign that ended with the Bavarians winning a treble.