Liverpool have signed terribly from but sold brilliantly as champions. Arsenal will hope Gabriel Jesus fares better than Francis Jeffers.
The best Premier League XI signed from reigning champions would hammer this sorry lot.
GOALKEEPER: Angus Gunn (Manchester City to Southampton, 2018)
In 22 Premier League appearances for Southampton, Angus Gunn conceded 43 goals and kept five clean sheets. Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea, relegation-bound Fulham, notoriously free-scoring Brighton under both Chris Hughton and Graham Potter, and newly promoted Sheffield United should hang their collective heads in equal amounts of shame. Gunn was kept out of Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side at various points by the eclectic trio of Alex McCarthy, Fraser Forster and Willy Caballero and the regular England call-up did not play another league match for Saints from the 9-0 shellacking by Leicester in October 2019 until his sale to Norwich – for about £11m less than he was signed initially – in 2021.
CENTRE-HALF: Ki-Jana Hoever (Liverpool to Wolves, 2020)
It is difficult to identify the quintessential example of Liverpool’s recent transfer alchemy. Squeezing more than £20m out of Crystal Palace for each of Christian Benteke and Mamadou Sakho was impressive. The Philippe Coutinho deal speaks for itself. Essentially swapping Kevin Stewart for Andy Robertson at little extra expense bordered on unfair. Getting £12.5m from Leicester for Danny Ward warrants applause and there is an entire sub-genre of deals involving Bournemouth which would ordinarily trigger some sort of ethics check for the use of financial loopholes: selling Dominic Solanke, Jordon Ibe and Brad Smith for a combined £37m is daft.
But offloading Ki-Jana Hoever and his four prior Liverpool appearances – all in the FA and League Cup – to Wolves for up to £13.5m, thus counteracting a portion of the £41m fee paid to the same club for Diogo Jota, takes some beating. Bruno Lage laid into the right-back in March, labelling him “a good example of the young kids that want everything but don’t train at the intensity they need or prepare themselves enough”. The manager was incensed after Hoever had to be substituted 25 minutes into a defeat, ending his tirade by warning: “I don’t waste time with guys who don’t work hard.” He was loaned out to PSV in June.
CENTRE-HALF: Joleon Lescott (Manchester City to West Brom, 2014)
“Bearing in mind he came in on a free, we didn’t see it as a long term…
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