Eight players whose actual transfer fee was dwarfed by the supposed asking price

West Ham have given Declan Rice a £150million price tag. Everyone knows that nobody will fork out such an amount and it is pretty likely that he will leave on a free or for substantially less. The Irons have previous for this sort of thing…

Here are eight players who were given a ridiculous (reported) asking price by their club, only to leave for a helluva lot less further down the line.

Dimitri Payet
What a player Payet was during his short time in England. He came, he saw, he scored a few beauties, he lost the will. All in the space of 18 tumultuous months.

The Frenchman joined West Ham in 2015 and was rewarded with a new big-money deal in February 2016. His new contract was worth £125,000 per week and would run until 2021. But less than a year later he was gone.

Unsurprisingly, the club’s hierarchy were reluctant to let Payet leave for a small fee so co-owner David Sullivan publicly set a £100million asking price. After showing some steel by not bowing to Payet’s demands, Sullivan realised he was fighting a losing battle and Payet ended up joining Marseille for £25m, only a quarter of what they initially wanted.

Paul Pogba
I don’t think it would too much of a stretch to say that Paul Pogba took Manchester United for a ride and rinsed millions of pounds out of the club in the process. The French playmaker left Old Trafford for the first time in 2012 – joining Juventus on a free transfer – before returning to the Theatre of Dreams for a whopping £89m four years later, only to once again join Juventus when his contract expired.

Pogba won the Europa League and EFL Cup in his debut season and looked like a decent signing. But that European triumph was his final trophy win at the club and the last time any Red Devil touched a (significant) piece of silverware. That’s right, the Bangkok Century Cup is not a significant piece of silverware.

While free transfers should probably be avoided here, some are just too bloody tempting to resist.

Reports last year suggested that United were willing to let Pogba leave, with a single year left on his contract. They decided that £68.8m was a reasonable asking price. Unsurprisingly, nobody came forward with a bid close to this valuation and he walked for diddly-squat.

𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙠𝙠𝙠𝙠! First win! 💪🏾 ⚪⚫️ #JuveOnTheRoad pic.twitter.com/oqH8qTLpkP

— Paul Pogba (@paulpogba) July 23, 2022

Ganso
Do you remember him? If so then a) fair play and b)…