5 Big Signings That Actually Weakened The Team

In the opening weekend of the new league season,  we saw Kylian Mbappé make his La Liga debut, and it wasn’t what many fans hoped it would  be. He failed to find the back of the net, and the game ultimately ended in a disappointing  draw for Real Madrid against Mallorca. That game raised a lot of talking points.

A few times  during the game, we saw the entire front three all on the same wing, and after the game,  Rodrygo sent a message to his WhatsApp channel which suggests that he feels like he has been  a little sidelined since Mbappé’s introduction. All of these have led to some early concerns.  Did Madrid make the right call here?

Despite being perhaps the best player in the  world, is Mbappé going to weaken Los Blancos by affecting the balance of the  team on the pitch and the balance of the squad in the dressing room? Well, it’s  still too early to call. But there are times something like this has happened,  and that’s what we’re here to talk about.

These are 5 big signings that  actually weakened the team. Let’s start with Lionel Messi’s move to PSG.  When Messi made that move from Barcelona in 2021, it looked like we were going to be seeing the  greatest attacking trio in football history with him, Neymar, and Mbappé, but the team ended  up being worse off, especially in Europe.

Before Messi, PSG reached the final of the  Champions League in 2020 and the semis in 2021. But in the two years Messi was  at the club, they failed to get past the round of 16. They also failed to win  the French Cup in each of those two years.

Guess what! The season after Messi left, PSG  won the French Cup and reached the semi final of the Champions League. You can say what you  want about the numbers Messi put up during his time in France, but the obvious fact is that PSG  experienced a dip during his time at the club.

It’s the same case with Cristiano Ronaldo  in his second stint at Manchester United. He did score goals, but he generally weakened  the team. The two seasons before Ronaldo made his return to Old Trafford, United finished  3rd and 2nd on the Premier League table and reached the Europa League final, but Ronaldo  came and they immediately went down to 6th on the Premier League table and got knocked out  in the round of 16 of the Champions League.

Then guess what! After Ronaldo leaves  and moves to Saudi, Man United come back up to 3rd in the Premier League and  reached the final of the FA Cup that same season. He might be the greatest player  ever, but it was obvious that he somehow weakened the team.

There were divisions in the  dressing room and then the obvious falling out between player and coach which brought  a lot of unnecessary media attention. One could even argue that Ronaldo also  weakened the team at Juventus and Al Nassr, considering they stopped winning trophies  and dominating thier leagues after he joined. But if we’re going to do this for  Ronaldo, then we surely have to do it for Harry Kane, as well.

Bayern Munich had won  11 Bundesliga titles in a row and hadn’t had a trophyless season in over a decade…until Harry  Kane joined for a German transfer record fee. He scored loads of goals and even  won the European Golden Shoe, but Bayern were worse off that season,  finishing 3rd on the Bundesliga table and failing to win a single trophy. It  was Bayern Munich’s worst season in ages.

But Harry Kane still has a chance to  redeem his image under a new manager, so let’s see how he does in the 2024-25 season. Romelu Lukaku, however, was not given that second  chance at Chelsea. He made a return to Stamford Bridge in 2021 and he absolutely weakened the  team in so many ways.

Chelsea had just won the Champions League, and they went out to buy  Lukaku for a then-club record 115 million euros. They hoped that a signing like that would  help them continue their dominance in Europe and even fight for the Premier League, but it  ended up having the opposite effect. At least, in the case of Kane, Ronaldo, and Messi, they  still managed to score goals, but Lukaku didn’t even score a lot.

He missed so many chances and  was just a net negative for the club in general. On top of that, he rocked the dressing room a bit  after that infamous interview dropped where he said he wasn’t happy with the situation at Chelsea  and he would like to return to Inter Milan. Without Lukaku, Chelsea won the Champions  League, but with him, they got knocked out in the quarterfinals and lost two cup finals. 

It was so obvious that he weakened the team, so Chelsea just cut their losses and moved him  on, first loaning him out to Inter Milan and then later to AS Roma. Now, he’s on his  way to Napoli on a permanent transfer. But one would think that Chelsea would have  learned their lesson from that big transfer, but they actually didn’t.

They went on to make a whole lot more signings which  weakened their team even more. It’s hard to even mention names because  who can keep up anymore? But Chelsea’s recent spending spree has definitely made  them worse instead of making them better.

The new ownership has invested close to 1 and  a half billion euros in just about two years, and the club is now in a much worse  place than they were before the takeover. In the 4 years before the takeover in  2022, Chelsea won the Champions League, the Europa League, UEFA Super  Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup, and they always finished in the top 4. But  since the takeover, they have only gotten worse.

They finished 12th on the Premier League  table in 2023, missing out on Europe in general, and they finished 6th in 2024, only managing  to qualify for the Europa Conference League. It’s been an obvious degeneration, and that’s  surely not what should be happening after an investment of 1. 5 billion euros in 2 years.

Will  all that investment start to yield real returns for the Blues this season? We will only have to  wait and see. Tell us what you think, though.

We also want to know what you think about the  Mbappé situation. Do you guys think that Mbappé will weaken Real Madrid this season? Will  the European champions be worse off this year because of the Frenchman?

What do  you think? Talk to us in the comments. If you enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs  up and subscribe to the channel.

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