1992: Alan ShearerSouthampton to Blackburn, £3.6mShearer’s transfer to Blackburn was a pivotal second within the Premier League’s inaugural season, backed by the ambition of their new proprietor Jack Walker. After an injury-hit first marketing campaign the place he scored 16 targets, Shearer exploded within the 1993-94 season with 31 targets from 40 video games. The next season, he fashioned a formidable strike partnership with Chris Sutton and his 34 targets had been essential to Blackburn’s title win, the one main honour of his profession. He broke the British and world-record charge once more in 1996 after his £15m transfer to Newcastle.1993: Roy KeaneRoy Keane is pursued by Arsenal’s John Jensen throughout his debut for Manchester United. {Photograph}: Motion ImagesNottingham Forest to Manchester United, £3.75mKeane was not merely a proficient midfielder; he was the midfield basic who embodied his supervisor Alex Ferguson’s aggression and want to win. Over 12 years on the membership, Keane amassed an immense haul of silverware, together with seven Premier League titles, 4 FA Cups and a Champions League trophy. His management and mentality had been the very cloth of United’s success throughout their interval of dominance; Keane supplied the psychological and emotional engine that drove a dynasty.1995: Andy ColeAndy Cole, seen right here celebrating in 1997 after scoring in opposition to his former membership, Newcastle United, gained 5 league titles in six years at Manchester United. {Photograph}: John Giles/PANewcastle to Manchester United, £7mCole’s switch was met with quick public scepticism owing to the character of the transfer from Newcastle, the striker having had no concept he was on the market. Nevertheless, his sustained success and prolific goal-scoring shortly silenced his critics. Cole spent six years at Outdated Trafford, successful 5 Premier League titles and the treble in 1999. He scored 121 targets for the membership, cementing his standing because the joint fourth-highest goalscorer in Premier League historical past.1995: Dennis BergkampInter to Arsenal, £7.5mUnder Arsène Wenger, Bergkamp is credited with redefining Premier League forwards. His distinctive model was rooted within the Dutch Whole Football philosophy which gave him an understanding of positioning and motion. Bergkamp was not a conventional striker; he was a deep-lying ahead who derived extra pleasure from helping targets than scoring them. This function, mixed along with his textbook method, made him the hub of Arsenal creativity for a decade alongside Thierry Henry and he was instrumental in two Doubles and the Invincibles season.2002: Rio FerdinandRio Ferdinand holds off Leeds’ Mark Viduka. {Photograph}: Tom Jenkins/The GuardianLeeds to Manchester United, £29.1mIn 2002, Ferdinand broke the British switch report for the second time after Leeds reluctantly bought the defender to their Manchester rivals. At a time when defenders had been valued for his or her ruggedness, Ferdinand’s switch redefined the place. He was a contemporary, ball-playing centre-back who supplied stability. Throughout his 12 years at Outdated Trafford, Ferdinand gained six Premier League titles and the Champions League throughout 455 appearances. His partnership with Nemanja Vidic grew to become the bedrock of the membership’s dominance within the 2000s.2001: Juan Sebastián VerónManchester United’s Juan Sebastián Verón eases previous Juventus’s Enzo Maresca. {Photograph}: Invoice Kostroun/APLazio to Manchester United, £28.1mAnd so to those that simply couldn’t dwell as much as the cash. Verón’s arrival at United was a blockbuster switch, however the Argentinian lasted solely two seasons earlier than being bought for about half his record-breaking charge. His expertise was staunchly defended by Ferguson, who known as the press “fucking idiots” for doubting him. The problem was a basic conflict of kinds. Verón’s free-roaming method, honed in Italy, merely didn’t match with United’s established 4-4-2 formation. Regardless of Ferguson’s efforts to adapt the group to him, Verón struggled to deal with the Premier League, later admitting to labouring with “consistency and durability”.2008: RobinhoReal Madrid to Manchester Metropolis, £32.5mChelsea grew to become victims of the switch hijack after Robinho’s transfer to Manchester Metropolis. The deal was so last-minute that at his introductory press convention, he mistakenly introduced: “On the last day, Chelsea made a great proposal and I accepted” earlier than a reporter’s correction. Whereas Robinho was meant to be a standing image for Metropolis’s new homeowners – an indication they might now compete with the most important golf equipment – his on-field performances by no means lived as much as the billing. He was inconsistent in his first season and his tenure successfully led to his second, after he left a coaching camp with out informing the supervisor, Mark Hughes.2011: Fernando TorresFernando Torres misplaced tempo and kind after transferring to Chelsea, hampered by a persistent knee harm {Photograph}: Tom Jenkins/The GuardianLiverpool to Chelsea, £50mTorres’s switch to Chelsea marked the start of a dramatic decline for a goal-scoring juggernaut at Anfield. A persistent knee harm from which he rushed again to be match for the 2010 World Cup resulted in a big lack of tempo that Torres by no means recovered. Regardless of his total struggles, he did present one second of essential brilliance – the classic purpose on the Camp Nou that cemented Chelsea’s spot within the 2012 Champions League remaining, which they went on to win.2014: Ángel Di MaríaÁngel Di María is introduced as a Manchester United participant after his ill-fated transfer from Actual Madrid. {Photograph}: Peter Powell/EPAReal Madrid to Manchester United, £59.7mDi María’s switch to United was hailed as a coup, but the Argentinian lasted only one season, scoring solely 4 targets in 32 video games, earlier than being bought to Paris Saint-Germain. This failure was not all the way down to an absence of expertise, as his quick success in France later proved. Di María arrived in Manchester already unsettled, having been pushed out of Actual Madrid regardless of his want to remain. Crucially, he by no means suited Louis van Gaal’s tactical system and the supervisor’s fixed tinkering meant Di María didn’t discover a constant function or rhythm, finally sealing his sad exit.2016: Paul PogbaJuventus to Manchester United, £89mPogba’s return to Manchester United for a then-world-record charge was the final word homecoming narrative, the “Pogback” that garnered immense buzz. However his second spell on the membership was a disappointment. Whereas he supplied spectacular runs of kind, he didn’t operate because the galvanising pressure the membership wanted. His time at United was characterised by inconsistency and a perceived lack of management, resembling United itself for the reason that departure of Ferguson. The Frenchman finally left without spending a dime when his contract ran down in 2022.
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From Shearer to Pogba: how 10 British report signings fared within the Premier League | Premier League
