The 20 Most Overpriced Players on the Transfer Market

Almost every club has their star or two, the player or players that the club revolves around in order to achieve success.

But when it comes time for that player to move on to greater heights, he often gets a hefty price tag placed on him by his manager, "scaring away" the clubs that want his signature.

That makes the best players on the transfer market extremely expensive, a price that is usually not even worth the player.

In other words, these players are overpriced.

Keep in mind that some of the players on this list have already transferred to a different club, so they're on this list because the price that the club paid for them was too high.

I'm sure I missed a few players, so feel free to let me know in the comments.

Here are the 20 most overpriced players in this transfer window.

Scott Dann

After rejecting multiple bids for Scott Dann, Birmingham are making it clear that they won't let their centre back go without a fight. 

Scott Dann is a solid, English centre back, and after Birmingham's relegation, Chelsea, Arsenal and Stoke have all shown interest in the 24-year-old.

However, bids less than 10 million pounds (for Dann and Jerome) have been rejected by Birmingham.

Dann is a reliable centre back, but he's definitely not worth anything above 10 million.

It's obvious that Birmingham want to get the most they can out of one of their star players, but that's resulting in the Blues completely overpricing Scott Dann.

Ricardo Alvarez

One of the players on this list that's already been transferred, Alvarez moved to Inter from Velez Sarsfield for about 10 million pounds.

If you've ever seen videos of Alvarez play, you'll know that he's a great player.

He's got a solid shot, good vision of the pitch, he can dribble defenders with ease, and just to top it off, he's left-footed.

In my opinion, however, Inter paid way too much for this attacking midfielder.

Alvarez has only ever played in the Argentinian leagues, so Inter took a gamble whether the youngster will be able to cope with Serie A, a league that requires lots of stamina.

Of course he'll eventually adjust, but he may not do it straight away.

All in all, the price that Inter paid for Alvarez was simply too much. Ricardo Alvarez is a good player, but not a 10-million-pound player.

Emmanuel Adebayor

Adebayor hasn't been one of the biggest targets of the transfer window this summer, but it's almost certain that he's not staying at Manchester City.

His successful loan spell with Real Madrid in the second half of this season had the Togo striker wanting to stay in Madrid permanently, but it's recently been speculated that he could go on a full-season loan to Tottenham. 

Adebayor's price is said to be around 15 million pounds, but any manager in their right mind wouldn't pay that much for him unless they knew for a fact he'll be successful at the club.

The former Arsenal man is known to have attitude issues, and his performances are extremely subjective to the club he's playing at.

He could be a star at one team (Real Madrid), and flop at another (Manchester City), just because of how much he enjoys being at the club.

I'd understand if Real Madrid paid around 15 million pounds for Adebayor, because they have evidence that he plays well there, but any other club shouldn't pay nearly that much for the stubborn attacker. 

Didier Drogba

This slide is a sad one.

Valued at around 10 million pounds, give or take, Drogba could be on his way out of Stamford Bridge this summer.

Possible destinations are Galatasaray in Turkey, or he could stay in London with a move to Tottenham.

Here's the sad part: Many Chelsea supporters may say that Drogba had a "bad season" in 2010-11 and that it was partly from his malaria at the beginning of the campaign.

But, at age 33, a bad season means that a player is past his peak, and his performances will only get worse in the future.

While 10 million pounds may seem little for the world-famous Didier Drogba, it's actually overpriced considering he's only going downhill from here.

Even as an Arsenal supporter, it's sad to see Drogba, a player with such an amazing career, begin his decline.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Both in the January transfer window and in this summer's transfer window, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has come extremely close to making a move to the Premiership, more specifically to Arsenal.

The 17-year-old has already drawn comparisons to Theo Walcott due to his blistering pace and the fact that the two both started at Southampton.

He makes it look extremely easy dribbling defenders, with some extraordinary goals involving his skill moves, pace and a cool finish.

But his value of about 12 million pounds seems pricey for a youngster who's only played in the lower tiers of English football, and by lower tier I mean League One, not even Championship.

As an Arsenal supporter, I'd be excited to have Chamberlain as an addition to the squad, but his price tag is quite high, and he probably won't be able to perform nearly as well two levels up from where he's used to playing.

All in all, Chamberlain is one of the hottest prospects in England, but overpriced nonetheless.

Giuseppe Rossi

Giuseppe Rossi is a brilliant player, as anyone capable of typing his name in on YouTube can see.

He's got incredible close control, as well as an extremely cool and accurate shot, resulting in some fantastic goals for the American-born Italian.

He practically carried Villarreal on his shoulders this season with his whopping 32 goals in all competitions, establishing himself as easily the club's best player. And that's exactly why Villarreal are overpricing the young talent.

People seem to forget Rossi's flop at Manchester United.

Scoring a single goal for the Red Devils, he was loaned out to Newcastle for the first half of that season, where he also scored just one goal.

However, for the second half of the season Rossi was loaned to Parma, where he succeeded and hit the net nine times in nineteen appearances.

Clearly, Rossi can't handle the English game, and any club in England to spend as much money as Villarreal would demand for the 24-year-old would be insane (cough cough Spurs).

That amount of money is apparently something around 35 million pounds.

If Rossi were to move to Italy or Spain, I would understand sums of 30-35 million pounds to be paid for the young striker, but the fact that Tottenham is chasing his signature after two failed attempts in England is ridiculous.

Villarreal are clearly overpricing their best player, and it would be a shame if his talent was wasted at a club where he can't succeed.

Connor Wickham

Connor Wickham was one of the hottest transfer prospects in England before Sunderland picked up the youngster on a four-year contract.

It was Sunderland's biggest transfer of the summer, as they paid eight million pounds for Wickham in a deal that could, over time, go up to 12 million pounds.

Wickham is an excellent player and gives a lot of promise for the English National Team's future, but in the entire Championship season, he only managed to score nine goals.

Almost all of these goals were brilliant, with one of them being dubbed as "one of the greatest goals ever scored at Portman Road" by Kevin Beattie, a former Ipswich player. But it was nine goals nonetheless.

Once again, this is a situation where a small club, Ipswich, overpriced their best player, Connor Wickham.

As you can probably see, it's pretty common. 

But the sad part (not so sad for Newcastle supporters) is that Sunderland have now spent potentially 12 million pounds on a player with only nine goals to his name, and those were goals scored in the Football League Championship.

My guess is, Wickham will either grab a handful of goals for Sunderland next season or he just won't be able to make the transition from the Championship to the Premiership.

Javier Pastore

To start things off, the president of Palermo has stated that he won't let Javier Pastore leave for less than 50 million euros, which is about 44 million pounds. That's a lot.

At 22 years old, Pastore has got loads of talent and seems to be good at everything a midfielder needs to be good at.

He can dribble like it's no one's business, he's got a solid shot from anywhere around the 18-yard box and, best of all, he's an incredible play-maker.

But 44 million pounds is just way overpriced, and enough to put him on this list with ease.

Stewart Downing

Stewart Downing had the best season of his career, resulting in his transfer to Liverpool, where he can set his sights on Champions League football and even the Premier League crown.

Like most, Downing's transfer fee was undisclosed, but was apparently somewhere around 20 million pounds.

Stewart Downing is an excellent player, but he's not worth 20 million pounds.

After Ashley Young, Downing was the main play-maker at Aston Villa and has grown to be a superb winger.

He's got a great vision of the pitch as well as a respectable goal scoring tally, and should fit in perfectly at Liverpool to send passes to Carroll and Suarez up front.

But really, Downing's price tag should've been no higher than 17 million pounds, and even that's pushing it.

Fernando Llorente

Fernando Llorente has emerged as one of the most menacing strikers in La Liga, with his 19 goals in all competitions helping Athletic Bilbao achieve Europa League qualification.

At 6'5", Llorente is an incredible header of the ball, as nearly all of his goals were scored in the air.

Basically, he's giving defenders all around Spain nightmares, or at least the defenders that aren't abnormally tall.

But valued at around 30 million pounds, Llorente wouldn't come cheap.

It would definitely be risky for an English club to buy him, as it's debatable as to whether the Spaniard could manage to score the same amount of goals against the Premier League's toughest defenders.

Yet another case of a club who's putting up a fight to let go of their strongest player, Athletic Bilbao is overpricing Llorente by quite a bit.

Phil Jagielka

It's no secret that Everton rejected Arsenal's 10-million-pound bid for Phil Jagielka, and that made football fans across the world giggle.

Jagielka is the epitome of a solid English centre back, and has been quite successful with Everton for the past four seasons.

However, he's also the epitome of a 10-million-pound player, and if you were ask any person who follows the Premier League (besides an Everton fan) whether or not Jagielka has a value of 10 million pounds, most of them would say say he does.

But no. Supposedly Everton think Jagielka's value is closer to 20 million pounds.

Stop right there.

He's overpriced.

Gary Cahill

Speaking of solid, overpriced, English centre backs...

Gary Cahill falls into the exact same category as Jagielka.

He's overpriced by his club, and it's as simple as that.

But most would agree that Cahill is a better player than Jagielka.

He contributes to the attack much more often, but doesn't get carried away and always sticks to his defensive duties when needed.

He's got an excellent defensive header, which is a massive help on set pieces as well as just being a good quality for a defender to have.

Owen Coyle values Cahill at around 17 million pounds, and considering he's more reliable than Jagielka, that price seems a lot more reasonable.

But Cahill isn't quite worth 17 million pounds, which is enough to put him on this list.

Jordan Henderson

Jordan Henderson was probably the best midfielder at Sunderland this season, proving himself as one of the most talented youngsters in England. 

He was one of the first players on Kenny Dalglish's shopping list this summer, and before he knew it, Henderson was wearing No.14 at Liverpool with the weight of Xabi Alonso on his shoulders.

"King Kenny" and Liverpool are possibly the biggest culprit on this list for paying too much for players.

The Reds spent a whopping 16 million pounds on Henderson, which is quite a lot for a 21-year-old who wasn't even nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year.

Ironically, Steve Bruce took that 16 million and spent most of it on an overpriced transfer in Connor Wickham, who was mentioned earlier on this list.

Dalglish has been splashing the cash so far this summer, and Henderson was only one example of a player whom the Liverpool boss spent a bit too much on.

Adel Taarabt

Adel Taarabt was simply brilliant last season, notching up 19 goals and 16 assists.

QPR have stated that they are keeping the young Moroccan with them, blocking his move to Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain.

Taarabt has had so much hype that his value in the transfer market has gone up incredibly, and people are starting to forget about the very big possibility that he may not make the transition from Championship to Premiership?

It happens all the time. A players shines in the Championship but fails to impress in the Premiership. 

Taarabt has become extremely overrated, and it's resulted in him becoming overpriced.

But for Premier League followers, this is a good thing. Because he's staying, we get to see how Taarabt does in the world's toughest league.

Juan Mata

Don't get me wrong. Juan Mata is a brilliant player, but he falls into the same category as many others in this list: the best player on his club, resulting in the club overpricing him.

Mata is by far one of the best young wingers in the world, and his best skill seems to be his intelligence.

He can pick out a pass from anywhere, and does so many clever moves with one-two passes and cheeky through balls.

In fact, Mata is probably the least overpriced player on this list.

He's on this list nonetheless, as he's still overpriced.

Valencia values their star midfielder at around 20 million pounds, but I can easily see that being pushed up to 25 million pounds.

Juan Mata isn't overrated, he's just overpriced by his club.

Gareth Bale

Gareth Bale is on this list for the opposite reason of Juan Mata.

Bale is completely overrated.

The Welshman won PFA Player of the Year even though he was injured for half the season.

The main reason he receives so much praise is mostly because of one performance: his hat trick against Inter Milan.

Yes, Bale was brilliant in that match, as he made Maicon look like a little girl, but players shouldn't be judged on one performance.

Bale is an excellent player, I'm not denying that, and he has had other good performances besides the one against Inter (even though he's mostly judged on that one), but he's not worth whatever Redknapp values him at, which is probably around 45 million pounds.

It's clear that Gareth Bale is an overpriced player.

Luka Modric

This is the same exact case as Gareth Bale.

Harry Redknapp overrates his own players—by a lot.

And when a manager overrates his players, he overprices them.

This one's really a no-brainer. Multiple bids have been placed for Luka Modric, good bids, too.

Chelsea first offered 22 million pounds for the Croatian, and once that bid was rejected the Blues upgraded it to a 27-million-pound bid, which was—you guessed it—also rejected.

Redknapp has stated that the 25-year-old midfielder is worth "way in excess of 30 million pounds," and, to put it simply, he's wrong.

Once again, it's not that I don't think Modric is a good player.

He's an absolutely superb play-maker, and most of the composure in the Tottenham squad is due to him.

But he's just not worth anything that's  "way in excess of 30 million pounds."

Tottenham should have accepted the 27-million-pound bid for Modric, as it's almost exactly what he's worth.

Alexis Sanchez

If you've been living under a rock, then I'll tell you that Barcelona just bought Alexis Sanchez for 26 million euros, or about 23 million pounds.

Sanchez is an incredible attacker, and with Udinese last season he terrorized defenses all across Italy.

In fact, he's probably worth around the amount Barcelona paid, if not a little less.

So, you may ask, then why is he on this list?

Sanchez's transfer to Barcelona was incredibly stupid, mainly because Sanchez plays best in Lionel Messi's position.

And, if you haven't heard, Messi is currently the best player in the world.

So why exactly is Barca spending more than 20 million pounds on a player who is superfluous to the squad?

I haven't a clue.

Neymar

Neymar Neymar Neymar Neymar.

This player has gotten so much hype, with comparisons to players like Pele and Ronaldinho coming left and right, as well as being the hottest prospect of the summer transfer window with offers from Chelsea and Real Madrid.

However, the hype has gone so far as to actually cloud people from thinking anything different than the fact that Neymar is God on Earth, and they ignore his substandard performances in Brazil's miserable Copa America campaign.

That doesn't mean Neymar isn't incredible.

His close control and dribbling abilities are jaw-dropping to the point where he can make every defender (including the keeper) around him look like a fool.

But he does this all in Brazil's Primera Division, a league filled with divers, has–beens and a couple of young gems here and there.

That's not to say it's a fact that Neymar can't do his thing the same way in one of Europe's top leagues, whether it's La Liga, Serie A, or the Premier League, but he might not be just as spectacular.

And then there's the most important part, the part that this slideshow is actually about: his price tag.

It seems to be ever-growing, so no one really knows the magic number that will pry Neymar away from Santos, but whatever the amount is, it's almost definitely overpriced.

For a player that might not be able to adjust to European football, Neymar is extremely overrated, and therefore overpriced.

Cesc Fabregas

Here he is...

Possibly the most overpriced player in the world right now, Cesc Fabregas has been valued by Arsene Wenger at around 45 million pounds.

Even as an Arsenal supporter, I agree that that's way too much.

Earlier this summer, Arsenal rejected a 31-million-pound bid for Cesc Fabregas. Being as stubborn as always, Wenger turned town this offer, even though he probably should have accepted it and used the cash to find replacements for the Arsenal skipper.

Of course, Cesc Fabregas is one of the world's best midfielders. There's no doubt about it.

No matter what club he's playing for, whenever he's on the pitch he just gives the side more depth and composure.

But he's certainly not worth 45 million pounds, especially after his poor form last season by his standards.